Wednesday’s NYT McCain hit-piece-du-jour (air tankers)
McCain Advisers Lobbied for Europeans to Win Air Force Tanker Deal
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: March 12, 2008
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That contract was won by the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, known as EADS, the corporate parent of Airbus, and Northrop Grumman, the military contractor based in Los Angeles.
Mr. McCain has long expressed pride at having a central part in scuttling an earlier Air Force plan to lease the tankers from Boeing. That deal collapsed in 2004 in a major corruption scandal that sent two Boeing executives to prison.
But given Mr. McCain’s relentless efforts to portray himself as an opponent of influence peddling in Washington, his close ties to lobbyists are certain to be a continuing issue through the presidential campaign. Democrats have begun to try to turn the tanker contract against him, suggesting Mr. McCain unfairly swayed the decision and caused American jobs to be lost overseas.
Responding to questions on the campaign trail, Mr. McCain has said that he wrote letters urging the Air Force to conduct fair and competitive bidding for the tanker contract but that his role ended after the Air Force requested formal plans from bidders.
“I had nothing to do with the contract except to insist in writing on several occasions as this process went forward that it be fair and open and transparent,” he said at Tuesday at a public forum in St. Louis.