McCain Advisers Lobbied In Airbus Deal

GOP Nominee In Waiting Has For Years Tried To Be A Neutral Referee In Tanker Bidding Fight

(AP)  Top current advisers to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign last year lobbied for a European plane maker that beat Boeing to a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract, taking sides in a bidding fight that McCain has tried to referee for more than five years.

Two of the advisers gave up their lobbying work when they joined McCain's campaign. A third, former Texas Rep. Tom Loeffler, lobbied for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. while serving as McCain's national finance chairman.

EADS is the parent company of Airbus, which teamed up with U.S.-based Northrop Grumman Corp. to win the lucrative aerial refueling contract on Feb. 29. Boeing Co. Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney said in a statement Monday that the Chicago-based aerospace company “found serious flaws in the process that we believe warrant appeal.”

McCain, the Republican presidential nominee in waiting, has been a key figure in the Pentagon's yearslong attempt to complete a deal on the tanker. McCain helped block an earlier tanker contract with Boeing and prodded the Pentagon in 2006 to develop bidding procedures that did not exclude Airbus.

EADS retained Ogilvy Government Relations and The Loeffler Group to lobby for the tanker deal last year, months after McCain sent two letters urging the Defense Department to make sure the bidding proposals guaranteed competition.

“They never lobbied him related to the issues, and the letters went out before they were contracted” by EADS, McCain campaign spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said Monday.

According to lobbying records filed with the Senate, Loeffler Group lobbyists on the project included Loeffler and Susan Nelson, who left the firm and is now the campaign's finance director. Ogilvy lobbyist John Green, who was assigned the EADS work, recently took a leave of absence to volunteer for McCain as the campaign's congressional liaison.

“The aesthetics are not good, especially since he is an advocate of reform and transparency,” said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the aerospace consulting firm Teal Group. “Boeing advocates are going to use this as ammunition.”

McCain, a longtime critic of influence peddling and special interest politics, has come under increased scrutiny as a presidential candidate, particularly because he has surrounded himself with advisers who are veteran Washington lobbyists. He has defended his inner circle and has emphatically denied reports last month in The New York Times and The Washington Post that suggested he helped the client of a lobbyist friend nine years ago.

He has also cast himself as a neutral watchdog in the Air Force tanker contract, one of the largest in decades.

“All I asked for in this situation was a fair competition,” he told reporters Monday at Lambert Field in St. Louis, home of a Boeing fighter jet plant.

On Friday, he defended his aggressive oversight: “I never weighed in for or against anybody that competed for the contract. All I asked for was a fair process. And the facts are that I never showed any bias in any way against anybody - except for the taxpayer.”

Last week, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the EADS-Northrop Gruman plane was “clearly a better performer” than the one proposed by Boeing.

It is unclear what EADS hired the lobbyists to do. Loeffler and Airbus officials did not immediately respond to phone and e-mail messages left late Monday.

A Boeing spokesman declined to comment Monday on the links between McCain and lobbying efforts on behalf of EADS.

But Boeing supporters already have begun to accuse McCain of damaging Boeing's chances by inserting himself into the tanker deal.

One of them, Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., said the field was “tilted to Airbus” because the Pentagon did not weigh European subsidies for Airbus in its deliberations - a decision he blamed on McCain. Everett, Wash., is where Boeing would perform much of the tanker work, and Dicks is a senior member of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

In December 2006, just weeks before the Air Force was set to release its formal request for proposals, McCain wrote a letter to the incoming defense secretary, Robert Gates, warning that he was “troubled” by the Air Force's draft request for bids.

The United States had filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization alleging that Airbus unfairly benefits from European subsidies. Airbus in turn argued that Boeing also receives government support, mostly as tax breaks.

Under the Air Force proposal, bidders would have been required to explain how financial penalties or other sanctions stemming from the subsidy dispute might affect their ability to execute the contract. The request was widely viewed as hurting the EADS-Northrop Grumman bid.

The proposed bid request “may risk eliminating competition before bids are submitted,” McCain wrote in a Dec. 1, 2006, letter to Gates. The Air Force changed the criteria four days later.

Dicks said the removal of the subsidy language was a “game-changer” that favored EADS over Boeing.

“The only reason that they could even bid a low price is because they received a subsidy,” Dicks said last week. “And Senator McCain jumped into this and said that (the Air Force) could not look at the subsidy issue - which I think is a big mistake, especially when the U.S. trade representative is bringing a case in the (World Trade Organization) on this very issue.”

EADS' interest in the tanker deal is evident in the political contributions of its employees. From 2004 to 2006, donations by its employees jumped from $42,500 to $141,931, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. So far this election cycle, company employees have donated $120,350. Of that, McCain's presidential campaign has received $14,000, the most of any other member of Congress this election cycle.

McCain prides himself in the role he played blocking an earlier version of the tanker deal that gave the contract to Boeing. As chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and of an Armed Services subcommittee, McCain led an investigation that eventually helped kill that contract in 2004. A former Air Force official and a top Boeing executive both served time in prison, and the scandal led to the departure of Boeing's chief executive and several top Air Force officials.

“I intervened in a process that was clearly corrupt,” McCain said Friday. “That's why people went to jail.”

While McCain has praised Boeing for fixing its practices, his campaign said the experience prompted him to demand “a full, fair and open competition.” His letters - one to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England in September 2006 and the other to Gates - were sent with that spirit in mind, Hazelbaker said Monday.

Once the rules were in place, Hazelbaker said, bidders submitted proposals, the Air Force reviewed them and the contract was awarded.

“That is a process that McCain, appropriately, had absolutely no role in,” she said.

Associated Press Writers Glen Johnson and Libby Quaid contributed to this report.

[forthepeopl1]

HEY DOOM, I DID A YEAR, BUT I WOULD NEVER, AND I REPEAT NEVER SELL MY COUNTRY OUT TO ANY OTHER COUNTRY....

HE DID. THAT IS A TRAITOR TO HIS OWN COUNTRY.PERIOD.

[forthepeopl1]

THE HEAD LINES SHOULD READ.

McCAIN SELL OUTS AMERICA, LIKE BUSH HAS DONE..

McCAIN IS A TRAITOR TO HIS COUNTRY...

SHAME ON YOU, TRAITOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess nobody here has asked Boeing just how much of the Dreamliner is both outsourced and on time? Nor have they asked how many Airbus people are in jail for their illegal work. What a lot of people had done is listen to two Washington elected officials (Sen. Patty Murphy and Rep. Norm *****) scream about their lost %u201Cpork%u201D (barrel). Neither one stepped up when Sen. McCain discovered that the law was being broken, and did something about it, but they are now. I guess that means it%u2019s O.K. to break the law if it is being broken in your favor.

For those who want to sling mud on Sen. McCain, how many years have YOU spent in prison defending this nation? He did five years.

[watcher269-2009]

Spitzer paid for prostitutes for ***.

McShame is the Prostitute for Lobbyists!

[abbe91]

"When have they ever fought anything???
Posted by tomar0317 at 08:02 PM : Mar 11, 2008"

The American war of independence.

This being said. After Bush trying to sell our seaports to Dubai, are you really surprised by
Boeing Boeing Boeing McSame ?

[sosoe-2009]

This is so disheartening. As a native St. Louisan, I have friends and relatives who have been affected by recent changes at Boeing. How come we are not hearing about McCain''s involvement in this on the evening news and the morning talk shows? I''ll tell you why, it''s because Hillary,and her negative campaign, is so busy "dogging" Barack, instead of her friend John McCain, the press is "conveniently" giving all the headlines to the Democrats, who are fighting like cats and dogs! Neither Barack or Hillary will win in November. McCain will slide into office like first baseman, Albert Pujols for the St. Louis Cardinals.

[watcher269-2009]

An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found NO EVIDENCE - no evidence that Saddam Hussein%u2019s regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden%u2019s al Qaida terrorist network.

The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam%u2019s regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.

President Bush and his aides used Saddam%u2019s alleged relationship with al Qaida, along with Iraq%u2019s supposed weapons of mass destruction, as arguments for invading Iraq after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks

[cbsblogger]

The working stiffs and middle class in this country have no chance.

We have a choice between McCain who supports Mexico and Europe over the USA. Or the Democrats that support Mexicans over Americans.

Meanwhile our country is in an inexorable slide downhill along with our dollar and our wages. Absolutely disgusting.

[tomar0317]

Sending American business overseas again. This time to France. France has done zero for support of the USA for many many years and now we reward them with a huge contract from our defense spending??? Think about it folks.. France!! France raises a white flag whenever arguments rise. When have they ever fought anything??? and here we give them a defense contract for a valuable piece of military strength. They''ll say they''ll stop building "our" planes whenever they don''t get their way.... and if they don''t, can you imagine the type of plane we''ll get!!!!

[dmgenet]

RE: sending jobs. My gosh, is there no logic any more? If you are going to pay huge profits and cost overruns to a company shouldn''t you do it in our country? At least keep the graft and palm greasing inside our lovely system. What the heck are these people thinking? I would think that "security" would also be a big issue when using foreign company''s. It is amazing how $$$ makes smart people the dumbest in the land.

[dmgenet]

Does EVERYONE in politics become tainted with money?

There are several lobbyists (ex-lobbyists?) working for McCain. Is it true that there are lobbyists that are ''volunteering'' to work in his campaign?

[deq54]

I can''t wait to see McCain on the campaign trail explaining to the workers at Boeing why he sent this contract overseas. Over 40,000 American workers would have worked under this contract--No problem, our flourishing economy can handle it right?

[barbaraf4]

If McCain wins, I only hope that no one on this board who supports the Republicans, is themselves or has children or grandchildren of draft age.

He has already said that he doesn''t care if it takes 100 years to win in the Middle East. The problem is there are no measurements in place, so how do we know when we have won?

[random_radar]

If McCain''s advisers can take a contract from Boeing and give it to Europe, I am sure they can take the election from the Democrats and give it to the Republicans.

Democrats, you are toast.

[neoconslayer]

If you don''t place profit before patriotism, you can''t be in the GOP.

[wardoglrs]

When you all wake up you will find that Ron Paul is the right choice. The man is strick on the constitution. The constitution is your only hope. WAKE THE HELL UP

[frankbowers]

I had so much respect for McCain until the true McCain is exposed, here. I recall when France was such a bad country we started to call the old french fry the "New Freedom Fry" What has happened to McCain has he morphed into a small gw bush, as sad day to see my hero turn his back to the nation and assist gw bush in his persuit to destroy America and it military and air forces. Frank Bowers of Austin,
TX

[stn_sage]

This is very disturbing information! Mr. McCain wants to be our president, then appears to be working to send jobs overseas---and on a military product, further undermining our national defense. If this wasn''t bad enough, it''s also reported that a couple of the lobbyist for the European entity that got the deal---are now on his staff!

Geez,Louise! Is Mr. McCain;s citizenship still American? Somebody check on that! Mr. McCain what are you trying to do to us---to the good ole'' U.S.A.?

[neonink]

I guess that explain''s McCain''s economics and outsourcing goals.

This is unreal. Paying France.

[undermyboot]

The aesthetics are not good, especially since he is an advocate of reform and transparency,%u201D
-----
THAT is a f''ing understatement!