Thread: McCain Defends His Tanker Deal Inquiries

McCain Defends His Tanker Deal Inquiries

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 6:00 PM

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain said Tuesday his inquiries into a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract were designed to assure evenhanded bidding and denied they were motivated by lobbyists who are close advisers to his presidential campaign.

"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 a meeting with voters in St. Louis. "That was my involvement in it."

His remarks came after The Associated Press reported that some of his current advisers lobbied last year for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., the parent company of plane maker Airbus. EADS and its U.S. partner Northrop Grumman Corp. beat Boeing Co. for the lucrative aerial refueling contract.

Boeing on Tuesday filed a formal protest of the tanker award with the Government Accountability Office, citing "irregularities" in the contract competition.

Two of the lobbyists working on the EADS account gave up their lobbying work when they joined McCain's campaign last year. A third, former Texas Rep. Tom Loeffler, lobbies for EADS and serves as McCain's national finance chairman.

McCain, the Republican presidential nominee in waiting, has been instrumental in the Pentagon's long attempt to complete a deal on the tanker. McCain helped block an earlier, scandal-marred tanker contract with Boeing in 2004 and prodded the Pentagon in 2006 to change proposed bidding procedures opposed by 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 between Boeing and Airbus.

"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.

According to lobbying records filed with the Senate, Loeffler Group lobbyists on the project included Loeffler; Susan Nelson, who left the firm and is now the campaign's finance director, and former Secretary of the Navy William Ball III, who has campaigned for McCain. 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 on Tuesday said his work on the tanker was designed to keep the bidding competitive.

"I think my record is very clear on this issue, including a paper trail of letters that we wrote to the Department of Defense during this process and saying clearly and unequivocally we just want a fair process, and we don't want a repeat of the previous process," he told reporters in St. Louis. "I think my record on this issue is very clear and authenticated by both written and verbal statements on the issue."

McCain is a longtime critic of influence peddling and special interest politics. But he 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.

On the Air Force tanker deal, he has portrayed himself as a neutral watchdog.

"Defense procurement is to defend America, and to make sure that our nation is secure, and we don't have unlimited dollars to do so," he said Tuesday. "So as long as it was a fair and open process, I think all Americans will support such a thing."

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

A Boeing spokesman declined to comment 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.

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. Airbus objected to the provision and asked the Pentagon to drop it in June 2006.

McCain, in his letter to Gates on Dec. 1, 2006, said the proposed bid request "may risk eliminating competition before bids are submitted." 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.

EADS also wanted the Pentagon to factor into the bidding process the ability of the new tanker to carry cargo and passengers. The Airbus proposal called for a much bigger plane than Boeing.

In his letter to Gates, McCain also urged the Pentagon to write bid requests that would take into account the various capabilities of the tanker plane.

Nearly two months later, Gates replied that the Air Force had made changes "responsive to the concerns identified in your letter."

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

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, more than any other member of Congress this election cycle.

McCain's oversight of the tanker contract goes back to 2003 when, as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and of an Armed Services subcommittee, he led an investigation that uncovered a procurement scandal that killed an earlier tanker contract with Boeing. 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.

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.

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.

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/mcca ... 79594.html

He's 100% Red Blooded Lier
I've studied this deal . He links all though it
Worst part is his disdain for the American Worker

"Defense procurement is to defend America, and to make sure that our nation is secure, and we don't have unlimited dollars to do so," he said Tuesday. "So as long as it was a fair and open process, I think all Americans will support such a thing."

Would McCain make a similar statement about toys made in China?

National security and safety are two important factors in defense procurement and the best way to assure them is to build military equipment and supplies in America by Americans.

I will never ever vote for this man ... never