Freedom's Frontier Stalls as Senator Brownback Fumes

That's odd, because just five days prior to addressing Wichata business leaders, the Kansas City Star in a March 23, 2008 article entitled :

"Questionable tanker deal could cloud November election for Republicans in affected states" had this to say about the lost Boeing contract:

"WASHINGTON | Some Kansans furious and mystified over the demise of a Boeing bid to replace the Air Force’s aging armada of aerial tankers think they detect John McCain’s fingerprints.

The senator from Arizona says the decision was the Pentagon’s and that he had nothing to do with it other than to ask for fair competition, for taxpayer money not to be wasted and military effectiveness not impaired.

Boeing allies, however, point to the former Airbus lobbyists on the Republican’s campaign staff and the political contributions from the company. They question an amendment he championed opening military bids to foreign manufacturers, his letters to the Defense Department pushing to ensure Boeing wasn’t the lone airplane maker being considered and his call to ignore European subsidies to Airbus."

(So much for McCain's pledge not to bow to "special interests" )

The article also reveals that:

"in 2003, when Congress approved his amendment that allowed the Pentagon to buy American military equipment from foreign companies. Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback, both Kansas Republicans, voted for the amendment along a largely party line.

And in 2006, McCain wrote letters to the Defense Department suggesting the criteria be broadened and the issue of European subsidies to Airbus not be a deal breaker. Opponents said the senator was lobbying on Airbus’ behalf, but McCain said he was merely calling for an open bidding process.

McCain’s backers think his moves benefited America: “All the senator advocated for was 100 percent full competition, and that’s it,” said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense

Republican anger is publicly vented at the Air Force. The 500 direct, and 3,300 indirect, jobs it would have led to in Kansas are sorely missed. At one time, Wichita had more than 50,000 aerospace jobs. Today it has 39,300 (and about 4,000 at Boeing).

The could have meant $145 million a year for the Kansas economy. Given that, Larry Gates, chairman of the Kansas Democratic Party, has no reason to hold back."

 Brownback , who is campaigning for Republican presidential candidate John McCain , defended his actions  in an article found in the Wichita Eagle  entitled, "Would Kansas snub McCain over tanker?" published March 23'rd , by stating that it is :

"an entirely different picture" now, adding that Boeing paid a price for its misconduct: "There were corruption charges and people went to jail, as they should have." 

With the loss of nearly 4000 jobs at the Wichita, KS plant, partly because of Brownback's vote to open up the contract bids for military manufacturing, Brownback now has a real problem on his hands.

 1  |  2  |  3