McCain Faces Boeing Blowback in Seattle

PORTLAND, Ore. - John McCain faced turbulence even before he flew up the Pacific coast from Oregon to Washington on Tuesday.

A crowd of Washington Democrats planned to greet the Republican presidential contender when he landed in Seattle, not just to challenge his policy positions but his support for the local economy.

McCain, you see, was flying into Boeing Field on a Boeing 737 after having worked earlier in this decade to kill a deal to lease Boeing 767 jets to the Air Force for use as refueling aircraft. Two people went to jail and Boeing's then-chief executive resigned over the controversial deal, subsequently shelved.

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Earlier this year, the Air Force decided to award a renewed $35 billion tanker contract not to Boeing, but the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. - parent company of Boeing rival Airbus - and its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman Corp.

Some of McCain's advisers lobbied for EADS, but the Arizona senator and former Navy pilot denied interceding on their behalf and defended his oversight of the tanker contract.

"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. That was my involvement in it," he said in mid-March.