How much went to Boeing’s chief lobbyist, Linda Daschle?
I’m understandably ambivalent about these defense contracts but a significant portion of the work was to be performed in WV and Boeing has torpedoed that for now.
Oh really? And here I was thinking that all this high level noise was just fueled by earnest citizens wanting the best for their tax dollar. Blow me away like a feather /s>
At this point, I’d give the contract to Embraer and let them design something new from scratch. ;)
It bears repeating...
PJ O’Rourke termed the US Congress “a parliament of whores”. That is true of both sides of the aisle.
from: http://www.richardaboulafia.com/shownote.asp?id=272
aboulafia vents: “Yours, Until Our Long National Nightmare Finally Ends, Richard Aboulafia”
extract:
“The GAO basically affirmed all of them, and more. Boeing Business Development VP Chris Raymond had maintained that the company’s protest wasn’t “frivolous.” He was exactly right. This ruling is serious-as-a-heart-attack stuff. In particular, consider the fourth point:
The Air Force conducted misleading and unequal discussions with Boeing, by informing Boeing that it had fully satisfied a key performance parameter objective relating to operational utility, but later determined that Boeing had only partially met this objective, without advising Boeing of this change in the agency’s assessment and while continuing to conduct discussions with Northrop Grumman relating to its satisfaction of the same key performance parameter objective.
As that band member from Spinal Tap would say, “That’s just nitpicking, isn’t it?” It isn’t. That overlong sentence doesn’t highlight a procedural error or a minor oversight. It indicates deliberate favoritism for the Northrop/EADS bid. There are three possible explanations:”
There is actually a VERY simple solution to all of this.
1. Prohibit any candidate from accepting ANY campaign money, services or other benefits from any individual outside of his district.
2. Completely ban corporate donations, PACs and lobbyist contributions. Political campaigning monies can ONLY be donated to candidates from REGISTERED VOTERS who are registered IN THE DISTRICT for which the election is being held.
3. Put an cap on individual donations of $1000 dollars. That way, ALL campaigns will be limited in the amoun t of money that can be donated.
4. Return to appointing Senators by the state legislatures.
I guess Boeing is gonna return all that cash made off that corrupt Pentagon official ten years ago? ;’)