Pentagon Outsources 9,000 US Jobs ... To France

No, that's not a headline from The Onion, but it is John McCain's fault.

Boeing has lost a $40 billion refueling tanker contract to France's Airbus.

The Boeing loss means that the 767 assembly line in Everett will wind to a close around 2012 when the current commercial orders run out.

No layoffs are likely as workers will transfer to other programs. But Washington State has lost out on the chance to add as many as 9,000 jobs.

Until now, Boeing has had a monopoly on the supply of large air tankers to the U.S. military. But Northrop Grumman, in partnership with Airbus parent EADS, will build the next generation tankers using a modified Airbus A330 instead of the Everett-built 767 Boeing had put forward.

The deal, worth about $40 billion over two decades, is for the supply and maintenance of 179 tankers replacing old Boeing-built KC-135 airplanes.

Now if that didn't suck enough, Goldy at Horse's Ass tells us not just to blame George Bush for this Freedom Fries moment, but the presumptive GOP Presidential Nominee as well.

In its quest for new tankers, the Air Force in 2002 negotiated a $23 billion deal with Boeing for a hundred 767 tankers, but it quickly came under fire in Congress as a financial handout for Boeing. The critics were led by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was on the Senate Armed Services Committee at the time and is now the likely Republican presidential nominee.

So let's add that up, shall we. Six years ago John McCain put the brakes on a deal that now cost almost twice as much, and the money isn't going to 9,000 US workers but to another country. Not just any other country, but the one the wingnuts insisted we boycott -- France. That's a double whammy.

I guess it's okay to buy their wine and cheese again.

There's every reason to believe that John Sydney McCain III will win zero States come November. The left has no reason to like him, the right justifiably hates him, and the middle will be hearing from both sides just what a loser the Reverse Ace is. It's almost like the GOP wants to throw the race.