See here and here and then try to argue that this was more about technical substance than about raw politics. Conservatives always should have been in support of a split contract for the air refueling tanker, for reasons I have explained at great length on these pages, but if it HAD to be one or the other, conservatives ought to have supported EADS. More jobs. Non-union jobs. More long-term benefits. Better payload capacity. Fewer Democratic interest group entanglements. EADS North America headed by conservative Sean O’Keefe, survivor of the Ted Stevens plane crash. And all sorts of other good reasons, too.
