Is McCain screwed?

His finance director is an active lobbyist for the firm that lobbied on behalf of the McDonnell-Douglas/Airbus consortium. Two of his other senior staff are on leave from the same firm.

I'm not arguing whether this contract was fairly won by MD/Airbus or not. The rule interpretations that were made in reaction to a number of points raised by MD/Airbus seemed reasonable to me. The fact that Airbus successfully made the case for their plane (their main advantage involved size, with the adapted Airbus planes carrying much more cargo per plane and having much longer range) is precisely what you're supposed to do. Most of the assembly will be done in the U.S., so you're not talking about a lot of jobs lost.

But on the merits of the sale, MD/Airbus being chosen seemed reasonable, with Boeing's indignation somewhat tempered by the lease agreement scandal from a few years ago. That company doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt.

ALL THAT SAID.

McCain's top advisors work for a company that actively lobbied on behalf of a company based in France over a good American company.

How about them apples? How do you think THAT is going to blunt McCain's recent attempts to start raising funds for the general election?