WP: Boeing Has a Powerful Ally with Hastert

[DeepModem Mom]

Boeing Has a Powerful Ally With Hastert
House Speaker Throws His Clout Behind Controversial Air Force Tanker Deal
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 18, 2004; Page A10


Congress is poised to appropriate $100 million to keep one of the federal government's most scandal-ridden and contentious programs -- the Air Force's plan to replace its aging aerial-refueling tankers with new Boeing 767s.

Insiders say that the primary reason for the payout is that House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has made Boeing Co.'s cause his own....

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(Senator John) McCain and others have charged that the proposed $23.5 billion deal for 100 Boeing jets -- the costliest lease in U.S. history -- was designed more to benefit Boeing than American taxpayers. Boeing found itself on the defensive after acknowledging that it improperly hired as an executive the former Air Force official, Darleen A. Druyun, who negotiated the lucrative arrangement. Druyun pleaded guilty in April to illegally accepting a job with the company....

***

Boeing has not been coy about saying one reason it decided to move to Chicago from Seattle was that it could count on Hastert's patronage. Hastert, the House's top Republican, makes a habit of helping Illinois-based corporations. He has championed measures for years that have benefited Caterpillar Inc. and UAL Corp., the parent company of United Airlines. In 1998, he added $250,000 to the Pentagon spending bill so that Amurol Confections Co. of his hometown of Yorkville, Ill., could study caffeinated chewing gum.

On the Boeing deal, Hastert had to face down many congressional opponents, including his own state's senator, Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.). "The tanker lease was an unusually unfavorable deal for the taxpayers and an unusually favorable deal for Boeing," Fitzgerald said. "It appears to me that he is becoming fairly renowned for doing special little favors behind the scenes here and there at interesting times for some of his corporate buddies."...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58084-2004Jul17.html

[Swamp Rat]

1. Hastert is going to run for president one day.

[rooboy]

2. That will be hard to do from prison... n/t

[Bruce McAuley]

3. Hastert is the "representative from Boeing" now...

Since Boeing moved its corporate headquarters to Chicago a couple years back, they've bought off all the Illinois representatives and senators, like they used to do in Washington State.
This is only to be expected.

Bruce