When the Boeing Co. Machinists rallied over the GAO’s tanker ruling last week, they booed only twice: when Sens. Murray and Cantwell admitted to flying back from D.C. in an Airbus jet and whenever Sen. John McCain’s name surfaced.
After the senators vowed to get to the bottom of the Air Force’s errors, one Machinist yelled “Shame on McCain.” Later, Rick Bender, president of the Washington State Labor Council, suggested McCain was running for president of the wrong country.
As Reuters reported on Sunday, the Republican presidential candidate already is taking heat from Democrats about his role in the Air Force selecting Northrop Grumman and EADS over Boeing to replace 179 aerial refueling tankers.
Despite their anger with McCain, Machinists have not yet embraced Democrat Sen. Barack Obama.
Gov. Christine Gregoire was traveling back from meeting with Obama and couldn’t be at the tanker rally. A member of her staff noted that Obama also sent his best regards. This wasn’t met with applause.
As you may remember, the Machinists backed Hillary Clinton for the Dems’ nominee. And international Machinists president, Thomas Buffenbarger, went off on Obama back in February and more recently in April, as we reported earlier.
Obama recently met with the leaders of the 56 unions of the AFL-CIO. Buffenbarger was the only leader absent, reported the Washington Post.
While the Machinists may still be holding out for a Clinton miracle, their behavior toward Obama is puzzling. Who are they going to vote for? McCain? That’s crazy talk.
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