Pelosi and the tanker

Thu, May 01, 2008 - 12:13 PM

Democrats in Birmingham are getting a real headliner tomorrow night for the state party’s Jefferson Jackson Dinner.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will give the keynote address at the dinner and it’s believed she is the first sitting Speaker to visit the state since Sam Rayburn nearly 50 years ago.

But by the time she leaves the state, Pelosi may be wishing she’d visited some other time. Pelosi will likely hear an earful from Alabamians urging her to support the U.S. Air Force decision to award a tanker contract to Northrop Grumman-EADS North America. The tankers would be assembled in Mobile.

The team beat out Boeing for the contract. The issue has become a flash point in Washington pitting legislators whose home districts in Washington and Kansas include Boeing operations that would lose out on jobs against those from Alabama, which would gain 1,500 jobs.

The contract has also ignited fireworks from some in Congress who have criticized the Air Force for awarding the contract to EADS, a foreign company, and sending jobs overseas.

Not coincidentally, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, R, signed a resolution Thursday morning urging Pelosi to accept the decision and “refrain from turning this vital national security matter into a political free for all.”

For her part, Pelosi has said the contract raises some serious questions that Congress must look at it.

But like it or not, she’ll have to hear about it on Friday.

-- Amy Dominello