For a plane that has been discussed for nearly a decade but never built, the next U.S. Air Force tanker continues to create "news" opportunities for politicians and PR specialists. Sen. Patty Murray joins union machinists at a rally to support the Boeing bid to sell the Pentagon a version of its 767 for a new tanker.

Meanwhile, EADS, the maker of Boeing chief rival Airbus and the only other company looking to bid on the $35 billion-plus contract, counters with a release through its PR arm KC-45 Now, that rallies don't build planes. It has a video on its website of a new tanker that actually flies.So there, nyah. (Not that the newspaper pays me to offer advice in this little spitting match, but the next round could feature a video from Boeing that says "here's all the tankers we've built for the U.S. of A. Air Force" with planes stretching back to the '40s, and here's all the tankers Airbus has built for our boys and girls in blue, with a blank screen. And Airbus could follow with mug shots of folks who went to prison for dirty dealing on an earlier tanker deal, with "Would you buy a tanker from this company?")

Elsewhere, Gov. Chris Gregoire is in Puyallup to mark the opening of the new Saint-Gobain factory, which makes special plastics and composites for aerospace and computers.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers continues to knock United States participation in the International Monetary Fund's assistance to Greece with a new column at HumanEvents.com with a cutesy headline: "My Big Fat Greek Bailout." (In her defense, headlines are often written by someone else.)

Democrats continue to snipe at not-yet candidate Dino Rossi, this time because Politico is reporting a bank he helped start early in the last decade is under a directive from the Office of Comptroller of Currency to get more cash to shore up bad loans.

 

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