McCain Meets Officials Today to Explain His Role in Job Losses at DHL shipping site in Ohio

[bigtree]

By BETH FOUHY
Associated Press Writer

MARION, Ohio — Republican presidential candidate John McCain is taking up the issue of possible job losses due to the closure of a DHL shipping site in Ohio, the result of a corporate merger aided by his campaign manager during his work as a lobbyist.

In 2003, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis lobbied Congress to accept a proposal by German-owned DHL to buy Airborne Express, which kept its domestic hub in Wilmington in southwest Ohio.

In announcing a restructuring plan in May, DHL said it planned to hire United Parcel Service to move some of its air packages, sending them through an airport in Louisville, Ky., and putting the Wilmington Air Park out of business. Some 8,000 jobs could be at stake, Wilmington officials estimate.

Davis took a leave of absence from his lobbying practice to work for McCain, a self-styled reformer who asked his campaign staff to disclose all previous lobbying ties and make certain they were no longer registered as lobbyists or foreign agents.

McCain on Thursday was to discuss DHL's plans with local officials and others affected by the potential job losses. The economy and job losses are important issues in Ohio, a critical swing state that gave President Bush the electoral votes needed for re-election in 2004.

McCain, as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, had a role in the deal too. He urged then-Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens to abandon proposed legislation that would have prohibited foreign-owned carriers from flying U.S. military equipment or troops, which Airborne Express said was aimed at torpedoing its merger with DHL.

more: http://www.ajc.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/Presidential_Elections/McCain_DHL.html

[eleny]

1. "smooth over" ?

Ambitious little shit, isn't he.

eta: I remember when McCain made the statement that jobs were gone and not coming back. Maybe that's what he should tell them. Being the maverick 'n all. Just sayin'.

[bigtree]

2. I'll go with 'explain' instead

Nothing 'smooth' about the wrinkly old dude

[Hugin]

3. After they were 'bent-over' it's going to be difficult to 'smooth-over'...

Unless maybe they see the lobbyist publicly "Tared and Feathered-over"

[bigtree]

4. bad choice of words

(mine)

[Hugin]

5. Seemed okay to me.

:)

[eleny]

6. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when he "explains"

Wait, I think I'm getting some audio. Yes, here it is - just in!
http://www.kathleenacademy.com/funzone/KADTAP.WAV

[bigtree]

7. In the meantime,

. . . the Ohio Democratic Party has released a web ad showing a woman emotionally asking Mr. McCain about the anticipated DHL job losses at a town hall-style meeting in Portsmouth, Ohio, last month. The ad then flashes this paragraph from the Plain Dealer story:

“Those jobs are on the chopping block because Senator McCain and his campaign were involved in a deal that resulted in control of those positions being shifted to a foreign corporation, and there’s no getting around that,’’ said Joe Rugola, president of the Ohio AFL-CIO.

The ad, citing the Plain Dealer, also broadcasts that Mr. Davis’s firm made $185,000 lobbying Congress and then $400,000 after the deal was approved.

more: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/mccain-confronts-lobbying-job-loss-issue/