House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and prominent Democrats (the most vocal being in the Washington State delegation) are slamming John McCain for his role in opening the door to competition from a U.S.-European partnership that recently won a major deal to provide aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force. The main thrust of their critique is that the victory by this team will cost American jobs (many of them in Washington State, surprise, surprise!). But rushing to criticize McCain on the basis of pork barrel politics is not the way to gain the high ground on defense policy, to put it mildly.

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