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MISSOURI REPUBLICANS PUSH BUSH ON STRIKE FIGHTER

The following piece by Philip Dine appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Wednesday, November 21, 2001.

WASHINGTON - Missouri Republican leaders have told the White House that to boost GOP chances in the key swing state next year, the administration needs to get involved in the battle over sharing work on the Joint Strike Fighter.

With thousands of highly paid Boeing aerospace jobs in St. Louis at stake, the topic was raised when the White House invited top aides to the Missouri delegation in last week for political talks with an eye to next year's congressional elections.

"It's an issue in Missouri, and it was clearly a focal point of the discussion," said Jeff Roe, chief of staff for Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., and a participant in the talks.

At the session, White House political director Ken Mehlman and senior adviser Karl Rove also met with representatives for Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond; Reps. Roy Blunt, Kenny Hulshof and Todd Akin; former Rep. Jim Talent; and other Missouri Republicans.

The three-hour session was the most intense and comprehensive of any the White House has held with key states as the administration looks forward to next year's midterm elections, said several observers. Bush's narrow win in Missouri last year was critical to his election.

Part of the reason for the vigor was the urgency felt by Missouri legislators over splitting the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter contract. The Pentagon awarded the contract, biggest in defense history, to Lockheed Martin on Oct. 26.

Now several legislators contend the administration should get involved in a question that transcends technical matters and extends into national security and industrial policy.

The meeting represented the "first footstep" of the strike fighter's entry into the political realm, said a delegation aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He said the decision on whether to split production is a presidential matter "above the Pentagon's pay grade," even though Pentagon officials say it's now up to the companies.

Boeing has indicated that without a role in the strike fighter, it might be forced out of the fighter business in a few years, leaving the country with a single maker of fighters. Bond, Akin and Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., contend that shrinking the defense industrial base would be risky at this time, and they want to see some of the work done at Boeing's St. Louis plant, along with Lockheed's plant in Fort Worth, Texas.

The White House brought in two Pentagon officials for the meeting, including at least one deputy assistant defense secretary.

"They knew that this was going to be a topic of discussion, so Pentagon officials were thought to be necessary. It's a good start," said a Missouri congressional aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"This is the beginning of a dialogue with the White House. This will ultimately be a presidential decision."

The White House declined to discuss details of the meeting.

"It should come as no surprise that White House officials meet frequently with state leaders to discuss the president's agenda and issues of concern to their state," said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel.

Talent, a former congressman and gubernatorial candidate who is running for the Senate seat held by Carnahan, was represented in the White House session by his deputy campaign manager, Jen Woodbury.

Talent spokesman Rich Chrismer said the meeting provided a chance to discuss the Senate race with the White House and the delegation and to hear what the delegation sees as Missouri's "front-burner issues."

Chrismer said the White House made clear the importance it attaches to the Missouri Senate race, since it could "very well determine who controls the Senate."

Bond has spoken with the two top members of the Senate Armed Services Committee - Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and ranking member John Warner, R-Va. - about the strike fighter.

A senior committee staff member said it's too early to say what will happen. He noted that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, has been vehement in her opposition to splitting any work after Lockheed won the competition outright.

Graves' chief of staff, Roe, said the meeting was "really a chance for the national leaders of the party to learn the pulse of Missouri, and also for the White House to let us know they were very focused on Missouri and its bellwether status."

"I think they wanted to express to us that they want to be helpful," he said. "We have a top-tier Senate race, and there are a lot of political implications in Missouri."

Steven Hess, political analyst at the Brookings Institution, said there are likely to be political ramifications in the case of action - or inaction - by the White House on the strike fighter issue. It's a tricky one for Bush, Hess said, noting that while industrial base issues are important, setting up two production lines would raise the cost for the planes.