McCain sends job to Iran and workers at Boeing's Everett plant, where the tanker would have been built based on Boeing's twin-engine 767 jetliner, were stunned and angry.

 

David Muellenbach, a 12-year Boeing employee doing quality-assurance work on the 767 line, said of the decision: "It is a shock. It's a sad day for Boeing. What can we do?"

 

Gov. Chris Gregoire and other Washington politicians expressed great disappointment in the Air Force's decision. The governor earlier in the week raised the possibility of a congressional inquiry or a formal legal protest if Boeing lost.

 

A spokesman for the governor Friday said she was going to reserve judgment until she personally spoke with Boeing executives and meets with the congressional delegation.

"Until we know a little more why Boeing lost we can't make any further comments," said Mike Gowrylow, a governor's spokesman.

 

Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., a senior member of the House panel that oversees military spending, predicted "a firestorm of criticism about this decision." He said many lawmakers "don't want Airbus building this plane."

 

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told reporters she was "frustrated, angry and in shock at this announcement."

 

The state's senior senator said she couldn't understand the choice of giving a massive contract to a foreign-based business, considering that the U.S. is teetering on a recession.

 

"You can put an American sticker on a plane and call it American, but you can't call it American made. They are clearly going to be made overseas, and that is a factor we all have to be thinking about, whether we want American planes built overseas."

Murray said Boeing will be debriefed by the Air Force later this month on why it lost out, and the company could then appeal the decision. The Government Accountability Office then has 100 days to examine the appeal, Murray said. She said it was premature to speculate on a congressional inquiry, but added, "We clearly want to be supportive of Boeing and find out the facts."