GOP senator: Commerce nominee's Boeing ties to be discussed 'at-length'

A key South Carolina senator predicted Tuesday that the tenure of President Obama's choice to be Commerce secretary at Boeing will be a topic of conversation when his nomination is debated.

A spokesman for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that when the chamber has to vote on businessman John Bryson's nomination to replace Gary Locke, Republican lawmakers would likely look to make a point about the National Labor Relations Board's lawsuit against Boeing for allegedly retaliating against labor strikes by building a new plant in South Carolina.

"In light of the NLRB’s unprecedented complaint against Boeing, one would expect that Mr. Bryson’s service on the company’s Board of Directors when they created the second 787 assembly line in South Carolina will be discussed at-length during confirmation,” Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop said in a statement. 

Bishop pointed out that White House Chief of Staff William Daley is also a former member of Boeing's Board of Directors. The company's president, Jim McNerney, is the chairman of President Obama's Export Council, Bishop said.

Graham's fellow South Carolina senator, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), called recently on Daley to take a leave of absence from the White House if the lawsuit against Boeing continued.