Team JCA - Joint Chavez Aircraft

Congressional staff who follow Venezuela are having fun watching EADS North America CEO Ralph Crosby squirm over EADS CASA's $600 million sale of military aircraft to Hugo Chavez.

Some staffers say that Crosby denied that the deal would go through - at the very time his parent company in Europe was accepting Venezuela's cash deposits for the plane.

Now, Crosby is facing the embarrassment of having to explain why he made such a denial when Venezuelan Defense Minister Raul Baduel says the deal's still on.

EADS CASA is lobbying hard to sell the exact same planes to the US to serve as the new Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA). It even has a new front group - "Team JCA" - designed to make the EADS CASA-led consortium look more American, by putting junior partner Raytheon front and center.

Some wags on Capitol Hill are saying "Team JCA" is for "Joint Chavez Aircraft" and are circulating a satirical picture montage, shown above, of Crosby and Chavez.

Critics of EADS CASA's help for Chavez set up their own satirical website, TeamJCA.org.