Josh Marshall shoots down the Pelosi military transport airplane bull crap!

[trumad]

Who's right and who's wrong?

Below we noted that the Washington Times story about Nancy Pelosi's demand for a military aircraft for travel back to her district appears to be a crock. According to Thinkprogress and reporting in Roll Call, former Speaker Denny Hastert used a military plane for travel to history district. But the plane he used couldn't carry enough fuel to fly nonstop across the country.

A Pelosi aide told Roll Call: "The Air Force determined that safety would be best ensured by using a plane that has the fuel capacity to go coast-to-coast. All we’re asking for is what Hastert had."

So this seems to be the issue: a military aircraft for the Speaker has been the rule since 9/11. But a larger plane is needed for Pelosi since she flies back and forth to California, not Illinois.

Okay, let's move along.

Now, the original Washington Times story said that Pelosi wanted the larger plane so family and friends and staff and others could fly with her. But apparently that was false.

Now, Lou Dobbs has been whacking this story nonstop for a week or so on his CNN show. And he returned to it this evening with yet another segment by reporter Lisa Sylvester. And at the end of the segment he had this chatty exchange with Sylvester ...

DOBBS: Lisa, let me see if I've got this right. She wants a plane that accommodates 42 people, private stateroom. And the reason is because she wants to be able to go nonstop from Washington to the West Coast? My goodness, she could have done that in the plane that Hastert was using (italics added).

SYLVESTER: That's exactly correct, Lou. You've got that. It would be 42 people, and clearly she won't be the only one on this plane. She wants to have members of the congressional delegation. And her critics will say, look, this is a very nice perk that she can share with her colleagues and use as leverage, should she need to.

DOBBS: Well, it's really a fascinating thing: 42. She could take a circus with her, for crying out loud. All right, thank you very much, Lisa Sylvester.

Now, this whole issue is silly. But Dobbs and Co. has been on it for like a week regurgitating the bogus Washington Times piece. And here he says that the Hastert plane actually could fly coast to coast.

Does he know something everyone else doesn't?

Or did he just make that up out of whole cloth?

Many consider it poor form to point out these small-ante falsehoods. But this is how the Obama-Madrassa story got jazzed all over the place.


-- Josh Marshall

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/012301.php

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

1. When I first heard ths story I said "Oh No!" and then Nancy's request, no matter

how extensive, makes sense. She is third in line for the Presidency and if anything should happen to the Shrub and Darth Cheneyat the same time, she has to have private transport available.

[EFerrari]

4. We have to make a circle around Nancy because they are going to do this

nonstop. There are two threads about two different false stories on the front page of DU right now.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. Amen to that. eom

[anitar1]

2. It's called bash the Dems. The sniveling little whiners,

Lou included, just hate not being the majority.After years of tearing this country apart and having all their crap exposed, they are dying to "pin" something on the Dems. They are just too disgusting. I'm sure they hate having a woman as Speaker.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. This is part of their all-out assault on truth

they figure if they heap up enough lies about the Dems (never retracting the stories, even when proven wrong), they'll get enough people to believe them. They are working on the Big Lie theory of Hitler, you know.

[KharmaTrain]

6. Say A Lie Enough Times...

We should start keeping track of all the slime they've tried to stick on Nancy over the past year and just throw this on the heap...and expect more to come. The game here is to turn her into a demon...a cartoon character...one that the right wing hate spinners can turn into "conventional wisdom"...a game they've played with virtual impunity for the past 20 years.

The "Big Lie" works when people buy into it. Like those who chewed on every piece of slime they threw out about the Clintons...much of it that was debunked...but it was regergitated so often that many assumed it be be true. When that kicks in, then you can do the "cartoon" of the "woman-chasing Bill" or the "mean witch Hillary" or the "immoral Democrat" or so on. Put a military uniform and find a slimeboat and then turn this big lie on John Kerry and it worked like a charm as well.

The right wing hate machine is far from vanquished or even humbled. They are desperate. They need to create negatives in order to negate their negatives. If they can't do it with a personal slime, then it's the "all politicians are the same" bullshit.

I've tuned out Doobies as his constant xenophobic rantings, skewed polls and biased reporting have confused and hoodwinked a lot of people into thinking he's a populist. He's not. He's Wall Street and big business. He's no friend of labor and speaks for his beloved "Street"...always has, always will...they've given him a nice life for doing so.

[NNN0LHI]

5. But I thought Lou Dobbs wants us all to vote independent like him?

Lou Dobbs is a big stinking asshole.

Don

[Alamom]

7. Seems the House Seargent at Arms, serving in this position since 1995,

takes care of the Speaker's needs. He's "The Decider".



http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Defense_Department_ag...

Updated: Paper claims Defense Department agrees to furnish House Speaker Pelosi with jet

RAW STORY
Published: Monday February 5, 2007


Note: The website Think Progress reports that "the central claims of the Washington Times piece are both false." For more, click on this link. Link info below.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) request for a "big" US Air Force plane has been approved by the Department of Defense, according to a Capitol Hill newspaper.


http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/05/pelosi-military-air... /



FACT CHECK: Washington Times Publishes False Report On Pelosi’s Use Of Military Aircraft
On February 1, the Washington Times published a story titled “Speaker pursues military flights,” which claimed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had been “pressing the Bush administration for routine access to military aircraft for domestic flights, such as trips back to her San Francisco district.” Former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) also used military aircraft to travel to his district. However, the Times reported, Pelosi is “demanding permanent access to a large military jet for herself, her staff, other Members and supporters.”



In fact, the central claims of the Washington Times piece are both false.

1) The House Sergeant at Arms, not Pelosi, initiated inquiries into the use of military aircraft. House Sergeant at Arms Wilson Livingood, who has served in his position since 1995, released a statement today clarifying the facts. He writes, “In December 2006, I advised Speaker Pelosi that the US Air Force had made an airplane available to Speaker Hastert for security and communications purposes following September 11, 2001.” Additionally, Livingood writes, “I offered to call the U.S. Air Force and Department of Defense to seek clarification of the guidelines .”

2) A larger plane was requested because Hastert’s plane required refueling to travel cross-country. The Washington Times says a larger plane was requested to accomodate Pelosi, “her staff, other Members and supporters.” That’s not true. In fact, the plane used by Speaker Hastert was too small for Pelosi since it “needs to refuel every 2,000 miles and could not make the nonstop haul to California. ‘The Air Force determined that safety would be best ensured by using a plane that has the fuel capacity to go coast-to-coast,’” a Pelosi spokesperson





Thanks OP for posting and I am so happy to have read this info, link found on Raw Story.
I knew Speaker Pelosi was being swiftplaned. They are so predictable. Dobbs makes my skin crawl, however, Brit Hume/FOX kept this spinning after the WTimes story, 2/1. Hume, absolute waste of space.

[The Wizard]

8. It starts with false reporting about

airplanes. Remember the Clinton hair cut that shut down an airport for half a day. That story turned out to be corporate media bullshit.
The media that traditionally made politicians accountable has for the last few years been a propaganda tool of the Republican Party. Pox (deliberate typo) News is just a smoke screen for Pravda, TAAS and Izvestia now known as America's corporate media. They went from the Fourth Estate to a Fifth Column.
The Soviets knew their news was propaganda. That's one of the reasons the government lost popular support and collapsed.
With each passing day more people turn to Internet blogs for information and the ability to question what is being presented as information regarding how we are governed.
I would suggest when these false stories or half truths appear in print or on the air, question the source. Make them talk about it, and ask them who is responsible for validating information.

[Raster]

9. time to castrate mr. dobbs and place his jewels firmly in his lying mouth

[Felinity]

10. Without knowing the back-story, this is what I figured

It's not the perks that are out in the public eye that bother me. I don't care if they assign a military plane to the Speaker of the House. I don't care if they give every member of Congress a travel budget (based on commercial air fares) for themselves, their staffs, and their families to travel to their Districts 12 times a year, to use as they wish for said travel-charter a plane, travel commercial, rent a limo, as long as it relates to travel to and from their District.

I care about the perks they've been taking under the table from private interests; I care when they accept campaign contributions from lobbying organizations (which I don't believe they even considered taking off the table). Lou Dobbs has been way out of line shining a light on this unimportant and obviously ill-reported incident. Shame on him.

[Rose Siding]

11. Uppity woman thinks she gets the same level of security that MISTER Speaker did

Go. Nancy.

[shance]

13. Why doesn't Nancy send out a press release and issue a statement?

That would end this whole intentionally distracting story.

[cally]

15. It would bring new attention to it

It's better to have the Seargent at Arms issue a statement.

[jumpoffdaplanet]

20. No it would not

the same media happy to smear her will ignore it.

It's better to do what most of us already do. Assume anything bashing the dems is a bald faced lie.

[opihimoimoi]

14. Dobbs is a sniveling asshole ....Lying and falsifying intentionaly for the GOP

he has all the hallmarks of a neocon....posing as normal but is anything but....

[cally]

16. I I hope every Dem saw through the media propaganda on this one

I knew as soon as I saw the story that something was wrong. Pelosi is just too smart of a politician to ask the Pentagon for special perks. She needs a bigger plane because she lives in California. For whatever reason, the national security agencies have determined that the Speaker of the House should not fly on commercial planes. Her staff asked for clarification and the Pentagon determined that she needed a bigger plane to fly non-stop across the country. Anyone who thinks this is a special perk should look at all the limos taking Cabinet members around, all the military transport used for high government officials. Pelosi is the third in line for the Presidency and she is terroist target. She also lives 3,000 miles away from DC. Reid lives in the west also. It takes bigger aircraft to make it across the country without stopping.

[nashville_brook]

17. "poor form to point out small-ante falsehoods..." BULLSHIT

are we supposed to have SNOPES fight all our political battles now?

[MoonRiver]

18. I've been a fan of Dobbs, and defended him here for some time now.

But this crapola about Pelosi, along with his immigration obsession, but particularly the former, has now lost him this viewer. :mad:

[goforit]

19. This is a perfect example of Michael moore's "STUPID WHITE MEN" =Dobbs

His ego runneth over with arrogance and ignorance and is too self absorbed to
see past his nose!!!