Pelosi: "This is about transportation. It's not about a plane. Myself, I wish I didn't have to have so much security, because I like my freedom of mobility, but being, second in line of succession, and since 9/11, Mr. Hastert had that transportation provided. ... It's their call as to what security is needed for the speaker of the House, and they requested that. Where the misrepresentations and mischaracterizations came from, I don't know, perhaps the Defense Department, because I've been one of their critics. But I'll say this, I know it didn't come from the president of the United States. Because he has been, if anything, very definite in saying to me, you need to have the security you have."
FNC's Van Susteren: "It's about the size of the plane. I think that's what the dispute was."
Pelosi: "It was the distance."
Van Susteren: "You're from California, we can't do anything about that. ... And Speaker Hastert was Illinois, the mid-part of the country."
Pelosi: "That's right."
Asked if she asked for a particular sized plane, Pelosi: "No."
More Pelosi: "They told me the first day that I was supposed to go that I couldn't make it across the country. And I said well, that's fine, I'm going commercial. ... I'm not asking to go on that plane. If you need to take me there for security purposes, you're going to have to get a plane that goes across the country, because I'm going home to my family. ... I'm happy to go commercial. But they want me to go on this plane, so the issue was distance, not size. And again, it's not about having a plane. It's about having transportation. These planes are used for other purposes in between trips, which are, you know, take place once or twice a week, going or coming. So, it isn't about that. But there are probably those in the Department of Defense who are not happy with my criticism of Secretary Rumsfeld, the war in Iraq, other waste, fraud and abuse in the Defense Department and I guess this is their way of making their voices heard. But it has nothing to do, as I say, with the president of the United States. He has encouraged my having the security I need" (FNC, 2/7).
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/02/hotline_after_d_156.html