ABC Debunks Pelosi Smear, RE: Travel Abuse

[babylonsister]

Pelosi Travel Abuse? Case Not Proved
Watchdog Group Criticizes House Speaker for Travel Perks, but Records Don't Agree

By JONATHAN KARL AND LUIS MARTINEZ
March 11, 2009


The treasure trove of documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the Department of Defense regarding Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's use of military aircraft doesn't seem to prove the organization's allegation that Pelosi has made "unprecedented demands" for the flights.

In fact, it appears that Pelosi uses military aircraft less often than her predecessor, former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

The documents cover the period from January 2007 to November 2008 and show that Pelosi made the equivalent of 20 round-trips between Washington (Andrews Air Force Base) and San Francisco. That's an average of less than one round-trip per month. In contrast, former Speaker Hastert traveled home to his Illinois district virtually every weekend and, his former aides tell ABC News, he would almost always travel on military aircraft. Like Hastert, Pelosi also occasionally leads Congressional delegations on foreign trips (the documents show six foreign trips: one to Asia, three to the Middle East and two to Europe).

The documents obtained by Judicial Watch also disprove another frequently repeated rumor about Pelosi's travel: that she regularly flies home to San Francisco in an Air Force C-40, the military equivalent of a Boeing 737. According to the documents, Pelosi did not make any domestic trips on a C-40 during the 23-month period from January 2007 to November 2008. Her trips to San Francisco have all been on smaller executive aircraft, usually an Air Force C-20 (the equivalent of a Gulfstream G-3) or a more plush C-37 (a Gulfstream G-5).

snip//

The Judicial Watch release also cites an e-mail from a Pelosi staffer complaining about the lack of available C-5 aircraft for Congress's 2007 Memorial Day recess, but this has nothing to do with Pelosi's travel. Instead, the staffer was trying to arrange travel for eight Congressional delegations (all such travel is arranged through Pelosi's office).

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7057198&page=1

[rocktivity]

1. I thought this story was dead and buried

Nancy said that if were not possible for Congress to fly her from DC to SF nonstop, she would continue to fly commercially. Comparing her situation to Hastert's is unfair because his "commute" was so much shorter.

x(
rocktivity

[babylonsister]

2. It wasn't -

There was a long thread, which was locked, citing Judicial Watch and all the e-mails they supposedly produced. Someone was stirring up shit and got shot down by a lot of us.

It's a new talking point with the r/w, so it needs to be dead and buried.

Here it is:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3776391

[babylonsister]

3. And from yesterday...

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/03/pelosi_jet_use_draws_conservat.html

[Fleshdancer]

4. The GOP is working overtime to turn Pelosi into the next Hillary Clinton

Not that it matters much considering how successful Clinton is. Perhaps this is just par for the course when you're an intelligent and powerful Democratic woman in DC.

[The Wizard]

5. Does Judicial Watch

differentiate between military flights that are already scheduled and take passengers when space allows, or are they saying Nancy Pelosi used military aircraft on a whim and demanded a special flight. If it's the former, the Speaker is saving taxpayer money and should be commended.

[babylonsister]

6. Couldn't even access their site, so I don't know.

But despite the name, Judicial Watch is not to be trusted.

Lots of info on them in here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3776391

[babylonsister]

7. Air Pelosi? Uh, not so much...

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/03/12/air-pelosi-uh-not-so-much/