White House Defends Pelosi On Plane Flap

Some In GOP Called House Speaker's Air Force Transport Plane Request An Extravagance

(CBS/AP)  The White House on Thursday defended House Speaker Nancy Pelosi against Republican criticism that her desire to fly in an Air Force transport plane is an extravagance.

"This is a silly story and I think it's been unfair to the speaker," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

Republicans are taking issue with the size of the plane Pelosi would need to fly in to reach her hometown of San Francisco without refueling. There are three Air Force airplanes that have the fuel capacity to make the trip nonstop, with the largest being a C-32 plane, a military version of the Boeing 757-200.

Pelosi’s predecessor, Dennis Hastert, used a small Air Force jet that reportedly costs the government $5,500 an hour to operate and carries about a dozen passengers, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. A plane that would allow Pelosi to fly nonstop apparently costs $22,000 an hour to operate and is outfitted for about 50 passengers. In civilian use, it can carry well over 200.

In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday night, Pelosi speculated that Department of Defense officials were distorting the story as retribution for her stance against the war and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

"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," she said.

The Pentagon this week informed Pelosi's staff that she would be provided with a plane but that its size would be based on availability and that it could not guarantee nonstop service.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Pentagon agreed to provide the House speaker, who is second in the line of presidential succession, with a military plane for added security during trips back home.

Pelosi said she would be happy to fly on commercial airliners but said the House sergeant-at-arms office urged her to continue Hastert's practice of using Air Force transport. She said she was informed on her first trip home that her plane would not make it across the country.

"I said well, that's fine, I'm going commercial," she told Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren. "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."

Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida, the No. 3 Republican leader, called Pelosi's desire for a large transport plane "an extravagance of power that the taxpayers won't swallow."

"It's important we see what the specific request was," Putnam said.

But Snow on Thursday said the negotiations over Pelosi's transport have been conducted solely by the House sergeant-at-arms and the Pentagon, with no direct involvement by the speaker or her office — or the White House.

The guidelines provided by the Pentagon say Pelosi could be accompanied by family members, provided they pay the government coach fare. The plane could not be used for travel to political events. Members of Congress could accompany her on the plane if the travel is cleared by the House ethics committee.

[jbb333]

I'm finding Nancy Pelosi to be one brilliant grandma.

This was getting ready to be another RNC-FNC smear.
Yet Nancy Pelosi managed to (1)cut off its water by going on Fox itself; (2)imply on Fox that it was a leak by the Pentagon, thereby causing people to ask, "Yeah, where DID the RNC and FNC get this private info?"; (3)remind the nation that a woman is in line for the Presidency after *** Cheney; and (4)have the House Sargeant-of-Arms announce loudly and publicly that making this situation a political football was completely unhelpful to his job of providing safety and security.

The msm fell for the smear (as usual) in the beginning, but I for one am willing to give them credit.
Maybe they didn't cover the story very responsibilty at first (like, maybe ASK Pelosi what she actually ASKED FOR, and then speak to the S-at-A to see if it's true that she actually asked for NOTHING!)
But the msm seems to finally be catching up with the Truth instead of the Truthiness.
And that's a huge improvement over what they've done since about 1992.

[baddog777]

Seems to me that with a war in Iraq, a nuclear North Korea, corruption in politics, and everything else that's going on in this country, airplane envy is probably the last thing our leaders need to be discussing.

[rharrin1]

Even before dems took charge Pelosi says impeachment off the table.
Now white house defends Pelosi over plane issue.

Is nancy sleeping with bush or is it big dicky???

[juliemd]

I think if I were Nancy I'd charter/lease a Learjet and pay the expense myself...Forget the Pentagon and it's airplanes. I wouldn't trust those guys any more than I'd trust the CIA to ensuring my safe flight...

[juliemd]

I think if I were Nancy I'd charter/lease a Learjet and pay the expense myself...Forget the Pentagon and it's airplanes. I wouldn't trust those guys any more than I'd trust the CIA to ensuring my safe flight...

[juliemd]

I think if I were Nancy I'd charter/lease a Learjet and pay the expense myself...Forget the Pentagon and it's airplanes. I wouldn't trust those guys any more than I'd trust the CIA to ensuring my safe flight...

[diverinnl]

zzzzz

[pheephee-2009]

I think this news organization sees what every American who understands the Constitution is seeing.

From article:
"After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Pentagon agreed to provide the House speaker, who is second in the line of presidential succession, with a military plane for added security during trips back home."


See, Cheney really is the President and Bush is merely the dummy he throws out at us to play President.

[pheephee-2009]

I think this news organization sees what every American who understands the Constitution is seeing.

From article:
"After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Pentagon agreed to provide the House speaker, who is second in the line of presidential succession, with a military plane for added security during trips back home."


See, Cheney really is the President and Bush is merely the dummy he throws out at us to play President.

[calliope6]

I notice that CBS didn't bother to tell the TRUE story about the Pelosi plane flap. Pelosi never asked for a larger plane. She asked for a plane that could fly nonstop coast to coast for security reasons. The plane was requested by Bill Livingwood, a long-time House official. The whole story was a Pentagon-CBS/NBC/FOX setup to embarrass Pelosi. If you want the true story, go to CNN - the only news outlet, btw to bother to debunk the phony Obama-at-terrorist-training-camp story.

Here's the real Pelosi story:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/09/pelosi.plane/index.html