Da Plane, Nancy, Da Plane
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Gary [email protected]
But she didn't turn it down, either.
For being a compassionate Democrat, Pelosi certainly hasn't been a stranger to controversy.
Even at the outset of her tenure as speaker she tried to bag Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in favor of her own candidate John Murtha.
It didn't work. The ethically challenged Murtha lost.
She got into a tiff with John Dingell, who happens to be the most senior House Demo. She made him mad by trying to take a chink out of his Energy and Commerce Committee armor.
Then she tossed fellow Californian Jane Harman off the House Intelligence Committee. Not that big a deal, except Harman was next in line to become chairman.
Of course, this is probably standard operating procedure for the House of Representatives. Stuff like that seems to happen quite frequently in the hallowed halls of Congress.
Given Pelosi's penchant for bravado, it didn't seem too far out of the realm of probability to me when I heard that she had requested a military-style 757 to fly her back and forth from Washington to her home in San Francisco.
Seems for security reasons, the Pentagon provides the speaker of the House with secure transportation. That only makes sense because, after all, the speaker is second in the line of succession to the Presidency.
Previously, the Pentagon offered commuter jets with space for no more than 10 passengers.
The new plane has 42 leather-clad business class seats and a crew of 16.
Republicans say Pelosi wants the extra room to shuttle dozens of her friends, family members and favorite donors to and fro.
The speaker's office says that's nonsense. It's a matter of national security because the little plane has to stop to refuel. The big plane can make it coast-to-coast nonstop.
Now, I guess I don't understand why refueling is a security risk, but maybe it is.
And non-stop or not, it really must be nice to have stewards who serve meals and tend the open bar. A little luxury goes a long way during your trips to and from work.
Ah, fodder for the Republicans.
Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam of Florida called the plane "an arrogance of office that just defies common sense" and "a major deviation from the previous speaker."
Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri called it a "flying Lincoln Bedroom."
Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, North Carolina Republican, labeled the speaker's plane "Pelosi One."
On Wednesday night, Pelosi waxed conspiratorially on Fox News that Defense Department officials were distorting the story to make her look bad in retribution for her stance against the war and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
An Associated Press story had this quote from the Fox interview:
"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 voice heard," she said.
By Thursday, the White House weighed in in defense of the speaker.
White House Spokesman Tony Snow said, "This is a silly story and I think it's been unfair to the speaker."
And on Friday, the House Sergeant at Arms said it was, in fact, his idea and his request for the plane, not Pelosi's.
The bottom line in all this is that she could easily have just said never mind and stayed with the little plane. But hey, the big plane is really, really nice.
A couple things come to mind in all this.
First, isn't this exactly the type of privileged, elitist behavior that the Democrats used quite successfully against Republicans in the last elections?
One of the first things Pelosi did as speaker was ban lawmakers from accepting rides on corporate jets. Yet a 10-passenger commuter jet isn't good enough for her.
And second, with issues like the war in Iraq, health care, the economy, a looming crisis in entitlement funding and an enormous pile of national debt, one would think these people - Republicans and Democrats alike - could find something more salient to argue about.[[In-content Ad]]
But she didn't turn it down, either.
For being a compassionate Democrat, Pelosi certainly hasn't been a stranger to controversy.
Even at the outset of her tenure as speaker she tried to bag Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in favor of her own candidate John Murtha.
It didn't work. The ethically challenged Murtha lost.
She got into a tiff with John Dingell, who happens to be the most senior House Demo. She made him mad by trying to take a chink out of his Energy and Commerce Committee armor.
Then she tossed fellow Californian Jane Harman off the House Intelligence Committee. Not that big a deal, except Harman was next in line to become chairman.
Of course, this is probably standard operating procedure for the House of Representatives. Stuff like that seems to happen quite frequently in the hallowed halls of Congress.
Given Pelosi's penchant for bravado, it didn't seem too far out of the realm of probability to me when I heard that she had requested a military-style 757 to fly her back and forth from Washington to her home in San Francisco.
Seems for security reasons, the Pentagon provides the speaker of the House with secure transportation. That only makes sense because, after all, the speaker is second in the line of succession to the Presidency.
Previously, the Pentagon offered commuter jets with space for no more than 10 passengers.
The new plane has 42 leather-clad business class seats and a crew of 16.
Republicans say Pelosi wants the extra room to shuttle dozens of her friends, family members and favorite donors to and fro.
The speaker's office says that's nonsense. It's a matter of national security because the little plane has to stop to refuel. The big plane can make it coast-to-coast nonstop.
Now, I guess I don't understand why refueling is a security risk, but maybe it is.
And non-stop or not, it really must be nice to have stewards who serve meals and tend the open bar. A little luxury goes a long way during your trips to and from work.
Ah, fodder for the Republicans.
Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam of Florida called the plane "an arrogance of office that just defies common sense" and "a major deviation from the previous speaker."
Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri called it a "flying Lincoln Bedroom."
Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, North Carolina Republican, labeled the speaker's plane "Pelosi One."
On Wednesday night, Pelosi waxed conspiratorially on Fox News that Defense Department officials were distorting the story to make her look bad in retribution for her stance against the war and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
An Associated Press story had this quote from the Fox interview:
"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 voice heard," she said.
By Thursday, the White House weighed in in defense of the speaker.
White House Spokesman Tony Snow said, "This is a silly story and I think it's been unfair to the speaker."
And on Friday, the House Sergeant at Arms said it was, in fact, his idea and his request for the plane, not Pelosi's.
The bottom line in all this is that she could easily have just said never mind and stayed with the little plane. But hey, the big plane is really, really nice.
A couple things come to mind in all this.
First, isn't this exactly the type of privileged, elitist behavior that the Democrats used quite successfully against Republicans in the last elections?
One of the first things Pelosi did as speaker was ban lawmakers from accepting rides on corporate jets. Yet a 10-passenger commuter jet isn't good enough for her.
And second, with issues like the war in Iraq, health care, the economy, a looming crisis in entitlement funding and an enormous pile of national debt, one would think these people - Republicans and Democrats alike - could find something more salient to argue about.[[In-content Ad]]
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