Maybe Starkist can return a favor by loaning her one of their corporate jets.
Posted on 02/08/2007 10:58:40 AM PST by presidio9
Addressing a swarm of reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to the controversy over her desire to fly in an Air Force transport plane by saying that she would have no problem flying commercially if a secure military plane is not offered.
"I have told them that I will travel cross-country, non-stop commercially as I have done and always done probably — how many times — a thousand times since I've been in Congress, so this will be nothing new to me," Pelosi said.
The White House defended the Democratic leader of the House 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.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Defense Department 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.
Republicans are taking issue with the size of the plane Pelosi would need to fly in to reach her hometown across the country in California 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.
In an interview with Fox News television Thursday, 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.
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a Republican from the Midwest, flew in a small commuter-sized Air Force jet.
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. "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" in San Francisco.
Rep. Adam Putnam, 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.
Nancy sure feels entitled. I just caught a moment of MSNBS where the woman anchor (Nora?) was making excuses for her. Just minutes ago I saw on TV Nancy saying Bush supporters her. Please tell me this is not true.
Maybe Starkist can return a favor by loaning her one of their corporate jets.
Either way she is spending OUR collective "Tax-payer" money on the these trips - just that she now wants to spend a great deal more and have it come out of the military budget instead of her congressional travel budget
Someone get her a regular airplane like the one Hastert used and give her a lollipop.
if she flies commercial, there is no way she'll go thru TSA security with the little people..she'll be bypassed..
This point has been brought up in every column that I have seen on this story, and outside of Tom Clancy novels, it remains just as irrelevant. The President and the VP are virtually never in the same spot at the same time other than at the SOTU, where the VP is seated right next to the House Speaker. Should anything happen to the VP, he would be replaced immediately (probably by Karl Rove at this point in the Bush Presidency). So, being "third in line" actually means next to nothing, and should anything happen to Bush and Cheney simultaneously, they could just as easily be replaced by the President pro tempore of the Senate or the Secretary of State. The American people didn't vote for Nancy Pelosi, just the City Of Fruits And Nuts.
"Pelosi: I'll Fly Commercial If I Have To"
Good. Perhaps she might be persuaded to pay for it from her own pocket, too?
Oh, to dream...
And all along I was under the mistaken belief that Nancy Pelosi supported the environment.
"'It has everything to do with security,' Pelosi said. She added that Bush had personally told her that because the speaker is second in line of presidential succession, behind Vice President Dick Cheney, he was concerned about her security. That concern apparently included the desire that Pelosi's plane not land for refueling.
[Pelosi's] safety would be best ensured by using a plane that has the fuel capacity to go coast-to-coast.... "There's a certain amount of inefficiency and risk involved in stopping and having to refuel," said Dew Hammill, Spokesman for the Speaker. (Roll Call, 2/5/2007)
Pelosi, her shills, and her various media supporters are massive liars for pretending that "the smaller plane" would have to make an intermediate stop for fuel. The VC-20 (Gulfstream IV) used by Hastert will easily fly nonstop from DC to San Francisco. The similar but newer VC-37 (Gulfstream V) could pass over San Francisco and fly on to Hawaii without breaking a sweat. Mere billionaires routinely fly these planes to Japan from the west coast.
Of course, Hammill and Pelosi can count on their core constituency knowing next to nothing about aviation except that planes crash a lot and drop bombs on schools and baby ducks.
This is not about non-stop range or security, it is about Pelosi's desire to drag alone a larger entourage of sycophants and hangers-on.
With strong "head-winds" and depending on passanger load, etc it is possible that she would have to stop somewhere on occasion to refuel - at least as a safety margin...
I say so what - she should take it as offered and just shut-up
That's right, Puce Pelosi, you just stay the course and fly commercial like the rest of the us. This is just another example of balancing the budget demoncRAT style.
Maybe she could just borrow John Maddens bus?
I've disputed her need. I don't think that she, Hasert, or any other memeber of Congress needs to fly military under most circumstances. If there is a specific threat, then deal with that threat appropriately, but if PM Blair can fly commercial, then so can Pelosi et al.
["This is a silly story and I think it's been unfair to the speaker," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. ]
No, Tony, it's NOT "silly".
It's a perfect display of her arrogance and hypocracy!
But, I understand that you're defending her, to disarm her contention that the Whitehouse was behind the story, in the 1st place.
At this point, I don't even care if the story is a lie; let her see what it feels like; after all, she's been doing it to Bush for seven years.
Easier to dodge the tomatoes...
geez. she should have been smart and offered to take a whole crew of congressmen/ women, aides, etc at the same time. she could have very easily justified it by saying how much cheaper it would be if they all went together.
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