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.
Good. Then do it and shut up. Or take the same kind of plane that Hastert had and was offered to you. Geesh.
great. so this is settled. DC-3 Service from Dulles to SFO
The compression and decompression of the botox would make it wear out twice as fast.
It needs to be a non-stop flight because that is what Pelosi wants. No other reason.
Go for it Nancy
Don't be silly. How can you ignore and disdain "fly-over" country, unless you actually get to fly over it? Next, you'll expect her to actually drive her own SUV, or something.
Or fly "available military transport" with the rest of the Nation's baggage.
Bump
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