Fair exchange back at the party who perfected the smear campaign is no robbery my friend.
'Air Pelosi': Payback for 5-Day Week?
By Kenneth T. Walsh
Posted 2/9/07
One of the lesser-known aspects of the "Air Pelosi" controversy is the degree to which the fuss is payback for the House speaker's decision to hold legislators to a five-day workweek instead of the three- or four-day schedule adopted by the Republicans in the past.
Nancy Pelosi has been struggling to explain her need for a big Air Force jet to fly nonstop to her home district in San Francisco. She says she is only following the policy of her predecessor, Republican Dennis Hastert of Illinois, who flew home regularly on government aircraft for security reasons. Pelosi says she needs a bigger government jet than Hastert did because she has a lot farther to go, and, besides, the security requirement was imposed by the House sergeant at arms. Otherwise, she says, she'd fly commercial.
But Pelosi has been attacked by GOP legislators for extravagance and hypocrisy, since she has criticized Republicans for taking too many perks when they controlled Capitol Hill.
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow has sided with Pelosi. But GOP insiders say the issue has a lot to do with Pelosi's work-week requirements, which many legislators consider a PR stunt that imposes a real burden on them getting home to be with their families and constituents.
That said, the aircraft fuss has become "an irresistible target" for the GOP legislators, says a Republican insider.
I'll C-20 and Raise You
House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., seems to be the one who first publicly raised the notion that the plane Pelosi requested is the C-32.
"I understand on this particular airplane there is a bedroom," Blunt said.
"I hadn't heard that," Putnam said.
"There is a stateroom," Blunt said. "It is kind of a flying Lincoln bedroom."
A Blunt aide said he first heard that the plane Pelosi requested had a bedroom on CNN's "Lou Dobbs" Monday evening. "She could take a circus with her, for crying out loud," Dobbs said.
A Democratic aide maintained that this was all nonsense.
"The Republicans and the administration are intentionally mischaracterizing this," the aide said. "This is a security issue, and that's it. They've got nothing else to talk about so they make this up."
Air Pelosi
The Issue: House speaker demands airliner-sized jet.
New House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is nothing if not combative.
Even as she was being elected speaker, she unsuccessfully tried to oust her No. 2, the current House Democratic leader, Steny Hoyer, in favor of her own candidate. She forced fellow Californian Jane Harman off the House Intelligence Committee, where Harman was in line to become chairman. Then she got into a fight with the powerful and senior-most House Democrat, John Dingell, by trying to carve out a chunk of his turf from his Energy and Commerce Committee.
These fights could perhaps be excused as necessary for Pelosi to exert control over her unruly charges and, as one of her predecessors as speaker, Tip O'Neill, once said, politics ain't bean bag.
But now Pelosi has picked a fight that can only embarrass her and gladden the hearts of House Republicans.
She is demanding - and, given her style, "demand" is the correct verb - that the Pentagon supply her with an airliner-size jet, the military version of a Boeing 757, to fly her to and from her San Francisco district. Gleeful Republican critics are calling it "Pelosi One."
For security reasons, the Pentagon provides the speaker, the third in line to the presidency, secure transportation to and from the home district. It did so for then-Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert.
But the Pentagon, as with Hastert, is offering commuter jets with space for no more than 10 passengers. Republicans charge that Pelosi wants the larger aircraft so she can load it up with family members and political donors, but the speaker's office says it's a matter of security because a smaller jet has to stop to refuel en route.
One Republican-allied group weighed in, decrying the "42 leather business-class seats, a fully enclosed stateroom for Nancy Pelosi, stewards who serve meals and tend an open bar, and other such luxuries aboard."
Maybe that's a little overwrought, but Pelosi should know from what happened to the House Republicans last November that voters resent what they saw as the GOP's overweening sense of entitlement and privilege.
Indeed, one of her first acts as speaker was to push through a ban on the cherished perk of lawmakers accepting rides on corporate jets.
Fly the commuter jet, Madame Speaker, and just be glad that you don't have to stand in long lines, endure long delays and get crammed in coach like, well, like the voters.
