Posted on 10/19/2010 8:03:37 PM PDT by pissant
I don't know if the latest round of documents itemize it, but earlier analysis of Pelosi's travel found that she only used the 757 once or twice.
There's some dispute on the point, but the Air Force claimed that the reason the 757 was used those times is because a smaller plane wasn't available.
That's fine, but there's no point in attacking Pelosi for using a government plane for personal travel when the policy was instituted by the Bush administration for security reasons.
She shouldn't be hauling family members and friends around with her, and she certainly shouldn't be running up huge catering bills for liquor. But, that's a separate issue.
Sooo, When she doesn’t have guests she has a 757 to herself?
I don’t have a problem with her having a plane. As you say, she’s third in line, so she needs to be able to get anywhere very fast. They allotted her a type of jet, a Gulfstream G5, but it wasn’t big enough. Apparently it had the range to fly her and basic staff non-stop to SF, but it didn’t have the capacity to fly her, her extended family and assorted hangers-on all the way non-stop. Thus she requested a custom executive-fitted Boeing 757. That is going beyond the needs of the government in keeping a Speaker at the ready and into purely her personal perks. Not only that, but she logged twice as many trips in two years as her predecessor did in three.
I expect Boehner to accept a smaller plane again to save the taxpayers money, and to not use it as his personal airline.
question: does the house minority leader get a military plane to use too? SHE needs a 757 to travel in
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