Pelosi, military jets, and the dumbest story of the month

February 8, 2007

I’ve been reluctant to write much about the “controversy” surrounding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her use of military jets because the story is maddeningly dumb. I endorse Kevin Drum’s perspective wholeheartedly: “The continuing flap over Nancy Pelosi’s military jet accommodations is so knuckle-draggingly stupid that I can hardly stand to open the newspaper these days for fear of reading about it.”

And yet, we keep turning to the media for the news, and the media keeps harping on this entirely vacuous story.

It started much the same way the Obama “madrassa” nonsense did — with a ridiculous article in a news outlet owned by the Moonies. A week ago, the Washington Times reported that Pelosi has been “pressing the Bush administration for routine access to military aircraft for domestic flights, such as trips back to her San Francisco district.” While Dennis Hastert used military planes for his trips home, the Times said Pelosi is “demanding permanent access to a large military jet for herself, her staff, other Members and supporters.”

Far-right blogs and talk radio immediately embraced the story, which is a shame, because it’s entirely wrong. Pelosi said she was fine flying commercial, but the House Sergeant at Arms urged her to follow Hastert’s post-9/11 use of military jets. When Pelosi agreed to use military aircraft, she was going to use a different plane from Hastert — because the one Hastert used needs to refuel every 2,000 miles, couldn’t make it non-stop to California, and the Air Force determined that the Speaker’s safety would be best ensured by using a plane that has the fuel capacity to go coast-to-coast.

And yet, for reasons that defy comprehension, conservatives have been harping on this story relentlessly for days. You know it’s bad when even the White House is defending Pelosi.

The White House on Thursday defended House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) 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.

Yes, that was really Tony Snow.

What’s more, the right is characterizing this as some kind of example of abuse of power, when a) Pelosi hasn’t done anything wrong; and b) Hastert used military aircraft to help respond to the Mark Foley scandal.

And yet, conservative Pelosi critics like CNN’s Lou Dobbs continue to mislead the public with comments such as:

* Pelosi “wants the U.S. Air Force for personal accommodation.”

* Pelosi will use the plane “whenever she sees fit.”

* Pelosi could fly to her district non-stop “in the plane that Hastert was using.”

* Pelosi “wants a plane that accommodates 42 people, private stateroom…. She could take a circus with her.”

Not a word of this is true. Perhaps that no longer matters.

What can you say? The mendacity of these people defies belief. Every time I think they’ve gone as far as they can go, the very next day they demonstrate the paucity of my imagination. Stories like this, and the go-round on the bloggers Edwards hired demonstrates that these people will do literally anything, they have no limits, no rules, no belief in common decency. As you say, when even Tony Snow says what he did, you know how far these right wing revolutionaries will go.

  • You know, it really might not matter anymore if the public is finally getting so weary of the constant stream of transparently bogus Reich-wing attacks on everyone they disagree with that they just don’t pay that much attention to it.

    When it’s so predictable as to become meaningless and boring, the Taliban-o-sphere will finally start to take its rightful place (pun intended) on the garbage heap of history. May the day come soon!

  • Pelosi last night on Fox (via TPM):

    They told me the first day that I was supposed to go that I couldn’t make it across the country. And I said well, that’s fine, I’m going commercial. … 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. … I’m happy to go commercial. But they want me to go on this plane, so the issue was distance, not size. And again, it’s not about having a plane. It’s about having transportation. These planes are used for other purposes in between trips, which are, you know, take place once or twice a week, going or coming. So, it isn’t about that. But 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. But it has nothing to do, as I say, with the president of the United States. He has encouraged my having the security I need.

  • I think Curmudgeon #2 is right. This whole rightwing noise machine schtick is becoming old hat and easily recognized. Soon, people will say, “Oh this is one of those deals again where the rightwing raises hell and then it turns out to be nothing.”

    I do wish someone with a high profile who could call a news conference would lay it out for people the way the noise machine functions. (Maybe use a power point presentation or some of Perot’s old presentation boards) This would have been a good opportunity for Edwards btw.

  • Truly a dumb story, and one that makes the people like Lou Dobbs look very petty and partisan.

    I think Pelosi’s offer to fly comercial was genius.

    And of course the “liberal” media will spend more ink on this retarded garbage than they will on the crystal-clear case of Rove and Cheney destroying a CIA operation responsible for WMD nonproliferation, and why those two haven’t been fired (as per Bush’s promises).

    Oh, and that little bitty thing about these same people getting ready to attack Iran*. Who the hell cares about that? I want to know about the crazy astronaut and how much we spend flying Pelosi to California.

    * http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/whitehouse200703?printable=true&currentPage=all

  • Not a word of this is true. Perhaps that no longer matters.

    As if the truth ever mattered when these asshats thought they had a good smear. If they thought they could get away with it, they’d say Pelosi demanded the space shuttle carry her back and forth.

    Somehow, we’re supposed to be stupid enough to forget that Speaker Pelosi is 3rd in line to the Oval Office, which dictates certain security protocols – especially in a ‘post 9/11 world’ – be put in place. And we’re to also forget that these same protocols would likely have a ripple effect through a significant number of flight paths/schedules, when weather patterns forced her plane to refuel en route.

    The wingnut capacity to find outrage in the mundane never ceases to amaze.

  • Look, until DEMS come out and refute this stuff in a larger context…it is going to happen week after week……

    DEMS need to put these three RIDICULOUS items together and present them to the American people as proof of an orchestrated smear campaign against Democrats

    If they dont, a narrative of DEMS commiting wrong doing will be engrained in the minds of the American population regardless of the veracity of these stories…

    The last four weeks alone we have had

    Madrassagate
    Blogger gate
    Planegate

    Its no coincidence this is occuring while the LIBBY TRIAL is going on but DEM leadership better realize fast it isnt necessarily going to stop once the trial is over

    Also can someone tell me where in the hell those high paid DLC lobbyist leeches and their PR rapid response teams are….and why they have not began operating behind the scenes to get the DEM side of the story out to the beltway press…

  • The real amazing part is that Lou Dobbs took valuable time out of hunting “teh brown people” and tossing them out of America to comment.

    Think about this though, if it weren’t for the madrassas story, the Edwards Blog story, the Pelosi jet story etc.. what would cons have left to talk about? Taxes? Deficit? War? Poverty? Healthcare? Jobs? Not one of these looks like a winner for the right wing wind machine.

  • It’s fine for Snow to say it was a silly story, etc., but what has the White House done about it? Have they ordered the Pentagon to provide whatever aircraft the Sergeant-at-Arms and the Air Force recommend? They could put this whole issue to bed. Have they? Watch what they do, not what they say.

  • Lib4 #7

    Brilliant! The DNC should produce a weekly TV show where they list the top ten lies of the week and refute them. Fantastic idea!

  • I think Nancy Pelosi can take care of herself; she’s plenty smart. The MSM will keept doing this crap until they begin to suffer in the ratings wars. That is up to the people, and I believe the people are getting kind of fed up with this BS. It’s so trivial that it’s hardly worth repeating. Lou Dobbs: go suck an orange.

  • I’m really surprised at Lou Dobbs. He didn’t even accuse Pelosi of trying to use the plane to smuggle illegal immigrants. The boy’s losing his wingnut touch.

  • it wasn’t just lou dobbs. katie even had the story on cbs last night. i just couldn’t believe she was so sloppy.

  • The Reich noise machine is still playing the Madrassa issue whenever they get the chance—and the blogger item won’t go away any time soon. But the REAL story now is the plane issue; not because it’s a worthy news item, but because it is a symptom of an imploding administration that has become so inherently atrophic that it can no longer control its own attack dogs. The world of the wingnut is dying, and they’re discovering that—for them—there is no political equivalent to a rapture. There is just their own, self-inflicted damnation. May they “choke and croak” in peace….

  • “conservative Pelosi critics like CNN’s Lou Dobbs”

    Damn, I thought he was marketing himself as a populist these days!

  • harping on this story relentlessly for days

    What can you say? The mendacity of these people defies belief

    the very next day they demonstrate the paucity of my imagination.
    Huh?

    This whole rightwing noise machine schtick is becoming old hat and easily recognized.

    Sounds like what I think about the media and
    1. Global Warming – Greenland, why did they name it that 1000 years ago?
    2. WMD’s – If I told you I was going to raid your crackhouse in 6 months’ would you still be making crack there? They were they and they know where they are now, will make a great October surprise in 08.
    3. Cheney hunting accident- I would much sooner hunt with Cheney then have Ted Kennedy give my daughter a ride home.
    4. Libby trial – He did nothing wrong and the trial will prove it but you already have your verdict in your closed minds.
    Shall I go on …na…you don’t care.. but you sound the same to me as I do to you …….waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

  • Isn’t Pelosi No. 3 in the hierarchy to the Presidency? If she can’t have adequate protection, then I think Cheney shouldn’t have it either. Let him fly commercial too.

  • The truth of this story never mattered to the people starting it. Its point was to plant an image of Pelosi as a snooty b**ch from California, throwing parties flying back and forth in a big plane. It’s important to the Republican Noise Machine to create these false images of Democratic wastefulness and aristocratic privilege, like Bill Clinton having a haircut and holding up air traffic to LA.

  • Sun Myung Moon brags about using his media to “influence” America. His preachers refer in sermons to “our media power” they must use. Moon wants a right wing, theocratic, homophobic, authoritarian nation and the WT has been pimping for just that the last 25 years using billions in overseas cash.

    It is obviously too late to save us from the horror Moon funded, molded and brought to power in 2000 but you want to cause a stir and educate your nation at the same time?

    It is really your patriotic duty to do this….

    Everyone should get behind an effort to make Moon, his organization and its media, including Insight and the Washington Times, register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The congressional investigation of his organization – the Fraser Report – proposed this 30 years ago. There is NO DOUBT he is a foreign agent, bringing in billions of overseas dollars to manipulate our political system. Again, Moon brags about doing that. His daughter in law said the money is laundered into the country by the bagful and the WP reported 70% of his cash for America comes form Japan. The courts in Japan say he swindles huge sums from the citizens of Japan. Moon tells his members not to consider themselves citizens of the USA or Japan or wherever but that they are citizens of Cheon Il Guk which is his one world vision, a world under his group’s influence.

    Why not push for the WT to register under FARA now?
    Don’t let Moon con you into being silent by his hiding behind a cry of religion. Moon’s is a political organization which has been subverting our political system.

    Don’t take my word for it…

    You can see three conservative editors of Moon’s media in 1991 proposing and giving the reasons why this should be done if you go to google videos and search “Cults and the media”.

    or go here
    quoting James Whelan, first editor of the WT from the panel discussion —

    “They (the Moonies) are subverting our political system. They’re doing it through front organizations–most of them disguised–and through their funding of independent organizations–through the placement of volunteers in the inner sanctums of hard-pressed organizations. In every instance– in every instance–those who attend their conferences, those who accept their money or their volunteers, delude themselves that there is no loss of virtue because the Moonies have not proselytized. That misses the central, crucial point: the Moonies are a political movement in religious clothing. Moon seeks power, not the salvation of souls. To achieve that, he needs religious fanatics as his palace guard and shock troops. But more importantly, he needs secular conscripts–seduced by money, free trips, free services, seemingly endless bounty and booty–in order to give him respectability and, with it, that image of influence which translates as power.”

    Moon’s followers know what they are doing, why is the American public not allowed to know?

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