Pelosi using military jets for herself and family

[Sclamoz]

House Speaker’s Military Travel Cost the United States Air Force $2,100,744.59 over a Two-Year Period, Including $101,429 for In-Flight Expenses
Contact Information:
Press Office 202-646-5172, ext 305

Washington, DC -- January 28, 2010

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from the Air Force detailing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s use of United States Air Force aircraft for Congressional Delegations (CODELs). According to the documents, obtained by Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Speaker’s military travel cost the United States Air Force $2,100,744.59 over a two-year period — $101,429.14 of which was for in-flight expenses, including food and alcohol. The following are highlights from the recent release of about 2,000 documents:
Speaker Pelosi used Air Force aircraft to travel back to her district at an average cost of $28,210.51 per flight. The average cost of an international CODEL is $228,563.33. Of the 103 Pelosi-led congressional delegations (CODEL), 31 trips included members of the House Speaker’s family.
One CODEL traveling from Washington, DC, through Tel Aviv, Israel to Baghdad, Iraq May 15-20, 2008, “to discuss matters of mutual concern with government leaders” included members of Congress and their spouses and cost $17,931 per hour in aircraft alone. Purchases for the CODEL included: Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey’s Irish Crème, Maker’s Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewars scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey, Corona beer and several bottles of wine.
According to a “Memo for Record” from a March 29—April 7, 2007, CODEL that involved a stop in Israel, “CODEL could only bring Kosher items into the Hotel. Kosher alcohol for mixing beverages in the Delegation room was purchased on the local economy i.e. Bourbon, Whiskey, Scotch, Vodka, Gin, Triple Sec, Tequila, etc.”
The Department of Defense advanced a CODEL of 56 members of Congress and staff $60,000 to travel to Louisiana and Mississippi July 19-22, 2008, to “view flood relief advances from Hurricane Katrina.” The three-day trip cost the U.S. Air Force $65,505.46, exceeding authorized funding by $5,505.46.

“Speaker Pelosi has a history of wasting taxpayer funds with her boorish demands for military travel. And these documents suggest the Speaker’s congressional delegations are more about partying than anything else,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Judicial Watch previously obtained internal DOD email correspondence detailing attempts by DOD staff to accommodate Pelosi’s numerous requests for military escorts and military aircraft as well as the speaker’s last minute cancellations and changes.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2...ents-detailing-pelosis-use-air-force-aircraft

Its good to see the speaker is tightening her belt like the rest of us. Not to mention showing her concern for global warming.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

draining the swamp...

 

[Ozoned]

What are you? Some kind of troublemaker?

 

[Rockinacoustic]

Disgusting. Hopefully the people of California's 8th district wake up next election.

 

[Jiggz]

It's just how progressives roll! It's not what they do but what they say. Progressives truly believe they are the elite intellectuals and that everybody else including their constituents are inferior who deserves nothing but rhetorical orgasms! This is pretty obvious with SOB (Sotero Obama Barrack) whom conservatives thought he's out of touch with reality, he's not! It's just that's how he rolls!

 

[woodie1]

Does anyone think anything will be done about this? Not I.

 

[boomerang]

As a progressive, Ms. Pelosi is of the mindset that she is better and smarter than the average person. As such she is fully entitled to these perks. There is no such thing as excess for a person of her stature.

I raised this issue in a recent post here and was poo-pooed by both her ardent followers and like minded progressive thinkers. I now expect more of the same.

There are those of us that will just never understand. Curiously, we're the ones footing the bill.

Edit: Looks like Jiggz beat me to it.

 

[EXman]

Limosine Liberal... Limo of the skies! Too bad no hot slutty flight attendant will not serve her.

I heard she complained about her choices availible in jets as well.

 

[EagleKeeper]

If she can not have AF1, she has to have a G-5.

Civilian first class is below her stature.

 

[aphex]

Disgusting if true, but is there any other source other than Judicial Watch?

 

[kranky]

I am sure I have heard this about Pelosi (demanding use of military aircraft) going back a year or two.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Disgusting if true, but is there any other source other than Judicial Watch?

It has been reported in the news multiple times since she became Speaker

 

[Ozoned]

Disgusting if true, but is there any other source other than Judicial Watch?

http://www.google.com/search?q=Pelo...ox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7DKUS


460,000 links

 

[lifeobry]

http://www.snopes.com/politics/pelosi/jet.asp

 

[Ozoned]

http://www.snopes.com/politics/pelosi/jet.asp

This link has absolutely nothing to do with the OP. Did you read it?

 

[OrByte]

with the amount of crazies right wing republican hate mongers out there I am not surprised she takes extra precautions and flies only military aircraft.

 

[Sclamoz]

http://www.snopes.com/politics/pelosi/jet.asp

While I have no doubt the source is biased this article is newer than the snopes article and the claims in this one were baised from a FOIA request and the documents they got in return which you can see on the site.

 

[nick1985]

with the amount of crazies right wing republican hate mongers out there I am not surprised she takes extra precautions and flies only military aircraft.

Talk about grasping for straws...rofl

 

[Double Trouble]

Pelosi is the left wing equivalent of someone like Larry Craig or Mark Foley on the republican side. She's all for reducing emissions, curbing greenhouse gas use etc, unless it comes to her personally, she's obviously too important for such restrictions. She's for saving money for the "little people", but has no problem making them pay for her to blow millions on these little escapades with her family and friends.

In other words, a typical hypocrite.

 

[EXman]

Pelosi is the left wing equivalent of someone like Larry Craig or Mark Foley on the republican side. She's all for reducing emissions, curbing greenhouse gas use etc, unless it comes to her personally, she's obviously too important for such restrictions. She's for saving money for the "little people", but has no problem making them pay for her to blow millions on these little escapades with her family and friends.

In other words, a typical hypocrite.

this... unfortunately this is not an isolated case. These house members rip us off by the hour.

 

[EagleKeeper]

this... unfortunately this is not an isolated case. These house members rip us off by the hour.

Senate, cabinet and WH aides will also do this stunt.

They seem to think they are above the taxpayer :\:\

 

[Jhhnn]

Righties feeding their outrage addiction... Is this supposedly different than previous House Speakers? You realize she's second in line behind the vice pres in case something goes drastically wrong?

Righties probably realize that all too well, start twitching and foaming at the mouth at the very thought of President Pelosi... wonder how many would go into complete catatonic denial if that ever happened...

Mindless raving- par for the course.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Jhnn - do you condone such behaivor.

While she may be inline, does that excuse her actions.

the US has never has a Speaker of the House become President.

 

[MotF Bane]

Righties feeding their outrage addiction... Is this supposedly different than previous House Speakers? You realize she's second in line behind the vice pres in case something goes drastically wrong?

Righties probably realize that all too well, start twitching and foaming at the mouth at the very thought of President Pelosi... wonder how many would go into complete catatonic denial if that ever happened...

Mindless raving- par for the course.

So you're okay with corruption, abuse of power, and hypocrisy, is that it?

 

[Aegeon]

Its worth noting a substantial portion of the dollar figures are CLEARLY NOT simply from Pelosi A key point to note is that international CODEL trips are almost always bipartisan, so there is a genuine question how much of those expenses are related to House Republicans. The note about the Kosher policy in Israel actually had a valid purpose if you think about it, because pissing off a religious Jewish politician by giving him a drink he later finds out isn't Kosher would generally be considered clearly undesirable.

The throwing in the international and general Congressional trips the way presented allow Judicial Watch to massively inflate the expenses actually personally related to Pelosi. Perhaps Pelosi should be more aggressive about keeping costs down, but its unclear how much of those costs are actually about say Republican Congressmen "partying it up" and Pelosi not feeling it was worth creating further bad blood by effectively cutting off their bar.

As the Snopes article notes, the military flights are specifically a clear explicit security requirement since she is Speaker of the House, with Dennis Hastert also doing the same thing after 9/11. It costs more since she lives in San Francisco, but in of itself is in no way a reasonable reason to criticize Pelosi.

We frankly don't get enough clear evidence one way or the other from the biased Judicial Watch article to really decide to how free spending Pelosis travel really is. A related point is that the specific food expenditures for instance are probably generally decisions made by Congressional employees who are worried about keeping various member of the House and not merely Pelosi happy. There are valid reasons for Congressional delegation travel, and while we can question how often it is done in general, singling out Pelosi like that article does is pointlessly partisan. (There clearly are Republicans on these trips as well who may be equally partying it up if not more so for all we know, and its not like these sorts of activities are a new phenomenon.)