Who’s right and who’s wrong?
Below we noted that the Washington Times story about Nancy Pelosi’s demand for a military aircraft for travel back to her district appears to be a crock. According to Thinkprogress and reporting in Roll Call, former Speaker Denny Hastert used a military plane for travel to his district. But the plane he used couldn’t carry enough fuel to fly nonstop across the country.
A Pelosi aide told Roll Call: “The Air Force determined that [Pelosiâs] safety would be best ensured by using a plane that has the fuel capacity to go coast-to-coast. All weâre asking for is what Hastert had.”
So this seems to be the issue: a military aircraft for the Speaker has been the rule since 9/11. But a larger plane is needed for Pelosi since she flies back and forth to California, not Illinois.
Okay, let’s move along.
Now, the original Washington Times story said that Pelosi wanted the larger plane so family and friends and staff and others could fly with her. But apparently that was false.
Now, Lou Dobbs has been whacking this story nonstop for a week or so on his CNN show. And he returned to it this evening with yet another segment by reporter Lisa Sylvester. And at the end of the segment he had this chatty exchange with Sylvester …
DOBBS: Lisa, let me see if I’ve got this right. She wants a plane that accommodates 42 people, private stateroom. And the reason is because she wants to be able to go nonstop from Washington to the West Coast? My goodness, she could have done that in the plane that Hastert was using (italics added).
SYLVESTER: That’s exactly correct, Lou. You’ve got that. It would be 42 people, and clearly she won’t be the only one on this plane. She wants to have members of the congressional delegation. And her critics will say, look, this is a very nice perk that she can share with her colleagues and use as leverage, should she need to.
DOBBS: Well, it’s really a fascinating thing: 42. She could take a circus with her, for crying out loud. All right, thank you very much, Lisa Sylvester.
Now, this whole issue is silly. But Dobbs and Co. has been on it for like a week regurgitating the bogus Washington Times piece. And here he says that the Hastert plane actually could fly coast to coast.
Does he know something everyone else doesn’t?
Or did he just make that up out of whole cloth?
Many consider it poor form to point out these small-ante falsehoods. But this is how the Obama-Madrassa story got jazzed all over the place.
