Pelosi's Plush Pricey Plane or, Murtha's Menacing Message

Speaker of the House Pelosi has sought from the Air Force a plane to use for official business. The Air Force has, since September 11th, provided an aircraft for the Speaker of the House. The Speaker follows the Vice-President in line of succession to the President.

There is little question the Speaker of the House should have such a plane. The problem is, Speaker Pelosi reportedly demanded a 757!

The 757 has 42 seats alone for business class. With a crew of sixteen, it would cost $300,000 per trip to Pelosi's district or $600,000 round-trip. The round-trip costs to and from Washington DC if taken weekly as is common would cost taxpayers about $30,000,000 per year.

Dennis Hastert, the prior Speaker of the House, was furnished and accepted a Gulfstream.

The Democrats' mantra pre-election was that they were going to clean-up Washington. It seems they really are cleaning up because in addition to Pelosi's demands, Rep. John Murtha who has had significant ethics troubles of his own in the past, ominously released a statement reminding the Air Force who is in charge of the Air Force's budget.

Tony Soprano couldn't do better than this crowd.