Nancy Pelosi Rebuked Over Military Transportation Request; Media Ignores
From an e-mail sent by the House’s Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) that was later posted at his congressional web site:
WASHINGTON, D.C.-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s demand to have regular use of a luxurious C-32 for flights to her San Francisco home and other official trips was publicly rebuked by the U.S. House today via the Cantor amendment to the Advanced Fuels Infrastructure Research and Development Act (H.R. 547) by a vote of 385-23.
As originally reported in the New York Post, the aircraft has a game room, stateroom, showers, a communications center and seats 42 to 50 people and it costs taxpayers $22,000 an hour to operate, according to the Air Force.
“The request by Speaker Pelosi to have a private jumbo-jet is an extravagance that taxpayers should not have to pay for,” said Cantor.
Here is the roll call vote involved. The vote occurred at 5:07 PM on Thursday, February 8.
Before the 30-day window of Google News expires, let’s see how much coverage the rebuke received (searching on “Pelosi rebuke” and “Pelosi rebuked,” both without quotes; the first search was narrowed to February 7-11 to avoid hundreds of listings relating to the Iraq Troop Surge Resolution “rebuke,” as spun by the press, of President Bush) as of 9:30 PM on Sunday, March 4:
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That’s right. There isn’t any.
What are the odds that a rebuke to a similar demand by Newt Gingrich in 1995 (which, of course, was never made) would have been ignored?
Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.
Tom:
Here’s the specfic language from the bill:
“SEC. 8. ADDITIONAL FINDING.
The Congress also finds that in order to lessen United States dependence on foreign sources of petroleum, and decrease demand for petroleum in aircraft, such as passenger planes with 42 business class seats capable of transcontinental flights, the Nation must diversify its fuel supply for aircraft to include domestically produced alternative fuels.”
Comment by Porkopolis — March 5, 2007 @ 10:50 am