"Pelosi One"
Greg Tinti
If you haven't been following the Pelosi-airplane story, the long and short of it is that San Fran wants a plane that can travel back and forth from Washington, DC and her home district without having to stop to refuel. Unfortunately, the C-20 which Hastert used when he was Speaker is not always able to make the trip cross-country, depending on the headwinds.
Thus, according to various Republican officials, Pelosi requested a C-32--"a luxurious and specially configured version of the Boeing 757-200 commercial intercontinental airliner" with 45 seats, accommodations for 16 crew members, "a communications center, a fully enclosed stateroom for the primary passenger, a changing area, a conference facility, an entertainment system, and a convertible divan that seats three and folds out to a bed." Hence, the title "Pelosi One."
But Pelosi's office denies that she requested a C-32 and instead say they simply requested a plane capable of traveling to and from Washington and San Francisco that doesn't need to stop to refuel. At one point, John Murtha came to Pelosi's defense and threatened the Pentagon saying that people there were "making 'a mistake' by leaking information unfavorable to the speaker 'since she decides on the allocations for the Department of Defense.'"
Now, ABC News is throwing more fuel on the fire by reporting that a source "close to the controversy" says that the Pentagon has "rebuffed Pelosi's request" and offered her the use of the C-20. ...
I'm sure some bloggers, on both the left and right, are outraged about something about this story, but the bottom line is that there's a common sense solution sitting right in front of everyone's face. ...
