Pelosi Plane Report Factually Incorrect

Yesterday the Drudge Report, FOX News and Political Machine ran articles about a report put out by the conservative group Judicial Watch that claimed that Nancy Pelosi had abused her privileges with Pentagon supplied aircraft. Well, not so much, it turns out. ABC , echoed by Politico have both now looked into the matter and found that the actual record finds no such evidence of abuse. In other words, the claim that Pelosi is acting in an "unprecedented" manner is a bunch of hogwash.

In fact, it appears that Pelosi uses military aircraft less often than her predecessor, former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

Judicial Watch also pushed an often repeated rumor that Pelosi demanded use of a jumbo Air Force C-40, out of a desire to travel in style, I guess. But, again, the facts show that no such trips are on record.

Pelosi did not make any domestic trips on a C-40 during the 23-month period from January 2007 to November 2008. Her trips to San Francisco have all been on smaller executive aircraft, usually an Air Force C-20...

Nor is there any evidence that last-minute cancellations cost taxpayers large sums of money. Nor that Pelosi's staff had tried to arrange for a C-5 aircraft for Pelosi over 2007's Memorial Day recess. Judicial Watch's report, in other words, reads like work of fiction. While some may not agree with the post 9/11 order giving the Speaker of the House the use of military travel, accusing Pelosi of abusing this arrangement seems to be--shocker--just a tad inaccurate.

Here are a couple more contextual articles by Newsweek, and Factcheck.org.