SILLY SEASON ARRIVES SIX MONTHS EARLY….IS IT GLOBAL WARMING?….The continuing flap over Nancy Pelosi’s military jet accomodations is so knuckle-draggingly stupid that I can hardly stand to open the newspaper these days for fear of reading about it. But open the paper I did this morning, and it spurs a question. Here’s the dope on the larger military plane that everyone is complaining about:
Air Force officials say at least 21 people can theoretically request to use the C-40s….Those who can ask for the planes include the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Cabinet secretaries and seven commanders who oversee military operations around the world.
Now, Pelosi claims that she doesn’t need a C-40. She just wants something that can get her to California without refueling. But riddle me this: why is it that these supposedly luxurious aircraft are almost exclusively for the use of the executive branch? Is there some reason that the Secretary of Commerce needs the foldout bed and the communications suite but the Speaker of the House doesn’t? Why? Ditto for the Joint Chiefs. Seems to me that the top brass in Congress rate these perks every bit as much as the top brass in the executive branch. Maybe we should ditch these things and make everyone squeeze into long-range Gulfstreams.
