Friday, January 29, 2010

Missing the real significance

WorldNetDaily has a few pieces on how Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has evidently been running up a pretty hefty tab for food and liquor on her trans-continental flights that she apparently takes about weekly. It's interesting to me that JudicialWatch is apparently not clueing in on the real significance; $100,000 for food and drink, or even a few million for these flights, is chump change in terms of the federal treasury, and do we really worry about costs like this for keeping our elected officials safe? I don't, even as much as I disagree with Pelosi's stands on most issues.

However, $100,000 over the past two years for food and drink for these flights (and other amenities, whatever they may be) is far more than the Speaker and her staffers can reasonably consume--it's about $500 per five hour flight at a minimum, and the supplies are evidently being purchased in ordinary retail stores. We are not talking about carry-out from restaurants charging $100/plate.

The inescapable conclusion, in my opinion, is that Speaker Pelosi is inviting more than a few friends to ride with her, and hence I must wonder whether these friends are repaying the government for the flight and what access these friends are getting to Speaker Pelosi. Therein could lie a very real scandal. Is she trading access to this 757 for political donations or favorable coverage in the media, perchance?

7 comments:

pentamom said...

I agree that the potential for political favors is the biggest scandal in this story, but man, there's just something "not right" about spending that kind of money on that kind of thing quite apart from ethics issues. Even if it were theoretically possible for the Speaker and a legitimate amount of regular staff to consume that much, it would be living like ancient Eastern kings off the taxpayer, rather than living like decently provided for, well-protected officials. There's something seriously wrong with someone who can sleep at night while running up those kinds of charges on the backs of the taxpayers, even if it were possible that there's is no hint of corruption associated with it, and even if the elimination of it would do effectively nothing to relieve the taxpayers' actual burdens.

Not that we didn't already know there's something seriously wrong with Speaker Pelosi, but this is just another dramatic example.

Gino said...

what caught me: she once was bragging about her italian ethnic roots.

i happen to know something about that sort of thing, and i can tell you, italians do not drink like that, or with that type of stuff. its not in our culture.

methinks pelosi is really irish. and thats no compliment.

Gino said...

btw: is pentamom the handle mrs bubba goes by?

K-Rod said...

Pelosi is a wop and as such can't be trusted. Those dagos even brag that they are expert liars, but some people say they are merely the spawn of moors.

....

nope, I don't think 5mom is even related.

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On a serious note, folks, wouldn't an audit clear things up?

Gino said...

the spawn of moors come from sicily (of which i think pelosi is one).

dont confuse them with the rest of us.

pentamom said...

Nope. I'm someone who ran across Bert in another cyber location a few years ago, and tracked him down when he disappeared from there because I've always enjoyed his thoughts.

I'm a mom of 3 girls and 2 boys aged 8-19, and a Presbyterian. Bert mentioned elsewhere that I'm from PA. That's probably the pertinent stuff. :-) I'm sure Mrs. Bike is way less argumentative than I am.

Gino said...

yer pretty conservative for a presbyterian.

thanks for the clarification.