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OBAMA WATCH CENTRAL
Taxpayers pay $101,000 for Pelosi's in-flight 'food, booze'
Speaker's trips 'are more about partying than anything else'
Posted: January 29, 2010
12:20 am Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
Part of the tab for alcoholic drinks on a congressional trip arranged by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi |
It reads like a dream order for a wild frat party: Maker's Markwhiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goosevodka, E&J brandy, Bailey's Irish Crème, Bacardi Light rum, JimBeam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewars scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, JackDaniels whiskey … and Corona beer.
But that single receipt makes up just part of the more than$101,000 taxpayers paid for "in-flight services" – including food andliquor, for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trips on Air Force jets overthe last two years. That's almost $1,000 per week.
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Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Judicial Watch,which investigates and prosecutes government corruption, show Pelosiincurred expenses of some $2.1 million for her use of Air Force jetsfor travel over that time.
"Speaker Pelosi has a history of wasting taxpayer funds withher boorish demands for military travel," Judicial Watch President TomFitton said today. "And these documents suggest the Speaker'scongressional delegations are more about partying than anything else."
Pelosi, D-Calif., recently joined President Obama on a Judicial Watch list of Top 10 corrupt politicians because of her "sense of entitlement," the group said.
"Politicians believe laws and rules (even the U.S. Constitution)apply to the rest of us but not to them. Case in point: House SpeakerNancy Pelosi and her excessive and boorish demands for military travel.Judicial Watch obtained documents from the Pentagon in 2008 thatsuggest Pelosi has been treating the Air Force like her own personalairline," the evaluation said.
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And WND reported almost a year ago that Pelosi was shown to have been erratically canceling and rescheduling flights, as one would with an on-call taxi service.
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"We have ... folks prepping the jets and crews driving in (not ashort drive for some), cooking meals and preflighting the jets etc,"said one Department of Defense e-mail then.
Another official sent an e-mail questioning a series of Pelosi's requests for aircraft.
"Any chance of politely querying [Pelosi's team] if they reallyintend to do all of these or are they just picking every weekend?" itstated. "[T]here's no need to block every weekend 'just in case'..."
The e-mail noted that the speaker's office had "a history of canceling many of their past requests."
Yet another e-mail exchange at that time revealed Pelosi'sdemand that jets pick her up at Travis Air Force Base rather than SanFrancisco's airport.
"She lives about 1.5 hours from SFO and much closer to Travis.… Whether it is the best use of assets is not the question. But insteadis it worth upsetting the speaker. …"
Said another, "This is a battle that we are bound to lose if wetell the speaker('s) office. In the end, this is what will happen. Iwish that I could say this is a one-time request, but we know it willprobably happen again in the future."
Yet another indicated a deep level of frustration:
"Here is the laydown: there are five G5s. Two are broke. Two offon CODELS. One slated for priority White House… we should keep on G-IIIfor now for Tuesday afternoon and start sacrificing goats andchickens."
Judicial Watch said the newly obtained 2,000 pages of documentationshow Pelosi's military travel cost the U.S. Air Force $2,100,744.59over two years – including $101,429.14 for in-flight expenses,including food and alcohol.
Among the newest highlights revealed:
- Pelosi used Air Force aircraft to travel back to her district at an average cost of $28,210.51 per flight. Of 103 Pelosi-led congressional delegations (CODEL), 31 trips included members of the House speaker's family.
- One CODEL traveling from Washington, D.C., through Tel Aviv, Israel, to Baghdad, Iraq, May 15-20, 2008, "to discuss matters of mutual concern with government leaders" included members of Congress and their spouses and cost $17,931 per hour in aircraft alone. This flight included the purchase of the long list of alcoholic drinks.
- According to a "Memo for Record" from a March 29-April 7, 2007, CODEL that involved a stop in Israel, "CODEL could only bring kosher items into the hotel. Kosher alcohol for mixing beverages in the delegation room was purchased on the local economy i.e. bourbon, whiskey, scotch, vodka, gin, triple sec, tequila, etc.
Pelosi's office could not be reached for comment. The answeringmachine said the office would be closed until Monday, and the mailboxwas full, so no messages could be left.
Judicial Watch Inc. describes itself as a constitutionallyconservative, nonpartisan educational foundation that promotestransparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics andthe law.