Calling bull on ABC News & Time magazine’s apologists for Pelosi

Photoshop credit: Bucktown Dusty

Calling bull on ABC News & Time magazine’s apologists for Pelosi

By Michelle Malkin
March 12, 2009 02:09 PM
from Michelle Malkin.com

Lazy, lazy, lazy. Bull, bull, bull.

Time’s Karen Tumulty cites ABC News to prove that critics of Diva Pelosi’s air travel are blowing smoke. Both outlets pooh-pooh the controversy as old. ABC News, citing the JW release, shrugs that the e-mails were “from early in her tenure as speaker.”

It’s obvious that neither Tumulty nor ABC News read through the entire trove of documents. Instead, they rely on Judicial Watch’s press release — which included highlights, but obviously not all, of what was included in the FOIA request.

As I reported (yeah, we can do that, too, MSM), one of the most notable e-mail exchanges I found in the docs (which was not spotlighted in JW’s release, but could be found by anyone who actually clicked through on JW’s site to the actual records) dealt with Pelosi’s absurd demand in December 2008 (that’s just three months ago, not “early in her tenure”) that the military move her jet from San Francisco airport to Travis Air Force base (where she had “business” and where she just so happens to have a country home nearby in Napa 30 minutes away!) Queen Pelosi didn’t want to drive 1.5 hours. She demanded that the military come to her. DoD officials pointed out that this had never been done before — not even for the Defense Secretary.

Yet ABC News asserts that JW’s document release “doesn’t seem to prove the organization’s allegation that Pelosi has made ‘unprecedented demands’ for the flights.”

Let me repeat what I reported, since Time and ABC News missed it the first time around:

Three months ago, turmoil erupted over Queen Nancy’s demand for the military to reposition her plane to fly out of Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif., closer to where she had “business,” instead of San Francisco Airport/SFO (1.5 hours away). A special air missions official wrote: “We have never done this in the past. The deal is…that the Speaker shuttle is from DC to SFO and back. We will not reposition. We do not reposition for convenience even for the SECDEF. It is not [too] far of a drive from Travis to SFO. Did the escort suggest to the Speaker that this is ok? If so, I hope you guys correct them immediately. If you agree with me that I am correct, then you need to stay strong and present the facts to the Speaker’s office.”

Another official stated bluntly: “We can’t reposition the airplane such a short distance. It is not a judicial use of the asset. It is too expensive to operate the jet when there is truly no need to do so.”

A beleaguered colleague responded: “[Y]ou know I understand and feel with you…but, this is a battle we are bound to lose if we tell the speaker office. In the end, this is what will happen…I wish that I could say this is a one-time request, but we know it will probably happen again in the future.”

In the end, the military won that battle. But a few days later, Pelosi was back with a new demand: that her military plane taking her from DC to San Francisco make a stop in New Jersey to bring her and three Democrats to an “innovation Forum” at Princeton University involving 21 participants and no audience. A Gulfstream jet was secured for the important “official business.”

But who am I to actually read the documents and refuse to swallow the MSM Kool-Aid? If Time and ABC News tell me there’s nothing there, there’s nothing there.
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Will these whitewashers respond? Or will they ignore the truth to curry favor with N-Pelo?
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