Also known as “Promise Kept”
Politifraud, the self-appointed arbiter of “truth” has graded House Speaker John Boehner’s promise that he would fly commercial, unlike his predecessor, Democrat Nancy Pelosi who famously acted as though the U.S. Air Force was her own private airline. The grade from Politifact: “In the works.”
Here’s their research:
His spokesman, Michael Steel, told The Hill that Boehner had no intention of reconsidering a decision he previously made to forgo the use of a private jet for transportation to and from his Ohio district.
When we contacted Steel about this pledge, he said Boehner still flies commercial, and the only time he has flown on a military jet was for an overseas congressional delegation.
We also consulted the House statement of disbursement for members of Congress. That reflected a lump sum for travel expenses for Boehner"s office of about $66,000 for 2011, the most recent available. But that figure includes such expenses as taxis, parking and mileage reimbursement for all staffers in the speaker"s office and does not detail commercial flights taken by Boehner himself.
His spokesman says he’s flying commercial. They’ve gone through his travel records and have uncovered no evidence that he’s using military jets. The professional journalists apparently can’t be bothered to file a FOIA with the Air Force—which is how we found out about Air Pelosi.
So, they’ve got zero evidence that he’s not flying commercial. Zero evidence that he has failed to keep his pledge.
And the best they can muster is: “In the works?”
For an honest broker, this would be an easy call: “Promise kept.”
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[...] I saw this, as is the case with most analyses by Politifraud, I was suitably outraged, annoyed and disgusted. The professional journalists apparently can’t be bothered to file a FOIA with the Air [...]