If these matters weren't so serious, it would be humorous to watch the Democrats wield their power in the clean, non-corrupt and open way they advertised prior to the election.

Late Wednesday afternoon, one of Pelosi's closest allies in the House, Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn., chairman of the key Appropriations Committee subcommittee on defense, told CNN that the Pentagon was making "a mistake" by leaking information unfavorable to the speaker "since she decides on the allocations for the Department of Defense."

To be fair to the Speaker, Dennis Hastert's district is in Chicago and hers is in San Francisco, so it is not unreasonable to request an aircraft that can make the trip non-stop and it looks like they can do it with a smaller plane than the C-32 (commercially known as a 757) she requested.

There are four types of planes available at the 89th Airlift wing, at nearby Andrews Air Force Base -- the C-20 Hastert once used, C-21s which are even smaller than the C-20 and thus not able to fly nonstop to San Francisco, and the fabled C-32.

There is also the C-37A -- a military version of the Gulf Stream 5, which is about the same size as the C-20, but is able to fly nonstop to California. One military source who asked not to be identified says that it may be that Pelosi and her aides were shown a C-37A and didn't understand that it was different and more potent than a C-20, since they look so similar.

Would Pelosi be willing to use a smaller plane than the lavish C-32 as long as it could fly coast to coast?

"Yes," said a Pelosi aide.

Let's just give her the G-5 and be done with this nonsense. It's not so much Pelosi's request that is unsavory, as it is Murtha's intimidation of the Pentagon. I seem to recall a while back some people complaining that politicians were coercing our national sercurity professionals into doing things they wouldn't have otherwise done. If only Murtha & Co. were as tough on terrorists as they are on the Pentagon.

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