MORE WAST, ABUSE AND FRAUD FROM DEM SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI

[John Henry Moore]

Pelosi's climate air farce

 

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a large delegation on at least two Air Force jets to Copenhagen for the climate summit -- where participants harshly condemn the use of jet airplanes for the high amounts of CO2 they emit.

"This may be the largest congressional delegation I have ever heard of," said a source at the 89th Air Wing stationed at Andrews Air Force Base of the trip to the UN summit, which is increasingly being criticized as a farce.

Using her authority as speaker, Pelosi reserved at least two jets based at Andrews AFB to fly her and her delegation to Denmark for the final days of the two-week conference.

NANCY PELOSI Burning lots of jet fuel.

But Republicans on Capitol Hill and the 89th Air Wing source said Pelosi actually reserved five planes to carry a delegation that includes as many as 24 Democrats and six Republicans.

At a time when Democrats are grappling with a host of major issues from health-care reform to the financial crisis, Pelosi planned yesterday to clip short the workweek to make the climate summit.

"Climate change is a religion for them, so there was no way they were going to miss this," said one top GOP aide. "This is their Hajj."

A Democratic source insisted that the delegation would be using just two planes but would not specify further.

While the final manifest remained in flux late yesterday, it was said to include more than two dozen members of Congress, several spouses and committee staffers.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) was among those planning to go because of his duties as chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, a staffer told The Post.

"We all know that Charlie Rangel is a big fan of subsidizing his vacation with taxpayer money, but the truly offensive aspect of this is Nancy Pelosi's decision to bring the corrupt Harlem Democrat along for the ride," said Republican spokesman Ken Spain.

The 89th Air Wing's biggest planes are the military versions of the Boeing 757 and the Boeing 737.

The 757 carries 45 passengers and costs more than $10,000 per hour to fly, according to Air Force figures.

The roundtrip cost to Copenhagen and back for the C-32A would cost taxpayers $160,000.

The 737 carries 26 passengers and costs about $7,500 per hour of flight time, bringing the costs of a Copenhagen jaunt to $120,000.

The smaller Gulfstreams hold 12 passengers apiece, but only the Gulfstream V has the range to reach Copenhagen from Washington without refueling. It costs more than $4,300 per hour to fly, bringing that taxpayer tab to more than $68,000 for a weekend in Copenhagen.

These figures do not include the cost of keeping the planes and flight crews on the ground in Copenhagen.

[John Henry Moore]

This story did not include the fact that she took her grandchildren with her at tax-payer expence. Nor did it iclude the fact that she padded her government travel voucher to cover meals and incidental (MIE) expences for the kids. All at government expence. Ms. Pelosi U.S. Government travel vouchers should be examined for fraud. It is a FEDERAL FELONY to falsify a government travel voucher. (Title 18 USC Section 1001).