Adam Putnam gets ripped by local paper for lying about Pelosi: "The Plane Truth"

[madfloridian]

This is a great and welcome editorial. It is past time this paper held the Congressman from the 12th district of Florida to account for his actions. He has shown his immaturity too often, and he has shown his loyal devotion to Bush too often. He is 32 years old, and already 3rd in line in the House GOP.

The Plane Truth

On Feb. 1, The Washington Times published a story, using anonymous sources, saying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had demanded "routine access to military aircraft" for trips back to her district in California. The story said Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, Pelosi's Republican predecessor, had used a military aircraft for trips back to his Illinois district after the Sept. 11 attacks. Subsequent stories in The Washington Times, again quoting anonymous sources, said Pelosi had also demanded a large aircraft capable of flying nonstop across the country.

Those stories caused Republicans to attack the new Democratic speaker. Within a week after the first story, Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, the chairman of the Republican Conference and third-highest-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, said her request represented "an arrogance of office that just defies common sense" and called it "a major deviation from the previous speaker."

The editors point out that Tony Snow was forced to apologize for this attack on Nancy Pelosi.

The trouble is that the facts are not what The Washington Times reported. On Feb. 8, White House spokesman Tony Snow held a press conference after U.S. House Sergeant-At-Arms Bill Livingood issued a news release saying he, not Pelosi, asked for the larger plane. "The fact that Speaker Pelosi lives in California compelled me to request an aircraft that is capable of making nonstop flights for security purposes, unless such an aircraft is unavailable. … I regret that an issue that is exclusively considered and decided in a security context has evolved into a political issue."

Snow called the reporting of the military aircraft "a silly story, and I think it's been unfair to the speaker. … I think this is much ado about not a whole lot."

Then the editorial goes on to emphasive emphatically who owns the Washington Times...

Putnam evidently developed an admiration for the reporting in The Washington Times, founded in 1982 by Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification Church and the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

They point out that Putnam never verified the story, and that he never did apologize. The editors even point out that he blamed the reporters for "sloppy" reporting in not verifying their sources.

Putnam's arrogance is so like that of the president whom he worships. He is so vain he may not even know this editorial is about him, to paraphrase Carly Simon.

It certainly took the editors long enough to go after Putnam, but I still give them credit. They have given him way too many undeserved kudos.

[tridim]

1. Putnam is going places in the GOP

In the near future he'll either be minority leader, or caught with a dead hooker while driving drunk.

[KingofNewOrleans]

6. Hey, in today's GOP

there's no reason he can't do both.

[madfloridian]

8. Heh heh.

How true.

:hi:

[pennylane100]

2. I believe he was the person that Barney Frank stamped on a few weeks ago.

Barney had the gavel and this person kept trying to introduce a subject that required a request for time, that would have been deducted from the total allowed for their side and Barney shut him down.

[madfloridian]

4. Here he is without his glasses....looks more like him.

That sounds like something he would do.



I detest the man.

[pennylane100]

7. He is too stupid to last long in the political arena.

His ego will not allow him to survive, he will self destruct within the next few years. And if I could bet on this, I would.

[Bucky]

3. Only 32. So I imagine his is a name we'll be saying thru gritted teeth for a long while

Did Putnam earn that position based on his service to the GOP or did they jump him over more senior members in order to have some young window dressing. This is the same job that JC Watts had, right? Well, Watts wasn't exactly window dressing--he was a true believer and was probably going places before he decided to go for the money instead.

[madfloridian]

5. Ties to religious right in the area....

campaigned in 04 in the local area churches with many major GOP for Bush.

Close to Hastert, brags that "Denmy" visits" his ranch. I once told his office to read the Vanity Fair article about Hastert, said it was on the newsstands. They simply have no clue about the level and depth of corruption. They have shut their eyes and minds so long.