Incoming Speaker Takes Commercial Flight, but Skips the Pat Down

[FarCenter]

By JEFF ZELENY
Published: November 19, 2010
WASHINGTON — Representative John A. Boehner, the soon-to-be Republican speaker, pledged recently that he would fly commercial airlines back home to Ohio, passing up the military plane used by the current speaker, Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat. But that does not mean he will endure the hassles of ordinary passengers, including pat downs and other new security screenings.

As he left Washington on Friday, Mr. Boehner headed across the Potomac River to Ronald Reagan National Airport, which was bustling with afternoon travelers. There was no waiting for Mr. Boehner, who was escorted around the identification-checking agents, the metal detectors and the body scanners, and whisked directly to the gate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/20/us/politics/20boehner.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a24

[BrklynLiberal]

1. typical hypocrite...er ..repuke. Oh well..same thing.

[hobbit709]

2. Rules are for everyone else.

not for the elite.

[northoftheborder]

3. All leaders now able to go around security pats & xrays....

.....should have to endure at least one naked picture and groping session so they know what it is like.

[hobbit709]

5. Publicly

[peekaloo]

4. No lemon squeeze on Agent Orange Man.

all you gets is a hand full of sticky and it's the pits.

[ejpoeta]

6. that's ok. as soon as no one is looking my bet is he will forego the commercial flights.

[dragonlady]

20. The reason Nancy Pelosi took government airplanes

was that the Sergeant at Arms of the House requested, for security purposes, a plane that could fly nonstop to California. She was fine with flying commercial. (Note that Hastert before her used an Air Force jet to go home to Illinois, but that apparently wasn't a scandal.) The idea of flying the Speaker on military planes came about after 9/11 because the Speaker is next in line after the VP. Since Boehner isn't Speaker yet he doesn't qualify for the transportation and it's just PR to point out his commercial trip now. I think you're right that he will "reluctantly" go along with the decision of the Sergeant at Arms for the good of the nation after he takes office.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. And his entourage?

I thought Pelosi needed that ginormous plane for security reasons. :shrug:

[howaboutme]

8. Until the elite must endure TSA

and being treated as a piece of beef, and cattle chute and with probing and radiation and strip search scanning, it will continue. Instead the true elite fly around at their leisure subsidized by taxpayers in private or military aircraft. General aviation is subsidized by commercial tickets.

The only end will be when we decide to address terrorism politically. We need to discuss why they "hate us" and why Americans are losing liberties and bankrupting our country and according to guy that did it (Osama Bin Laden) it isn't about what our politicians say which is our modernist society and our freedoms.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE58D0CX20090914 11-2010

http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0927/p1s1-wogi.html 9-27-2001

[City Lights]

9. Asswipe.

Double-standard Rethuglican. TSA gropings are for us little folks.

[DailyGrind51]

10. He did TSA a big favor! Would you want to pat Boehner? (That didn't sound right?)

[DebJ]

11. An angry Dem with access to his cajones? Ha ha ha. n/t

[Octafish]

12. Remember when Ashcroft stopped flying commercial?

It was July 2001 and the AG's reported his security team had made a "threat assessment."

Wonder what that could've been?

[howaboutme]

16. He got the memo, the US public didn't.

Instead we get the never ending bill of lost American liberties and never ending wars. But no one wants to discuss root cause or arrive at a solution except to pour more money into companies trying to mask the symptoms. Even here we focus our discussion on Boehner.

[Poboy]

18. +1 -Wonder what that could've been?

"Don't let them fool you, folks"

[Hawkeye-X]

13. No. He has to go through the grope sessions 5 times a day at the airport

as a punishment for lying to the public.

Hawkeye-X

[Ghost Dog]

14. And what if someone stashes a 'device' in this guy's clothes

or carry-on, surreptitiously?

(Or on any so-called VIPs who get such treatment?)

[CanonRay]

15. This is the problem with Washington

the rules they make are not for them, just us. And I'm talking both parties.

[howaboutme]

19. AC

absolutely correct. Until they experience life as average Americans do, things aren't going to change except at the edges. They need to fly commercial. They need to pay for their health care. They need to be held more accountable to corruption than average Americans and face mandatory sentencing. They need stand up for the USA and for beliefs and not what big money pays them to do.

[awoke_in_2003]

21. +1 Billion. nt

[lame54]

17. Would you want to pat down a guy named Boner?

[eppur_se_muova]

22. Screenings are for little people. nt