More on the Pelosi-Smear

Instead of paying attention to this story (about the Pentagon office allegedly shaping manipulating intelligence):

In a telephone interview Thursday, Levin said the IG report is "very damning" and shows a Pentagon policy shop trying to shape intelligence to prove a link between al-Qaida and Saddam.

"That was the argument that was used to make the sale to the American people about the need to go to war," Levin said. "And the idea that this separate intelligence assessment, which was wrong, which was distorted, which was inappropriate for the reasons given here (by the IG) is something which is highly disturbing."

Though if you were to look, the AP story is itself spun - it's not about whether the manipulation happened (it did and the IG report says it was "innapropriate") but about whether it was legal. Levin has something to say about that as well:

Levin also said it was a "red herring" to say that he or others in Congress claimed that any of Feith's activities had been illegal. Feith has said the accusation that he misled Congress was, by definition, a claim that he had acted illegally.

Between the lines, it's obvious that the report says the manipulation occured, but the MSM stenographers will (if they look at the story at all) insist it was OK, because the Pentagon, when investigating itself, found that it had done nothing illegal. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

That's if the media looks at the story at all.

No. Thanks to the rightwing smear machine and their friends in pliant media, we'll probably get more coverage of the debunked Pelosi plane story.

Debunked? But isn't she demanding an "Airforce III" so that she can fly all her political cronies wherever they want to fly? Isn't she demanding a extravagantly big plane so that she can fly home to get her hair done on an airport tarmac and stop commuter traffic just like Bill Clinton did in the early '90s?

Well no. From MSNBC:

The Air Force transport plane decried by Republicans as an extravagance for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was requested by the House sergeant-at-arms as a matter of security, he said Thursday.

“I regret that an issue that is exclusively considered and decided in a security context has evolved into a political issue,” Bill Livingood said in a news release. He said because Pelosi lives in California he was compelled “to request an aircraft that is capable of making non-stop flights for security purposes, unless such an aircraft is unavailable. This will ensure communications capabilities and also enhance security.”

The White House even chimed in. From yesterday's briefing:

Q You called the Pelosi plane issue a "silly story" this morning. Shortly thereafter the RNC put out a statement saying -- calling it "Pelosi's power trip" and that she's "non-stop Nancy seeks flight of fancy." Are you calling that --

MR. SNOW: Well, I'll reiterate our position. The question -- the RNC has put out a statement on Speaker Pelosi and travel arrangements, and I'll just repeat our position, which is, as Speaker of the House, she is entitled to military transport, and that the arrangements, the proper arrangements are being made between the Sergeant of Arms office in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Department of Defense. We think it's appropriate, and so, again, I think this is much ado about not a whole lot. It is important for the Speaker to have this kind of protection and travel. It was certainly appropriate for Speaker Hastert. So we trust that all sides will get this worked out. [emphasis added]

Even Newsmax quotes Snow:

The White House on Thursday defended House Speaker Nancy Pelosi against Republican criticism that her desire to fly in an Air Force transport plane is an extravagance.

"This is a silly story and I think it's been unfair to the speaker," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

But there is an interesting wrinkle to this now-debunked story. Hastert's use of the DoD plane. And the rightwing smear machine's convenient blindness to his political use of his DoD plane. From The Hill:

When Hastert was under pressure because of the exploding Mark Foley page scandal last October, he ordered an airlift at government expense to fly a lawmaker to Washington for the sole purpose of getting him to a press conference to help bail Hastert out of the jam.

Remember the Mark Foley scandal? No need to go into all the republican dirt on that one right now.

On Sunday, Oct. 1, Hastert’s team was scrambling to contain the escalating fallout from the Foley page scandal.

That day, Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), then the chairman of the page board, had gotten an urgent phone call from Stokke. The Hastert team wanted Shimkus to return to Washington immediately from his home in southern Illinois in order to appear at a press conference on Monday with the Speaker, and they did not want to deal with commercial flight schedules.

So at 8 p.m. that day, Shimkus arrived at the military side of the Scott Air Force Base near Belleville to board the Speaker’s jet that had been dispatched for him.
The plane then headed to an airport near Aurora, Ill., to pick up Hastert, who had been weekending at his home in Plano, before flying on to Washington.

But look at the text above. Hastert ordered aircraft at government expense to fly a lawmaker TO DC. And for a short while, Hastert wasn't even in the plane! All to get the guys to a news conference to discuss the resignation of a Republican Congressman found diddling teenage boys.

The media, of course, won't be mentioning that. Just the Republican spin on an already debunked story.