Let's Try Captain Kirk and Priceline Next Time
Monday, March 27, 2000
So, the bills for President Clinton's trip to curry favor with India are coming in: $50 million using over 70 Air Force aircraft.
These Presidential trips ARE expensive. Before Republicans jump on the President of the United States for wasting taxpayer's money, let's take a dispassionate look under our green eyeshades at the reasons so many airplanes were needed:
- Air Force I - 1 Plane
- Cigars and Bongos (outbound) - 1 Plane
- Cuban Cigars purchased in Switzerland (pre-set in Europe) - 1 Plane
- Cheetos and other items from the four major food groups - 3 Planes
- Mother-in-Law - 1 Plane
- Back-up disks for White House e-mails - 12 Planes
- White House junior staff - 1 Plane
- Press - 1 Plane
- White paint to disguise airplane - 1 Plane
- Disguised airplane - 1 Plane
- Decoy airplane - 1 Plane
- Decals for decoy airplane � Plane
- Real Secret Service agents - 11 Planes
- Disposable faux Secret Service agents for the decoy activity - 11 Planes
- Beer, box wine, and munchies for Disposable faux Secret Service agents -
3 Planes
- Entertainment for disposable faux Secret Service agents - 5 Planes
- Entertainment for POTUS - 0 Planes (see Mother-in-law Plane, above)
- Lawyers - 17� Planes.
[Think I made this up? See the ABC News analysis]
An item from the "This-Doesn't-Apply-To-Me" department: An AP story slugged Islamabad, Pakistan, quoted President Clinton as saying "Congress should give the Food and Drug Administration power to regulate tobacco."
In the transcript of White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart's press briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, the following question was asked: "Joe, did the President make any special purchases on his outing today -- in particular, the Swiss press is saying that he purchased some Cuban cigars?"
Lockhart, for the record, issued what was known during the Watergate days as a "non-denial denial: : "Well, as I chased behind the President in my normal vantage point of being five minutes late and huffing and puffing, he walked down to a park and walked back. So unless there was someone in the park selling these said items, I think it would have been impossible that he made the purchase."
Q: Did you buy any for him?
MR. LOCKHART: Did I buy any for him? No, I'm way too cheap. (Laughter.)
No one asked: "Were ANY Cuban cigars purchased on behalf of the President of the United States who is apparently preparing to demagogue the tobacco issue for partisan political purposes?"
There is a certain symmetry in the fact that Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba, a little over two years ago, was preempted on every newscast and on every front page by the outbreak of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal. Now, President Clinton's trip to India and Pakistan has been largely overshadowed by the Pope's remarkable trip to the Holy Land.
Monica Lewinsky, for her part, has hired a personal trainer. There has been much made in the tabloids about how much weight the former White House intern may have put back on. In an unfortunate use of language, the manager of the local health club which is supplying the trainer said they don't usually make house calls but are doing so in this case because, "She's high profile right now.'' Oh, thanks.
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