Friday

More unsurprising hubris from members of the administration

Honestly. Are they really so stupid as to think that no one would catch on to this, or do they seriously just not give a shit anymore?

(via McClatchy)

Attorney general's private trips have cost taxpayers $155,800


Compared to the usual level of wasteful spending from administration officials, $155,000 is like a tear drop in the ocean; however, it's not so much the money that bothers me. It's the sheer audacity of these people, and the fact that they never apologize for, or make any attempt to hide their arrogance. They constantly kick the American public in its metaphorical nut sack while Congress sits around debating how much of a pay raise to give themselves.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has taken personal trips on government jets almost every weekend since he took office less than a year ago at a cost to taxpayers of more than $155,800, Justice Department and Federal Aviation Administration travel records show.

Mukasey took so many personal trips on FAA, FBI or Drug Enforcement Administration planes that he was out of Washington for almost half or more of February, May, July and September, according to the records...


Guess he must have taken a class on workmanship from his boss...

Roll out the defenses:

Justice Department officials defended Mukasey's personal travel, saying he has no choice but to fly on a government plane to see his family. Mukasey, unlike most other cabinet members, is required to fly on government planes, rather than commercial ones, for security reasons.

"When he travels personally, the attorney general pays what any other government official would pay for a commercial flight to that location," Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said in a statement. "It would be unfair to penalize financially the attorney general because he is one of the few government officials required to use government aircraft for all travel."


I agree. I would be unfair, but...

For example, the attorney general reimbursed the Justice Department $128.80 for a round-trip ticket to New York. The actual cost to the government, according to the department: $4,021.32.


Ohhhhhhh!

In February, Mukasey flew to Orlando, Fla. with his wife and four other relatives. Under travel regulations, officials who are required to travel by government aircraft are permitted to take relatives with them as long as they reimburse the taxpayers for the equivalent coach fare, which Mukasey did, officials said. For that trip, he paid $2,173. The actual cost to the government, according to the Justice Department: $12,250.


Double-ohhhhhh!

And then there was this outstanding display of anatomical knowledge from a Pentagon spokesperson:

During the same time period, Defense Secretary Robert Gates took fewer than six personal trips, and he also reimbursed the government at coach fares...<snip> but spokesman Bryan Whitman said that, "you can count on one hand" the number of personal trips Gates took in fiscal 2008.


I hope you can count fewer than six trips on one hand because if you can count more than six on one hand you've got a pretty serious condition that you might want to get checked out.

I could keep going, but I think I'll sit here at my desk and just shake my head for awhile.

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