This would be a major scandal ending in resignation if Mnuchin was in a Democratic administration:
Secretary Steven Mnuchin requested use of a government jet to take him and his wife on their honeymoon in Scotland, France and Italy earlier this summer, sparking an “inquiry” by The Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General, sources tell ABC News.
Officials familiar with the matter say the highly unusual ask for a U.S. Air Force jet, which according to an Air Force spokesman could cost roughly $25,000 per hour to operate, was put in writing by the secretary’s office but eventually deemed unnecessary after further consideration of by Treasury Department officials.
As always, IOIYAR.
Hunter Gathers
Just another upper-class cheapskate.
Betcha he steals all the towels and soap when he checks out of the hotel.
Baud
I almost wish he had gotten the jet and this came out afterwards.
zhena gogolia
These pigs. I wish they would all go up in a puff of smoke.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
But why? Mnuchin is worth a gazillion dollars. He has to own his own jet, right? He’s a movie producer. What movie producer doesn’t have access to a private jet?
Seanly
I don’t think it’d be all that impressive to whisk my new bride off to Paris & Milan in the cargo hold of a C-130. Especially not one as bitchy about money. “Here I am strapped down by the cargo ramp in my Hermes shoes & Oscar De La Renta lingerie”
Gretchen
I thought so! That was one of the things that his awful, stupid wife said to that mom in Oregon: “Did you think the US government paid for our honeymoon or personal travel?” When I saw that, I thought “I bet they tried that! I wonder if they got away with it!” I’d never have thought that if she wasn’t stupid enough to bring it up herself, and it sounds like it struck some government auditor the same way.
efgoldman
Folks with huge fortunes didn’t get it by spending it.
(*) What ever happened to “request”? It’s a perfectly cromulent English noun.
rikyrah
Uh huh
Uh huh ??
Not surprised
Davebo
Mnuchin could easily afford an easy jet charter but hey, that wife isn’t going to fuck him for free and she’s expensive!
Gravenstone
Didn’t his Missus make some crack about people thinking they had the government pay for their honeymoon? Apparently not for lack of trying.
khead
I just went through ethics training where we argued about how to spend $10 on a lunch for our boss.
Fuck this shit.
khead
Also, have some kittehs.
schrodingers_cat
He wanted to impress trophy wife # n, where n>1.
Seanly
@khead:
Where do you work that the employees buy the boss lunch?
Corner Stone
No, Katy. Even with journalists it is still just propaganda.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: as is ask.
Corner Stone
@khead: Sorry. What?
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
It reminds me of Stillman taking the bimbo to see the EM-50 in Stripes.
Gravenstone
@Corner Stone: Yeah, pretty much what I was screaming at my TV.
khead
@Seanly:
USPTO. I like my boss. That’s not really a problem.
But I just went through an ethics training session where we discussed hypotheticals in which we couldn’t even have lunch with the boss – meanwhile this jackass wants a fucking plane while I have to sweat a $10 expenditure.
efgoldman
@Gravenstone:
But they never listen! mrs efg has the same problem
Ruckus
@khead:
I worked for a sub of a company that put out the memo that if you travel on the company dime your food budget for the entire day, was $12.00. Total. For 3 meals. I told the CEO of the company that I worked for that if I had to limit myself to $12/day for food, it would be my last day. He just laughed and said pay no attention to that bullshit. People that worked for the parent co could only get reimbursed for that $12.00. This was in this century.
Raoul
Fuck this. I’m sick to death of all the “if this were Dems/Obama/whatever, it’d be hell”. OK. WE have to bring the hell. That’s what the GOP figured out a long damn time ago. Fuck civility. Fuck being policy wonks. Fuck meritocracy, flip over some g-d dammed police cars if we have to!!
Major Major Major Major
@Raoul: the only angry democrats who get media attention are the ones angry at other democrats. The problem is more than the fact that many of us are civil.
James Powell
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
I don’t know if the stories were ever shown to be true, but back in the day, the word was that Kissinger would take his dates into the situation room.
Corner Stone
@Raoul: Along those lines, but less extreme, there should be a major outcry that Sarah Sanders be fired for promoting – from the WH podium – the idea that the DoJ investigate/prosecute Comey.
efgoldman
@Raoul:
A-fucking-men!!
Villago Delenda Est
These people need a tumbrel ride.
randy khan
@Gretchen:
This story puts that comment in a whole new light. She wasn’t being sarcastic; she actually was bitter.
efgoldman
@Villago Delenda Est:
Not enough equipment. We need to get the tumbrel assembly lines a third shift.
Oatler.
“Guillotine!” gurgle “Guillotine!”
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Major Major Major Major: An unappreciated facet of the hack gap; the hack traits that reinforce right-wing unity mainly just foster division on the left spectrum.
efgoldman
@Major Major Major Major:
The verbing of nouns (and nouning of verbs) is a fingernails on the blackboard pet peeve.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@efgoldman: We can rent huge-ass woodchippers as an alternative.
Lalophobia
Looks like the vice is closing on Flynn.
This all might have something to do with why he was so eager to make a deal.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: as the calvin and Hobbes strip concludes, verbing weirds language.
Steve in the ATL
@efgoldman: is that allowed? Is there a shift differential? Do we have to recall surplused employees before hiring from the outside?
Gonna need to review the collective bargaining agreement before we proceed.
Corner Stone
@Steve in the ATL: Sorry. Union lawyers are somewhere in the upper middle tier for the riding order.
Villago Delenda Est
@Lalophobia: The vice squad? Or a his head will soon be in a vise? Either way, it works!
Steve in the ATL
@Corner Stone: union lawyer? Why, I will sue you for libel. I am a management lawyer!
Wait, that gets me on the tumbrel sooner? Never mind!
debbie
@efgoldman:
Let’s unpack that.
(I hate some of these new word usages.)
No Drought No More
Not to excuse Mnunchin, but Air Force planes need to fly in order to stay properly maintained. They can fly in circlers, or to any point on the planet, but they need to be flown on a regular basis in any event.
Besides, it’s not like secretary Mnunchin accepted a vicuna coat for his wife from a lobbyist, is it?
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
You should author a book on that subject. I’ll send out the invites to the launch party and suggest that invitees gift you with hand-made items they architected themselves.
efgoldman
@debbie: It started in tech: “Impact” as a verb….
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne: you are evil
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: Architected. Perfect.
Jeffro
Funny, DougJ, I was just listening to a RHCP mix today – it didn’t have that song in it, but there were some other good ones I hadn’t listened to in a while. Ah, the Chilis…
Corner Stone
@Steve in the ATL: Ah! I have successfully drawn the quarry out! Come, my friendly proles! The hunt is afoot!
debbie
@efgoldman:
And why suddenly does everything have to be curated?
Corner Stone
@debbie: A phrase I hate more than that is, “run the traps on that for me”.
chopper
@khead:
yeah, we had a lot of questions in that training. “so if my SPE has a kid, what exactly can I get him again?” reminds me of when my director took me out to lunch and I was afraid of what to order.
Steeplejack
@efgoldman:
I was thinking the same thing, but I didn’t comment because I’m trying to reduce my pedant backlash.
Ditto for get, as in “It was a surprising get for the second-tier talk show.”
randy khan
@Lalophobia:
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Now we just need him to flip on his co-conspirators.
mainmata
Looks like the IG Office has disappeared in this Administration. Oh, they haven’t appointed anybody. Such bullshit this administration.
mainmata
@Raoul: Exactly. Democrats have to stop being polite but in Congress also need to be more ruthless.
Steve in the ATL
@debbie:
It’s not everything–primarily just bespoke and artisanal things.
Vhh
As Vlad would say, “let the peasants eat borshch.”
Vhh
Something tells me that Mnuchin and the GOP can kiss their tax cut, er “reform” plan good bye. Only question is whether this happens before he resigns to spend more time with latest trophy wife or after, and what his next divorce settlement looks like.
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: I don’t need to be curated, but I really shouldn’t be let out in public without a minder.
@Steve in the ATL: I am bespoke and artisanal
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I like artisinal curated meats, like your fancy Italian hams and such.
Aimai
@SiubhanDuinne: i love you.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Omnes Omnibus:
But are you locally sourced?
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack (phone): My parents (especially my mom) were pretty close by when I was born, if that helps.
MoxieM
@Steve in the ATL: “bespoke”: snort. What ever happened to hand-made, or, custom-made? What is this, effing Britain?
oh, perhaps that was the point. Time for bed!
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
@efgoldman: @SiubhanDuinne: I swear, I get emails at work that I literally cannot understand. I get substituting “ask” for “request,” “learnings” for “lessons,” etc. — they’re just swapping the noun and the corresponding verb in order to make themselves sound smarter than they are. Fine. I hate it, but at least there’s a sort of logic to it. But more and more lately it appears that they’re just stringing random words together.
Also, true story: at my job, the woman in Operations who manages the sales support staff changed the title of an org chart. When asked why, she didn’t say “The title was inaccurate.” She said, and I quote: “The title was not inclusive in its verbiage of the entire organization.”
Christ.
Mohagan
@Steve in the ATL: I was invited to a “Treasures Sale” held by my yoga studio last year as a fundraiser (basically a nice garage sale held inside) and yes, the items available had been “curated”. I guess that means someone threw out the absolute junk.
efgoldman
@Omnes Omnibus:
You have only their word for that.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: I have also taken courses in biology. Dad was in a closet changing into scrubs when the blessed event happened – I try not to inconvenience people too much, so I popped out quickly. The nuns thought I was cute – it was the green eyes and curls.
fuckwit
Shit like this makes me just give up.
Our fucking media is so useless. So is our law enforcement.
Poor black man? Life imprisonment for smoking weed.
Democrat of any race, color, age, or religion? You’d better be a cross between an angel an altar boy or we’re coming for your ass.
Rich white Rethug man? Steal to your heart’s content, nobody cares.
Corrupt to its core. The whole system is crashing down.
Omnes Omnibus
@fuckwit: You must be fun at parties.
ETA: You would also have been great at Gettysburg and during the Great Depression.
Tehanu
@debbie:
omg, “curated,” my absolute bete noire after “iconic.” (And in our house, no one is allowed to use the s-word [share] or the j-word [journey. I haven’t watched Family Guy for a long time, but I’ll never forget Brian backstage after his friend’s play, saying, “It was great. What a journey.” in the deadest voice you’ve ever heard].)
debbie
@Tehanu:
Same with “What a ride.”
tinare
Well, it’s not like Mnuchin had an expensive haircut that paid for out of his own funds or anything. That would be a scandal.