McCaskill must learn from her mistake
Missouri’s U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill was wrong to charge a political flight on a private aircraft to her Senate account.
Taxpayers clearly should not foot the bill when politicians make fundraising and profile-raising journeys.
In this case, McCaskill used a private plane she owns with her husband and others in 2007 for a flight to Hannibal for a state Democratic Party event, then billed her Senate account $1,220.
She has since said this was an unintentional mistake and repaid the money. In fact, she went beyond that one political flight and repaid her Senate account for $88,000 she had billed for use of her aircraft on official business.
While billing for official use of her plane would be allowed, it should eliminate any notion of impropriety from her travels. As McCaskill has built a reputation on rooting out waste and corruption in government spending, this was also a necessary step.
In the future, there’s an obvious less-controversial way to go: fly commercial more often. And coach may be best.
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