The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Florida Republican Congressman Adam Putnam. He gets the award for the following.

LAKELAND - It was Tony Snow, the Fox News anchor-turned-presidential spokesman, who in effect ended the recent scandalette over whether the military plane that would fly Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi back and forth to California was too luxurious.

"This is a silly story, and I think it's been unfair to the speaker," Snow said, according to published reports. He was countering voices in his own party.

One of the most prominent was U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow. Putnam, the third-ranking House Republican, had pushed the Pelosi story aggressively the day before, both in print and on television.

"This is not about having secure communications and secure aircraft available to her. It's about an arrogance of extravagance that demands a jumbo jet that costs $22,000 an hour to operate to taxi her and her buddies back and forth to California," Putnam told Fox News.

It turns out there's no evidence Pelosi requested any such thing. A day after Snow's remarks, the nonpartisan House sergeant-at-arms released a written statement explaining that for security reasons he asked for a plane that could carry Pelosi nonstop to her home in San Francisco, a much longer distance than former Speaker Dennis Hastert, of Illinois, had to cover.

Putnam now acknowledges he had no personal knowledge of any Pelosi request. He said he was commenting on an anonymously-sourced story in The Washington Times and additional coverage from CNN.

"This was a classic case where the media got out in front of us," Putnam said. "Did we jump on it? Yes."

And he is unapologetic about that. He calls the Pelosi plane story, whatever its legitimacy, "the first break [Republicans] have had from the media in driving our message since before the Mark Foley story broke."

Congressman you shot your mouth off without knowing the facts. Par for the course in Washington but still wrong. Blaming it on the media instead of confessing your stupidity compounds your blunder and makes you Congressman Adam Putnam today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Note- I never blogged on the Pelosi plane issue. Mostly for the reason that former Speaker Hastert had been given the same privilige. This made both the reaction from Congress and some in the conservative blogosphere sound like whining sore losers to me.

Hat tip- Rick at SOTP.
Linked to- Amboy Times, Basil's Blog, Big Dog, Blue Star, Bright & Early, Cao's Blog, Jo, Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson, Planck's Constant, Right Wing Nation, Stuck on Stupid, Third World County,