Even as the House was promising last week to cut down on perks in exchange for a pay raise, old habits were asserting themselves. Speaker Thomas Foley was embarrassed to learn about an amendment slipped into the defense-spending bill that required an Air Force C-20 jet be made available to him at all times. A military version of the Gulfstream III, the C-20 carries just eight passengers and is serviced by a crew of five.
But Foley had not asked for an Air Force Three (the President and Vice President have much larger jets). Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha had inserted the...