NYT editorial: That’s the Latest

It’s no surprise that triumphant Tea Party politicians are seeking ranking posts within the incoming House Republican majority. But their likely speaker, Representative John Boehner, already has a problem with Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, the doyenne of conservative insurgents.

No sooner had Ms. Bachmann announced her challenge for the No. 4 leadership post — the influential voice as party conference chair — than she was on cable television feeding another of the right-wing myths that have become her signature rhetoric.

Her latest whopper claims — incorrectly — that President Obama’s trip to India will tie up an aircraft carrier and 33 other warships, cost taxpayers $200 million a day for 3,000 staffers booked into more than 870 rooms at the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, and so forth.

No president travels on the cheap. And certainly security must not be stinted. When asked what it all adds up to, the Pentagon first cited — for a change, not unreasonably — the policy that the logistics of presidential trips are kept secret. But as the din grew, Pentagon spokesman, Geoff Morrell, finally had to declare the tales were “just comical.” “Nothing close to that is being done,” he said.

(More here.)