John Boener, Flying High, Flying Often, Flying Free

By Lee Russ

Saturday, March 18, 2006 at 05:41 PM

John Boener, the new House majority leader, has his privately funded travel over the last few years detailed in a report on MSNBC, based on information in the recent report from the Center for Public Integrity.

--Accepted 42 privately sponsored trips from January 2000 to December 2005

--Listed only nine days of that as being 'at personal expense" although this put him on the road for a total of some six months, often to other countries and golfing hotspots, and often with his wife,

--Flew at least 45 times on corporate jets owned by companies such as R.J. Reynolds Tobacco (15 times), UST Inc., a holding company that says oon its web site that it owns major chewing tobacco and wine brands (seven times) and Swisher International Inc., one of America's, which says on its web site that it "ships billions of cigars each year to over 60 countries around the world" (seven times).

--Received more than $160,000 in food, lodging, transportation and other expenditures on his privately paid journey, from such sources as the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CSX Corp. and the Sallie Mae Foundation.

There's that Sallie Mae again.