The Nation - News from Sept. 22, 1985

House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) accepted a free airplane ride from Beech Aircraft Corp. and will repay the company for the trip, a spokesman for O’Neill said. Chris Matthews said that O’Neill will reimburse Beech for the July 19 flight from Washington to Hyannis, Mass., at commercial rates. Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S. C.) also said that he had accepted a free trip in May from Page Avjet, the Washington distributor of Beech aircraft. In addition, Thurmond’s 1984 financial disclosure statement lists seven free trips from Page Avjet last year. Thurmond said he did not believe the free trips violated Senate rules.