Bo is all, 'Is my car service here yet?'  (ap photo)

Heavens to water dog! The Internet is abuzz with reports that last weekend, when the Obamas went to Maine, Bo flew on his own private jet! In the news business we call this kind of story "too good to check." 

The rumor got started because a local paper, the Morning Sentinel, reported that Bo arrived "on a small jet" ahead of the Obamas, accompanied by Obama aide Reggie Love. The paper later clarified to say that Bo arrived on the staff plane.

But for some bloggers, the story of Bo's private jet was too good to check, and the outrage persisted:

From Blogmocracy:

(Complaining about the economy, immigration, leadership and now) we find out he had his dog Bo flown to Maine on a separate “small” jet before the incompetent imbecile and his family arrived in Maine.

And of course, there’s not a peep about this from the Obama-loving state-controlled media lapdogs.

Blogmocracy goes on to wonder what if former President Bush flew Barney around on a private jet. Instapundit also takes issue, then notes the original story suggesting Bo flew on his own, private jet wasn't true -- but still challenges reporters to ask about it:

I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ONE ... WORD ABOUT MY CARBON FOOTPRINT: “Arriving in a small jet before the Obamas was the first dog, Bo, a Portuguese water dog given as a present by the late U.S. Sen Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.”

UPDATE: Note the appended “clarification” to the story, which says that Bo didn’t get his own plane to himself, but was accompanied by other staffers. But reader Ed Stephens writes: “Do you think any reporter will have the nerve to ask Obama directly about flying the dog on a private jet?”

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader emails: “The first reporter that *does* ask about the dog’s private jet, will get immediate street cred (and Tea Party cred) that will send shock waves through the MSM.” But the lunch invitations will dry up.

Well, our lunch invites dried up ages ago. The problem with this story is that it's not true -- and that's why the reporters didn't ask about it. Bo flew on the government-owned staff plane with Bill Burton and everyone else. He couldn't fit on the tiny, Gulfstream Air Force One the family flew on. And yes, President Bush took Barney, Miss B and the cat on vacation all the time.

Politifact, the Snopes.com of politics, got their radar all up over the story and looked into it, as well:

We figured that at least some of the bloggers were being satirical, but from our review of reader comments that followed many of the entries, it's pretty clear that there are those who actually took this stuff seriously, so we wanted to set the record straight.

So, Bo did indeed arrive in a separate jet, but it's ridiculous to claim that he has his own airplane. He traveled on a government-owned plane with government staffers who didn't fit in the small Gulfstream G3 that the First Family had to take because of the physical limitations of the Trenton airport runway. We rate this False.

(Snopes called the story out, too)