There are few things in life for which you don’t need a second opinion.

One is airplane travel. It sucks, right?

We’re all agreed – and we know it first-hand. We don’t need folks telling us the obvious. But some still do. Namely, politicians. They can’t help themselves but tell us what we already know – that it’s lousy to travel by air.

For instance, President Bush said last month: “There’s a lot of people that are worried about traveling because they’ve had unpleasant experiences when they’ve been flying around the country.”

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) observed in October: “…airline delays are at an all time high…”

And Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) last year reminded us: “Nothing is more frustrating than when an airline knows that a flight is delayed but doesn’t tell passengers until they are sitting on a plane and stuck with their ticket.”

Nothing indeed.

Air travel is one of those things that we all dread – and that ultimately has nothing to do with politics. Yet politicians want us to know they feel our pain. And our plane.

Which is all the more odd because politicians have so much to do with causing our pain.

Quick question: If you’re embarking on an airplane trip, what are you likely to see first when you go to an airport?

Obvious answer: The name, and perhaps picture, of a politician.

There’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. George Bush International Airport in Houston. JFK International Airport in New York named after President Kennedy (take your pick on that one by the way – it also could be John F. Kerry or Jack F. Kemp).

Heck, poor little Grand Rapids, MI, sports the Gerald R. Ford International Airport.

Airports are hardly the place for that rare creature known as the shy politician. Airports are not like, say, train stations, which feature such bland names as Union Station, Penn Station, Grand Central Station. Or this drab favorite from Philadelphia – 30th Street Station.

No, airports, those gateways to so much consumer frustration and anger, are an unchecked breeding ground for reminding us just who’s important in life: elected officials.

And the phenomenon gets even more fascinating when you consider all the posturing politicians do over maddening air travel – their own airports presumably excluded.

Consider Ted Stevens.

CNET news recently quoted the Alaska Republican Senator describing “a travel experience that involved a series of multihour waits because of late arrivals by the crew, the pilots and even the food that was supposed to be offered on board.”

Hopefully that didn’t happen at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

Or Trent Lott. He says, “Past incidents where passengers were delayed for several hours have given us a taste of what the aviation industry could be. The only real solution to the problems facing airlines is aggressive modernization of our antiquated air traffic control system in order to better manage our crowded skies.”

Make sense. Maybe they’re already doing so at Mississippi’s Trent Lott International Airport.

And surely an airport named after West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd is lurking around somewhere, right? Indeed: West Virginia’s Grant County Airport – Robert C. Byrd Field.

We learn this from the Cumberland Times-News:

“[Airport official Gerald] Sites said that the county must credit Byrd with much of the improvements to the airport over the years, including federal money for hangars, the terminal building and some state-of-the-art aviation equipment. ‘Very little county money has gone into the airport,” he said. With Byrd’s assistance, another 1,000 feet was added to the runway, bringing it to 5,000 feet and 75 feet wide.’”

There’s our national treasure, Robert C. Byrd, at his best. A county airport with “very little county money.” We bow to greatness.

Think vanity airports are solely the legacy of presidents and Congressional appropriators? Sure, something like the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport in Pennsylvania might make the case. But the Judiciary Branch also gets in the act. Prepare for arrival into Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Can Clarence Thomas International be far behind?

Even Cabinet Secretaries merit airports. Dulles International Airport is named after John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State under President Eisenhower. You can fly direct from Dulles clear across the country into Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport, named after the longest serving Secretary in the history of the U.S. Department of Transportation (yeah, we had to Google him to refresh our memory). You gotta love it when one member of the Cabinet connects to another.

Fly a bit further and you’ll land at Alaska’s Fairbanks International Airport – the city named for Teddy Roosevelt’s Vice President Charles Fairbanks. But don’t worry that TR got shortchanged when they were handing out airport names. He does have one — Dickinson Theodore Roosevelt Regional Airport — tucked safely away in North Dakota. Too cold for you? Then fly into Franklin Delano Roosevelt Airport in the Caribbean.

Now we get to the fun part. Mayors. Ah, mayors. No pothole too small to fill, no airport too large to use your name.

Of course, there’s the grandaddy of them all, New York’s constantly-congested LaGuardia Airport, where so many of our air traffic woes originate. Must have been much nicer to travel when Fiorello LaGuardia was mayor.

Likewise, share some blame for air travel delays with Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. It took two mayors to name that one: William Hartsfield and Maynard Jackson.

US Airways your preferred carrier? Then surely you enjoy transferring at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. Long-ago Charlotte mayor Ben Douglas’ name lives on in infamy there.

Mayors often become governors. So surely we need airports named after states’ top executive. Houston, already home to Bush Airport, sports a second politician: William P. Hobby Airport, named after a former Texas governor.

If you can’t get a whole airport named after you, it’s respectable to settle for the silver medal – terminals. Bush International in Houston also features the Mickey Leland International Airlines Building, named after the late congressman. Los Angeles International Airport has the Tom Bradley International Terminal, named after the late mayor. And Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport sports the Barry Goldwater Terminal 4.

Consider this quirk: Jimmy Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act in 1978, but doesn’t merit an airport. But the Senator who introduced the bill, Howard Cannon of Nevada has a terminal building named after him in Reno.

Of course airports named after politicians are one thing. Guaranteed flights are something far sweeter. It was recently reported that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pushed for a provision in a defense spending bill – defense! – that guarantees Senators the right to make multiple bookings for flights on commercial airlines, then choose the one that best suits their schedules.

Executive Travel magazine put it this way: “If members of Congress don’t seem to have a lot of sympathy for the plight of everyday airline passengers, it could be due to the special treatment they get from airlines.”

Actually, they’ve got ample sympathy. It’s just that they also have ample special privileges we wish we had. So when your flight this holiday season is delayed, have comfort in the fact that you’re probably cooling your heels – without a Senator in sight — at an airport named after someone you just might have voted for. Or against.