Every so often one gets a glimpse of how the Sunday shows (much like the morning shows) are a very different beast when it comes to budget constraints in the otherwise tight-fisted world of TV news.

Brit Hume's Political Grapevine took a dig last night at rival ABC's weekend excesses:

Newsweek senior editor and Washington Post heiress Lally Weymouth threw a Fourth of July party in the Hamptons on Saturday, and invited such guests as New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer. ABC wanted Schumer to appear on its Sunday show--live from Washington the next morning, but Schumer didn't want to miss the party.

No problem. ABC chartered a plane to pick up Schumer in the Hamptons early Sunday, fly him to Washington so he could be in-studio, and then fly him back to the Hamptons later that day.

An ABC source adds more detail and explains why this morning: "We could have hired a satellite truck to do a live shot from the Hamptons, but it actually would have been more money."

Besides the network prefers to have its guests in-studio as it improves the flow and the give-and-take, and "This Week" already had Senator John Cornyn in-studio so having Schumer remote was to be avoided if possible.

Thus given the choice and the limitations of commercial flights from the Hamptons to D.C., the private plane actually seemed the better idea. (Remember that the next time a cable channel offers to send a sedan to pick you up as a guest--ask for the charter flight to the Hamptons instead.)