|
Byrd Rips Bush’s Aircraft Carrier Use
Just wanted to let you kno how the "conscience of the Senate"- heh heh - felt about the Bush honoring of returning troopsWASHINGTON - Questioning the motives of a "desk-bound president who assumes the garb of a warrior," Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd on Tuesday reproached President Bush for flying onto an aircraft carrier last week to declare an end of major fighting in Iraq. "I am loath Byrd, 85, of West Virginia, is the Senate's most senior member and was one of the most outspoken critics of the Iraq war. Known as a porker of the first order, the former klansman said he was OK with it if it were Clinton, or if the carrier was named after him (Byrd) as is most everything in West Va., including canned goods. Dressed in a flight suit, Bush was flown onto the USS Abraham Lincoln on Thursday, his small S-3B Viking jet making a tailhook landing. The ship was near San Diego on its return from action in the Persian Gulf. With the sea as his backdrop, Bush announced that the United States and its allies had prevailed against Saddam Hussein. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Byrd's criticisms are "a disservice to the men and women of our military who deserved to be thanked in person." Any time Byrd speaks, breathes, and lives, is a disservice to our country "Senator Byrd did not support the president at the beginning of this, and it is no surprise that he does not support the president at the end," Fleischer said. "Senator Byrd is a patriot Byrd contrasted the speech with the "simple dignity" of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address during the Civil War. "I do not begrudge his salute to America's warriors aboard the carrier Lincoln, for they have performed bravely, ... but I do question the motives of a desk-bound president who assumes the garb of a warrior for the purposes of a speech," he said. He said American blood has been shed defending Bush's policies. "This is not some made-for-TV backdrop for a campaign commercial," he said. "Damn, I just wish we could have a Democrat president do that without booing or snickering" "To me, it is an affront to the Americans killed or injured in Iraq for the president to exploit the trappings of war for the momentary spectacle of a speech," he said. "It should be the french-looking haughty Viet Nam vet, John Kerry" Fleischer has rejected any suggestion that the landing was intended to provide campaign footage for Bush's re-election campaign. Earlier Tuesday, he also said Bush decided to land on the carrier on a jet instead of his usual helicopter because the president wanted "to see an aircraft landing the same way that the pilots saw an aircraft landing. He wanted to see it as realistically as possible." "Thank you Grand Kleagle, er, Senator Byrd, please wipe the drool off him, thanks" Posted by: Frank G 2003-05-06 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=13939 |