Posted on 01/19/2005 5:47:38 PM PST by Libloather
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a70b8577a8c.htm
Clinton's Costly Vietnam Trip -- More than $63.5 Million
Source: Far Eastern Economic Review
Published: 2-1-01
Clinton's Costly Vietnam Trip
The massive cost of airlifting Bill Clinton and his entourage to Vietnam last year has ruffled some feathers in the U.S. military. The former president paid historic visits to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the former South Vietnamese capital Saigon, in November. Informal research conducted by officers and staff of the Strategic Assessment Centre and the School of Advanced Airpower Studies says 74 U.S. Air Force aircraft, including 26 giant C-5 Galaxy transports, were used to ferry secret service personnel, support staff and equipment to Vietnam for the one-week visit. The bill for the airlift alone came to $63.5 million, says a memo reporting on the investigation findings. The memo, which was headlined "Taxpayers and USAF get it one more time," compared this to a total airlift budget of $6.9 million for the Marine Expeditionary Force to move 27,000 marines and 3,000 tons of equipment and stores during the coming fiscal year.
----------------------------------------
And his 1998 China trip cost at least $40 million.
----------------------------------------
From CNN.com - 1/13/05
http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/13/inauguration.costs.ap/
The amount spent on this year's festivities will rival the $40 million raised to celebrate Bush's first inauguration in 2001, and will exceed the $33 million spent by President Clinton in 1993 when Democrats returned to the White House for the first time in 12 years.
While the partying is being paid for privately, there have been some mutterings about the scale of the celebrations at a time of war and natural disaster.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/elections/analysis19.htm
Analysis: Litigation May Prolong Process Into 2001
By David S. Broder
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 19, 2000; Page A1
A welter of legal possibilities combined with hardening political lines could throw the presidential contest into the new year, experts in both parties warned yesterday. Some observers said they feared a chaotic situation that could deprive the eventual winner of the legitimacy needed to govern.
Whatever the outcome of tomorrow's hearing in the Florida Supreme Court, lawyers for both Vice President Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush see possibilities for further litigation that could delay the awarding of Florida's crucial 25 electoral votes. Leaders of the Florida Legislature are eyeing a possible intervention, and the dispute could come before Congress in January-just two weeks before Inauguration Day-in a challenge to the state's electoral votes.
"It's a very scary thought," Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) said yesterday, "but I'm getting a sneaky feeling in my gut that Congress may get involved in it. If impeachment was difficult, this would be far worse."
Vin Weber, a former GOP representative from Minnesota, said, "I have become an extreme pessimist. I've wondered in the last day or two if we haven't crossed an important point where it's too late for anybody to step back. I'm afraid we're committed to a course of action that will do a lot of damage to the system."
Others in both parties hold out hope that the Florida Supreme Court will resolve the situation and that its verdict will be accepted by both Gore and Bush. But all indications yesterday were that Gore strategists are interpreting public patience with the 11-day-old impasse as an indication that the recounting of votes can continue at least until the Dec. 12 deadline for selecting Florida's 25 presidential electors.
Steelheart - 1992
I seem to recall that krinton's 'triumphal' visit to India and Africa (for no other reason than to get out of Dodge) had an entourage of over 90 aircraft. Seems to me somebody ought to download the documentation and jamb them down the pants or up the @ss of any RAT b@st@rd that has a problem with kicking out the stops for a historic Republican sweep. Hey, if it's really an issue, we can always take milk from starving inner-city kids to pay for it!
My question: Has Bush ever done anything this stupid? I do understand that all presidental visits entail dozens, if not hundreds of people.
Of course, the media had no interest in such petty details at the time. What was important was X42 dancing in a dashiki with the native chicks.
What a statesman!
hat a man of the world!
What a POS!
From the India/Pakistan trip I remember one picture of bill surrounded by hundreds of young girls. It was funny.
My facetious answer: Yes, Bush has done worse. He has allowed the Left to continue unfettered in their evil doing. Upon taking power, he should have slain the beast once and for all. In the end, allowing the Left to retain any lease on political life will cost us dearly in blood and treasure - far more than slick ever blew on his global chick cruising.
Oh yeah. He was squeezin' the maidens in Africa too. He's quite the world citizen, you know.
Hey, those were some of Chelsea's Christmas and Summer break vacation trips! Willie had to impress Chelsea to sho her that he was a better man than her real father, Webb Hubbell!
I feel sick ...
No doubt he had a good time in China as well. Who knows, maybe he was able to enjoy a PYT with a microphone in the ear to whisper to. Mr. Crinton's campain was great investment.
Hillary was there in disguise. What are you saying?
Hillary? Yeah, but she must be wearing a fake nose.
He probably doesn't know it, but those women are flinging moldy rat excrement all over him and laughing about it.
Well, at least that's what I would do.
An artist's rendering. (Gotta go with your intuition...)
Well, at least you got my mind off the helicopter circling above my neighborhood. She must be around a lot of second hand smoke.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.