Posted on 09/12/2001 8:38:05 PM PDT by kattracks
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WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 — White House officials said today that President Bush would visit New York City "at the first opportunity," but that he did not want to hamper rescue operations under way in Lower Manhattan. "We don't look at it as delaying it," said Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary. "We are discussing when it would be appropriate to go. The president has made it clear that he will go when he has the least impact on the rescue effort." Presidential trips almost always create traffic havoc in New York, even under normal circumstances. "Any time the president travels, it does create issues for people on the ground," Mr. Fleischer said. Mr. Bush visited rescue workers at the Pentagon today, but Mr. Fleischer said that was less intrusive than visiting the enormous wreckage at the World Trade Center towers. Mr. Fleischer made his remarks as Democrats and Republicans began to question why Americans had seen relatively little of the president in the immediate aftermath of the crisis, particularly as Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has filled the airwaves with multiple news conferences and words of condolence for the victims and their families. Former President Bill Clinton visited Oklahoma City to console survivors and praise rescuers after the bombing of the federal building in 1995, but not until four days after the attack. Mr. Clinton said he waited because he did not want to disrupt emergency efforts. Mr. Fleischer said Mr. Bush was eager to get to New York, which he has visited once in the eight months of his presidency. Mr. Bush only briefly mentioned the city in his address to the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday night and did not offer any condolences in that speech specifically to New Yorkers. Mr. Fleischer, who grew up in Westchester County, offered condolences on the president's behalf at a White House briefing today. "The president's heart goes out to those who live in New York, to the families who have lost loved ones, and to all New Yorkers, and to all Americans who look at New York and see a beautiful skyline that is now altered," he said. New York officials said today that they understood the president's delay in visiting Manhattan. They added that Mr. Bush had promised the city significant aid. "I spoke to the president and he told me it's a blank check," Senator Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat, said. "He's been really forthcoming and open about helping New York. He called me within three hours of the event. I believe he will be here in due time. He's been a real friend in this crisis, and we don't need people taking shots at him right now." Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of Manhattan, agreed with that assessment, saying: "Listen, this is not just an attack on New York but an attack on the United States. The president has told our two senators specifically that he's going to give all the help he possibly can to New York. "I wouldn't necessarily expect the president in the middle of an international crisis to come to New York. If he had been here it would have been nice, but I certainly do not criticize him. If he doesn't come within a reasonable time, then I will criticize him. But you've got to give him some slack." |
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While I laud Mayor Giuliani's many appearances, he is not tasked with planning a strike in retaliation for this atrocity.
And he EMPHASIZED that, for all his policy differences with the President, that he was backing him 100 percent, and that the President had, for his part, pledged New York all the help it would need in saving the wounded (and implicitly: burying the dead), cleaning up, and rebuilding.
See also:
This is like giving a crack head 100 rocks of crack. Libs love blank checks.
I support this though but I had to make the connection .
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