Byrd Blasts Bush's Aircraft Carrier Use

AP via NYTimes.com ^ | 05/06/2003

[GeneD]

Filed at 5:36 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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 to think of an aircraft carrier being used as an advertising backdrop for a presidential political slogan, and yet that is what I saw,'' Byrd said on the Senate floor.

Byrd, 85, of West Virginia, is the Senate's most senior member and was one of the most outspoken critics of the Iraq war.

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.

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.

``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.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer has rejected any suggestion that the landing was intended to provide campaign footage for Bush's re-election campaign.

On Tuesday, before Byrd's speech, Fleischer said Bush 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.''

[TomServo]

Let's take a look at Byrd's warrior garb...

Ahhhhhhhhhh yes...

[Exit148]

Did Byrd ever comment on that sorry fake display by Clinton at Normandy?

The other day, Rush compared the two activities, and it brought back that whole PR set-up by that sorry excuse for a President.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Byrd wanted the carrier for a KKK rally.

[Nachoman]

Of course its perfectly alright for John Glenn to take a joyride on the shuttle as a payoff from Clinton.

[Williams]

How can Bush be "desk bound" when he flew in a small military jet and landed on an aircraft carrier deck?

[FreedomCalls]

[Aria]

I am loathe to think of reading anything this old hypocrite says yet that is what I saw.

[Aria]

Gee, the only one smiling in that photo is Clinton. They look like they'd just as soon pitch him overboard.

[SwinneySwitch]

Ann forgot the Robert C. Byrd Museum of Baking Science and History!;^}

[CyberAnt]

"advertising backdrop for a presidential political slogan"

This is what the dems are more worried about - and guess who put Byrd up to it - x42!!

[pyx]

Questioning the motives of a ``desk-bound president who assumes the garb of a warrior,'' Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd

Perhaps if the president had assumed the garb of a KKK member like Senator Robert Byrd, Bush would have been beyond reproach.

[lawdude]

Mr. Byrd,

Your anurism is ready.

[Gritty]

Questioning the motives of a ``desk-bound president who assumes the garb of a warrior,'' Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd...

Well, everybody ought to question the motives of a desk-bound, fossilized Senator from West Viginia who never seems to tire of public works projects named after himself.

The reason President Bush looked "natural" in the garb of a warrior is... he actually wore that very garb for years when he flew United States military aircraft, unlike Byrd, who sat on the sidelines during World War II in an "essential" industry.

I hate hypocrites, especially the bloviating kind. Grand Kleagle Byrd fits perfectly in his current wind-bag garb! Nobody would ever mistake him for any kind of a warrior, even with a carrier in the background!

[oldtimer]

And the way that the slickmeister and his she satan wife despised the military, lowered moral is despicable.

#43, GWB has supported the military and their performance shows!

[skinkinthegrass]

Senility is an awful thing to watch, but since he helps the conservative cause every time he opens his mouth, I say let the old bastard blather on.

Racist "KKK SHEETS" BYRD = Rat-baiting Liberal DemocRAT

[skinkinthegrass]

Some items funded by taxpayers – but still somehow named after "Robert C. Byrd" – are: The Robert C. Byrd Highway...the Robert C. Byrd Rural Health Center."

I'll like to see "Robert c. Byrd - W.I.H"...w/his own $$$$...the Clinton B*$t*#d.

[skinkinthegrass]

Some items funded by taxpayers – but still somehow named after "Robert C. Byrd" – are: The Robert C. Byrd Highway...the Robert C. Byrd Rural Health Center."

sorry...I'll like to see "Robert c. Byrd - W.I.H" Tombstone...bought and paid for w/his own $$$$...the Clinton B*$t*#d.

[Cedric]

I am loath to think of so august a body as the United States Senate as the repository for a bitter, venal, hypocritical former {maybe} Klansman, but, alas, that is what I'm seeing.

[NewRomeTacitus]

Sunday's (Nashville) "Tennessean" printed this from from a noted local:

To the Editor:
What's the difference between the audience at a Dixie Chicks concert and those attending a President Bush speech on board an aircraft carrier?
Answer: The Chicks' fans pay to be there and are captured by their music, while the troops are paid to be there and are a captive audience.
Our president's mandatory rallies are reminiscent of the best performances of history's great dictators and would do credit to a Red Square assembly for Stalin.
Robert O. Begtrup
Nashville 37220

Tuesday's rag had this good citizen's reply:

Troops wanted to meet President Bush
To the Editor:
In his letter to the editor May 4, it is obvious by Mr. Robert O. Begtrup's parody suggesting our military on board the aircraft carrier was under hostage to greet the president, that he probably not only wouldn't have listened to our president's speech but didn't watch the 30-40 minutes that followed where our troops refused to leave the deck and clamored to grasp his hand and be photographed with him.
But then it could be argued that each and every one of our troops couldn't have been as discerning as the writer of that letter.
I feel sorry for anyone so obviously filled with hatred toward our president that he would compare this scene to one of Stalin in Red Square.
Harvey Eisen
Nashville 37205

[Dr. Robert Begtrup runs the Vanderbilt Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Center. A Green Beret in Vietnam, an elitist leftist in this era. Would you trust him with your child's head?]