Bush garb:
Byrd garb:
Posted on 05/06/2003 3:12:42 PM PDT by 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.''
RATS like Bryd are all beyond help! And how can Bryd compare what and where the President is supposed to speak considering his own speeches given while wearing a white sheet?
Senility has finally hit the KKK's man in Washington. I think you just have to ask those on that carrier whether they think of Bush's visit as "advertising" (do you have to ask? the pictures say enough).
Byrd-brain is so distant from reality that he just assumes everything a politician does is campaigning. No, idiot, not everyone is Clinton. And thank God that is the case, for if this country had been run by Byrd or Clinton the past 4 years we would be waving the green flag of Islam by now.
Byrd spouting nonsense like this on a backdrop of the cheers of the troops on the Lincoln; first scene is Dubya in flight suit shaking hands and high fiving his men.
Toss in the Senator's KKK garb for spice.
It's located at Ann Coulter's Byrd article
First of all, by carrier aircraft standards, the S-3 is not all that small. It's the second or third largest A/C that is operational on the carriers. The E-2 and C-2 are slightly larger and the C-2 can come aboard heavier. But then again, that's what Condi Rice and others came aboard on, and she was riding backwards and had couldn't see the landing coming. (Might be an advantage for some, but I'd rather see whats happening)
IMHO, helocopters, while more dangerous in general, are safer to land on the carrier than trapping aboard in a relatively heavy jet, especially one like the S-3 with no afterburners to help with the "go round" if you fail to catch a wire.
HAIL TO THE SKY CHIEF
May 6, 2003 -- I had to laugh about Linda Stasi's column ("Overdressed Prez Must Have Been a Boy Scout," May 4). It really must bother Stasi and her ilk the way our commander in chief stirred the emotions of a nation.
The pride I and others felt seeing our president come off a plane that landed on an aircraft carrier to salute his troops was just what this nation needed, and something I will never forget.
Maybe he was overdressed, maybe he wasn't. However, isn't it better than disrobing in the Oval Office?
Bush garb:
Byrd garb:
Contrast with Dubya wading into the throng of servicemen with only one Secret Service Agent anywhere at arm's length--behind him!
Actions speak far louder than words.
I guess it's a good thing that he has his name on all those buildings in WVa because it's the only way he's ever going to have any kind of immortality.
And it's going to get worse too! Look out!
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