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.''

[Cicero]

Byrd was always a scum, but he used to be a smooth, courteous, southern-gentlemanly type of scum. Ever since the clinton impeachment trial he seems to have lost his veneer of southern politeness. Now he comes across as shrill as hillary.

It just goes to show you that sooner or later sleaziness will out.

[PeoplesRep_of_LA]

You need to be on a Robert C Byrd ping list so that you can remind everyone that forgets what a king pork barrel spender this fraud is.

[johnb838]

I thought having a president with the nad to do the tailhook was just awesome.

Question for the military types: Is it significantly more dangerous to do a tailhook landing on a small jet as opposed to flying out on a helo?

[maxter]

But Senator Byrd, as you are so fond of saying, it was pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty.......

[Uncle Fud]

Good point, perhaps instead of "Operation Iraqi Freedom" we should have called it "The Robert C. Byrd War on Iraq" and Dubya would be having a lot less trouble in the Senate these days.....

[CarryaBigStick]

Why do I get the feeling that George Bush spent years hearing hearing his father say 'you aren't a real aviator until you've shot a carrier trap.'

He just put all that to rest - well sort of.

Heck, if I was the president (now there's a scary thought), I'd have left the deck with a cat shot.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

The sight of this man throws the dems into a tailspin. I love it.

[SwinneySwitch]

Why don't we ask the troops how they feel about this president, the first to land on a carrier, and who they will be voting for in 2004, senator byrd?

[fightinJAG]

HAHAHAHAAAAHAAAAA

[biss5577]

I am loath to hear of a current U.S. senator who was a member of the KKK. He's a babbling idiot, plain and simple.

[Dog Gone]

Senator Byrd Tyrd is not helping himself or the Democrats with this kind of statement. The nation wants to feel good about the military accomplishment in Iraq, and this looks like some old coot trying to rain on the parade.

[fightinJAG]

It throws me into a tailspin, I must confess. ((blush))

[M0sby]

Amazing... I know that my own (eek) Democratic/ war opposing senator-in-tennis-shoes Murray arrived onboard the Lincoln today as it pulled into Everett. As did our Democratic Governor Locke (BTW, the same governor who gave the democratic rebuttle to the Pres. State of the Union Address)

I wonder if Sen. Byrd will notice this???
I would guess not.

[onehipdad]

Too bad Natalie Maines isn't from West Virginney...

[johnb838]

She looks like she is and sounds like she is.

[ruoflaw]

gee, I don't remember the old coot complaining when clinton visited a aircraft carrier....of course clinton didn't arrive the same way President Bush did. President Bush got a real welcome from the troops!

[SwinneySwitch]

You forgot the Robert C. Byrd Museum of Baking Science and History!:^}

[sarasmom]

"Question for the military types: Is it significantly more dangerous to do a tailhook landing on a small jet as opposed to flying out on a helo?"
Thats a loaded question.
While I do not have the guts to actually WANT to do a carrier landing, I would have to say I would prefer a carrier pilot fly me anywhere, if I have to fly anything smaller than a DC-10.I have no fondness for helocopters at all.Possibly an allergy involved.
Yes, its theoretically more dangerous.But he was flying with the best pilots the world produces, much as it pains my USAF heart to admit such a thing.
It sure aint routine, and I loved it!

[Wolfstar]

Yeah, that's really what has Byrd's shorts in a knot (his and other Dems, plus their media shills). The notion of those fantastic images of a dashing, ruggedly handsome, real-man President being used to slaughter Dems in the 2004 election. Too bad, Byrd. Your hero, Bill Clinton, is looking mighty matronly these days, and none of your Presidential wannabes even remotely have the alpha male chops that Dubya has. Plus you're 85, now, and not even you can stay in the Senate forever (although to be fair, Strom tried). Hehehehehe....

[GallopingGhost]

Byrd contrasted the speech with the ``simple dignity'' of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address during the Civil War.

This from a guy that witnessed the Gettysburg Address live.