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.''
Funny, I don't remember Sen. Byrd's righteous anger being aroused when his fellow Democrats turned Paul Wellstone's funeral into a really bad-taste political rally last year.
BTW, let's all never forget that this is the same Sen. Byrd who appeared on Sunday with Cokie Roberts and Sam Donaldson just before the impeachment vote and stated that, although he believed that Clinton was guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice and that these offenses warranted removal from office, he would vote not guilty because Slimey Bill's popularity rating was so high at the time. As far as I'm concerned, Robert Byrd has no business judging the motives of anyone else, anywhere or anytime...
Too bad Bobby. Those are our jets now.
FYI, this is the same @$$wipe that carries a copy of the Constitution in his pocket so that when he's stopped [frequently] by the local police for his erratic driving, he can't be cited or arrested.
It's time "Shakes the Clown" be put out to pasture...or in a corner to drool.
It worked!
Excerpt from Ann Coulter's column called "The Robert C. Byrd Bridge To Poverty" on February 14, 2002: Evidently what the people-in-need are asking for is a lot of federal projects named after Senator Byrd. Some items funded by taxpayers – but still somehow named after "Robert C. Byrd" – are:
The Robert C. Byrd Highway;
the Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam;
the Robert C. Byrd Institute;
the Robert C. Byrd Life Long Learning Center;
the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program;
the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope;
the Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing;
the Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse;
the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center;
the Robert C. Byrd Academic and Technology Center;
the Robert C. Byrd United Technical Center;
the Robert C. Byrd Federal Building;
the Robert C. Byrd Drive;
the Robert C. Byrd Hilltop Office Complex;
the Robert C. Byrd Library;
the Robert C. Byrd Learning Resource Center;
the Robert C. Byrd Rural Health Center.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Doesn't sound political to me....
Original post credited to Vetnet
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