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.''

[M1911A1]

Babe, you rock! I love you and will see you soon! You are the perfect Marine Corps wife...and I intend to let you prove it. :)

[onehipdad]

From Citizens Against Govt. Waste website, the fiscal 2003 Transportation Appropriations Bill:

$51,950,000 added by the Senate for projects in the state of then-Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), including: $10,000,000 for Route 9 in Jefferson and Berkeley counties; $9,000,000 for the Coalfields Expressway in McDowell County; $4,500,000 for the Canvas Bridge in Nicholas County; $4,000,000 for statewide buses and bus facilities; $1,000,000 for statewide job access and reverse commute grants; and $950,000 for the Charleston Renaissance Gateway Project.

Throw in another 27.4M for Barb (I am Outraged!) Mikulski (MD), 27.35M for Patrick Kennedy (MA), and 24.5M for Patrick Leahy (VT): That's nearly 5% of the entire package for the 41st, 42nd, 44th and 45th largest states in the country!

Shoot, we got counties bigger than those states...

[Malsua]

I thought Birds blasted the Bush when they evacuate their nether regions.

[07055]

I visited the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis recently. They have a new wing in the rooming house from which James Earl Ray shot King.

One of the most interesting parts of the exhibit is a video of Senator Byrd slamming Dr. King and preaching his Klan doctrine.

And this was in March 1968....

[newgeezer]

You gotta see this. Grand Kleagle Byrd makes our Tom F. Harkin look like a friggin' statesman.

[SunStar]

Why won't this former Klansman just go away? Six feet under would be an improvement.

[Moby Grape]

And did KKK Bryd mention that Clinton and company LOOTED the USS Rosevelt when they went aboard for a photo op? Can anyone do a Lexis search to see what the partisan old racist had to say then?

[I still care]

``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.

Translation: "I can't believe we didn't think of this first. Too bad Billy J could never fit into one of those flight suits... wonder if we could stuff Hillary into one of them..."

[PogySailor]

Sounds kinda like Saddam...

He had everything named after him as well.

[Howlin]

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

I wonder how he knows this?

[ladylib]

Isn't this the guy who builds roads in his state that go absolutely nowhere?

[reg45]

What a contrast! George W. Bush in his flight suit and Robert Byrd in his Klan robe.

[MatthewViti]

LOL!!! great picture!!

[stratman1969]

So the old KKKlansman is up to his old tricks again. Someone should ask old Sheets why he spent World War II swigging Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and night riding on horseback dressed in a white bedsheet instead of fighting Tojo and Hitler.

[reg45]

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

I wonder how he knows this?

He was there. Byrd was the missing conspirator from the John Wilkes Booth gang!

[Howlin]

LOL!

[Paleo Conservative]

He'll be 89 when his seat is up in 2006. Republicans need to get a credible candidate lined up now. I seriously doubt Byrd will be able to pull a Strom Thrumond and stay past his 100th birhtday.

[jaycee]

HaHaHaHa~~~~~~~`love it!

[TBall]

I just don't see how sheets can criticize anyone's garb.

[HighWheeler]

"Questioning the motives of a ``desk-bound president who assumes the garb of a warrior,'' Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd on Tuesday reproached President Bush..."

"...the garb of a warrior" As opposed to what, Sen Byrd? Your assuming the garb of a KKK Wizard? And what did you do when you were wearing the white sheets of the KKK, idiot?