DEMOCRATS UNDONE BY "TOP GUN" BUSH

Tribune Media Services ^ | May 7, 2003 | Matthewt Miller

[Howlin]

Every so often you come across evidence that a political party is losing its mind. Something like that is happening to Democrats over President Bush's fabulous "top gun" photo-op aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. It's a case study in how Bush and Karl Rove have left so many Democrats undone.

Rep. Henry Waxman of California has asked the General Accounting Office to provide a full accounting of the landing's costs, since the event had "clear political overtones." Sen. Robert Byrd, who, as longtime appropriations czar, is in no position to throw stones over dubious uses of taxpayer money, lashed out at Bush instead for "flamboyant showmanship," saying the White House had no business using the carrier "as an advertising backdrop" for the president's speech. Democratic staffers are working overtime to gin up media interest in the "scandal."

Let's be clear. Yes, Bush manipulated the timing of the Iraqi showdown to suit his purposes in last year's midterm elections. And yes, he's now hoping to put America's military success to his political advantage. But for all that, Bush's decision to take out Saddam was the right thing to do. And as for the news that Bush is now trying to use the result to help himself - well, do we really have to trot out the old Casablanca line about being shocked to find there's gambling going on here?

For foes of Bush's domestic agenda, like myself, the worst part of these Democratic attacks is how ineffective and tone deaf they are. The party's most idiotic argument (it's hard to find a gentler word that's also accurate) is that in staging this event, Bush showed disrespect for the troops, because he delayed their return to their families by an extra day after a 10-month deployment.

Isn't it obvious even to Democrats that, if you took a vote of the sailors on board, they'd have unanimously hailed the idea of a visit from their commander in chief to deliver the thanks of a grateful nation? It's a moment they'll cherish for the rest of their lives and tell their grandchildren about. Democrats, inspired perhaps by the trial lawyers who bankroll the party, are acting as if these troops are good prospects for a class-action suit.

The cost was puny anyway. Early Democratic salvos complained that the photo-op cost at least $100,000, as if we should be outraged. Reality check, please. Fifty million dollars for Kenneth Starr's investigation was an outrage; $100,000 to land on deck and welcome troops returning from war is patriotic pageantry.

Earth to Democrats: There is nothing wrong with a little patriotic pageantry. And the costs of presidential movements are always extraordinary. When a president changes where he eats a meal one afternoon, taxpayers probably drop $100,000. You know what? We give the head of the free world a budget for that.

Democrats, of course, know this. Which helps explain why as I write this I've already received fresh e-mails from a Democratic press office raising the cost estimate for Top-Gun-Gate to $1 million. Bet they'll get it to $10 million before week's end.

I know, I know - this is politics. GOP operatives routinely toted up the cost of Bill Clinton's trips to New York City and the man-hours lost to Manhattan gridlock in the service of Hillary's ambition. The right wing never tires of trotting out the size and cost of Clinton's entourage when he traveled abroad. Both sides perennially engage in this irrelevant nitpicking - like so many other depressing aspects of public life, this seems to be a political law of nature.

But this latest episode shows how demoralizing life in the minority must be. Henry Waxman is admired even by Republicans for having done more over his career to extend health coverage to poor and near-poor Americans than perhaps anyone in the country.

Now look: Ten years after Newt Gingrich's earthquake, poor Henry is sniping guerrilla-style over political sideshows. How depressing must that be?

This is no time for Democrats to go bonkers over the small stuff. If this is what they consider smart politics, it'll be a long wait until 2008.

[Wake Up America]

Hey speaking of best traveled.

What about Hillary Clinton going to the Orient and [taking her adult daughter along with her]?

I remember there was a pic taken of her and her daughter with the straw hats that come to a point on top and they both had a big big grin on their faces.

And when they all went to China and took so many people with them. I've forgotten how many but it was I think one thousand. Does any one remember how many [friends] went along?

[winner3000]

(Henry Waxman is admired even by Republicans for having done more over his career to extend health coverage to poor and near-poor Americans than perhaps anyone in the country.)

I beg to differ. I abhor Henry Waxman as another charlatan divider.

[MEG33]

I remember.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

Clinton:Most Expensive Presidential Trip Ever Post 46 Here

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

No problem! The hypocrisy is breathtaking, isn't it?

[texasbluebell]

I wish the link to the photo that Rush had on his website the other day was still working.

He had a small photo of xlinton in a flight suit while on one of his visits to a carrier.

Quite the charming photo too, a profile of bj chomping on an apple with a cigar, I swear, in his other hand.

He looked like the bozo that he was and is. If anyone should never have been seen in public in a flight suit, it was bj.

[McGavin999]

LOL, I love this place. I knew that someone would do the research and have it all listed out nice and neat. Did you e-mail it to FOX yet?

[nopardons]

Mind boggling, in the extreme !

I really do think that the American populace, for the most part, won't take this garbage lightly. Things HAVE changed ; but, the Dems don't get it. :-)

[Wolverine]

How about the million dollar toilet made especially for Hillary....abandoned at the end of the trip..?

[Wake Up America]

I think that they are so pissed off that they aren't running everything that they are truely just desparate.

[Wake Up America]

I never heard of the toilet I was too busy working at my job to pay for it.

[nopardons]

Yes, desperate, but also vindictive as all getout and flailling around. It's so patently obvious, that except for their hard core base, they are turning EVERYONE off. That's great for "our" side though. LOL

[goldstategop]

Matthew Miller is that rare species: a decent and thoughtful liberal. The Democrats should listen to him but they won't cause they're full of hate for President Bush. Its their opposition to respect for our Commander In Chief and our military that strikes most Americans as downright nutty. I don't mean they have to agree with the President's policies; that's their right but by the same token its not asking too much to extend a welcome home to heroes who fought for our country and to offer thanks to the Commander In Chief for making it possible.

[texasbluebell]

Oh, I hope so much that Brit Hume has that at the end of his program tomorrow.

I'd love to see it! What a contrast!

[Wake Up America]

We have a liberal talk show host over here in Pittsburgh.
Every day she grovels about how 'we' are loosing our freedom of speak in our Country because of Bush she says.
'She's afraid of what the future is'.

I am old enough to remember when almost EVERYTHING in the media was of the LIBERAL perspective.

I'm not saying it's like she says....but...
Not she knows how it feels.

I was so sick of the way all the media on TV was saying it
their way.

God bless CABLE TV NEWS!

People got some and now they can't get enough.

[texasbluebell]

Ha! Every time it was the chelster's spring break or Christmas or whatever, there just happened to be a trip that hitlery and/or bill had planned to some exotic locale.

They just loved getting those trips on our dime. Cheapskates.

[nopardons]

Hey, I remember when most people didn't have a T.V. and read a moring AND evening newspaper; got news from the radio and / or T.V....T.V. news, which covered WORLD WIDE current events daily and NO " pap ". LOL

But yes, cable news ( FOX especially ) gives people what they've yearned for, for years. :-)

[Cap Huff]

"Top-Gun-Gate" won't do; it doesn't have the right sound that a scandal name needs. Maybe they should try "Tailhook Scandal."

Uhhh . . . maybe that won't work either.

[Wake Up America]

If memory serves me I think the last trip was to Vietnam.
Hillary and Chelsea went.

Can you remember how many they took to China with them?

I thought it was one thousand.

[Wake Up America]

What do you mean by NO pap.