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 Tuesday, May 13th, 2003
From Rich Galen’s ’Mullings’ column.Rich Galen Friday, May 7, 2003 The Democrats continue to miss the mark on this USS Abraham Lincoln thing. The Dems have trotted out Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) to demand - DEMAND - an investigation into the Presidential event aboard the carrier off San Diego. As I mentioned on MSNBC the other day, Senator Byrd who quotes Plato and Cato need only go back to the early 90’s to find that President Bill Clinton flew onto the decks of two aircraft carriers with nary a peep out of the old Byrd. In 1993 Clinton flew onto the deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt which was about 100 miles off the coast of Virginia from which he did his Saturday radio address. A year later he went by launch from Portsmouth, England onto the USS George Washington which was cruising through the English Channel. According to former Clinton staffers he: "toured the ship top-to-bottom, ate dinner with the crew, gave a speech on deck (repeat: gave a speech on deck), did live network interviews from the flight deck (repeat: did live interviews from the flight deck), attended a memorial service, met with the crew and ..." sit down. Are you sitting? Are you sure? Ok: "He steered the ship part-way across the English Channel." After he was done not wasting taxpayer money, President Clinton helicoptered to France where he participated in D-Day commemoration activities. We don’t even want to get into the 1,200-person 30-million-dollar photo-op to China in 1998 while the scandal about Clinton doing you-know-what with you-know-who was in full flower. Next point. The home port of the USS Abraham Lincoln is Everett, Washington. This, from the Everett paper the day of her arriving in port: "Even before the carrier docks, Gov. Gary Locke and 10 other officials will be flown to the Lincoln on a helicopter -- weather permitting. Expected are U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray..." as well as the Governor a couple of Congressmen and some state legislators. Senators Cantwell and Murray are Democrats. Senator Byrd said of the President’s visit, ""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." One wonders whether Senator Byrd’s eyesight was good enough, and his loathing great enough, to pick Cantwell and Murray out of the crowd at the weekly meeting of the Democratic Senate Caucus the better to wag his accusing finger in their faces for using "an aircraft carrier as an advertising backdrop" for their own political purposes. One thinks not. Unmentioned in that newspaper piece is a report that the Navy had to send their helicopter transportation to Paine Field in Everett, Washington which, according to the airport’s website is a "General aviation and industrial airport hosting major tenants Boeing and BF Goodrich Aerospace," lest the august visitors be inconvenienced by actually have had to drive their cars to NAS Whidbey Island - where the helicopter lives. Next point. Senator Robert C. Byrd is the all-time champion of pork barrel legislation for projects in West Virginia. There are Robert C. Byrd highways. Robert C. Byrd bridges. Robert C. Byrd senior citizen centers. Robert C. Byrd public mosquito breeding ponds, and Robert C. Byrd public mosquito rotisserie and picnic areas. Byrd has gotten so much pork for West Virginia he should be known as Trichinosis Bob. The only thing that ISN’T graced with his name is the State of West Virginia itself - but he’s not done yet. Last point on all this. I do not understand why the Democrats - who have been rubbing their hands together in glee while awaiting the end of the 23-day quagmire in Iraq to be able to talk about domestic issues - come right out of the box and take on the President about the aircraft carrier. Every time one of the cable nets ran footage of Byrd or, worse yet Henry Waxman they split the screen with those shots of the President, in full fighter-pilot swagger, posing for photos with a clearly delighted crew. Memo to Robert Byrd and Henry Waxman: Thank you Signed, The Bush/Cheney 2004 Campaign
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