BUT IT'S NOT FAIR (via <~text text="Best of the Web Today">

DEMOCRATS UNDONE BY "TOP GUN" BUSH (Matthew Miller, 5/7/2003)

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.

Well, "unanimous" is probably overstating it, I did see one guy in the rear left whose applause was a little perfunctory.

One of my brothers use to make his living letting other people fly him on and off carriers. I asked him about President Bush' trip to the Lincoln. He said the following. Carrier landings are always dangerous, but from what he could see, given the weather and the choice of plane (the slowest plane equipped for carrier landings) everything that could be done to make it safer was done. He also said that this sort of diversion isn't at all unusual and is done for all sorts of reasons. Once, when he was on the Nimitz, the crew got cheated out of a port call in Perth (apparently, a great place for a port call) because some Assistant SecDef wanted to see the carrier underway. The crew was not happy. On the other hand, my brother says, this is the President coming to them to welcome them home and congratulate them for a job well done. He has no doubt that the crew was thrilled to have W there. Finally, he likens declaring major hostilities in Iraq to be over with signing the Japanese surrender on the Missouri, and thinks it's entirely appropriate to do so.

Finally, I just want to add my own observation. In watching the coverage of the President's trip to the Lincoln, I was struck by how at ease, confident and happy the President looked walking the flight deck after landing. Later that evening, in a suit, walking to the podium to give his speech, he looked to me -- as he always does approaching a podium -- to be ill-at-ease, less than confident and dutiful rather than happy. For better or worse (and we all know what I think) this is a President who is much better suited to doing things than thinking or speaking about whether to do things. Posted by David Cohen at May 8, 2003 4:41 PM