June 20, 2004

Bush Speaks to Troops in Washington

Surrounding himself with soldiers fresh from the battlefield, President Bush on Friday used a western campaign swing to compliment America's military for the fight against terrorism and pick up praise from Sen. John McCain, who has rebuffed overtures from Democrat John Kerry to be his running mate.
[Hello! McCain's a Republican!
A Kerry-McCain was never going to happen.--Jen]

"People from all over the country join me in saying, 'Thank you for what you are doing,"' the president told hundreds of camouflage-garbed soldiers gathered in a hanger. "There is no cave or hole deep enough to hide from American justice."

McCain, a popular Republican senator who rejected calls to join Kerry's campaign on a unity ticket, praised Bush's efforts in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"You will not yield," McCain told the troops, "and neither will he."

Bush, in turn, praised McCain's work in the Senate and as a Navy pilot. "It is a privilege to be introduced to the men in uniform by a man who brought credit to the uniform," Bush said.

McCain offered his support to Bush's decision to take America to war, saying it is a "just and necessary fight."

It is a fight between right and wrong, good and evil," McCain said. "It is no more ambiguous than that."
[...]
Fort Lewis is one of the nine major bases in Washington state, home to more than 94,000 uniformed personnel and civilian employees. Bush said the soldiers there strike so quickly and so quietly, they've become known in Iraq as the Ghost Riders.
[...]
After delivering the speech, Bush was scheduled to meet privately with wounded soldiers and relatives of GIs killed in Iraq.
[And yet the "Liberal" Left pillories him because he won't meet inert caskets of servicemen and women who've been KIA at Dover AFB.--Jen]
He then takes his campaign to Nevada.
[...]
Bush's visit to Fort Lewis is only the second by a sitting U.S. president in the last 60 years.

Ft. Lewis was certainly long overdue for some earned recognition from its Commander-in-Chief!
And you could just hear the Dims speed-dial the pharmacy for more Prozac and Viagra when Sen. McCain showed up to boost Bush and the troops in a just war!
The Dimocrats made far too much of the supposed "hate" that McCain had for Bush because they were both one-time rivals for the GOP presidential nomination...that and they mistook McCain's willingness to "reach across the aisle" to pass legislation in the Senate for his willingness to get into bed with the Dims.
Republicans are gentlemen and gentlewomen, manners and civility being things the Democrat Party seems to know nothing about whatsoever.