Yeah, Bush really cares about the troops....

That's why he slept like a baby while keeping the crew of the Abraham Lincoln at sea an extra 18 hours.

Pentagon officials said yesterday that an aircraft carrier waited within sight of San Diego last week while President Bush slept aboard, instead of heading straight to port after 10 months at sea.

A Pentagon official said the USS Abraham Lincoln made "lazy circles" 30 miles at sea and took 20 hours to cross a distance that could have been covered in an hour or two. But that official and others said the carrier was slowed to ensure it reached the dock at the time that had been promised, about 9 the next morning.

As usual, Democrats are trying to make political hay out of the delayed revelations behind Bush's $1 million publicity stunt, but the media-savvy Republicans are one-upping them with ease.

A Republican leadership aide on Capitol Hill said the questions being raised by Democrats were "uncomfortable," but noted that the discussion "at least means they're not talking about Medicare or the economy."

Several senior Democrats agreed that the dispute is a loser for them. "It was live on CNN for four hours," a Senate Democratic strategist said. "You can't pay enough for that. Who cares about a few stories later?"

One Democrat moaned yesterday as he watched cable news programs replay hours of footage of Bush on the carrier, with audio about Democratic complaints. "I'm watching him get high-fived and buzz the tower again," the Democrat said. "The White House should have thought of this controversy themselves."

Have you ever seen a more pathetic, ineffectual bunch of politicians than our current Democratic "leadership"? If the stakes weren't so high and the outcome so tragic for us all, it would be hilarious.

From a May 8 Washington Post story via Common Dreams.