Now It's The Same Old Song
Now Playing: The Four Tops
GWB has rehearsed long enough, he should book some time in a recording studio.

Yes, I'm still in a funk over events from about 377 days ago.

Chinquapin
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

OK, see if this link sticks.
new link

The following is a truncated excerpt, not edited other than the Dems' response & Asia trip details left off the end.

Article published Nov 15, 2005
Bush slams Iraq war critics anew en route to Asian tour

ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska - President Bush hurled new arguments against Iraq war critics on Monday as he headed for Asia, accusing some Democrats of "sending mixed signals to our troops and the enemy."

"That is irresponsible," Bush said. Bush addressed U.S. forces and their families during a refueling stop in Alaska. It was the initial leg of an eight-day journey to Japan, South Korea, China and Mongolia. Bush has hopes of improving his image on the world stage.

"Reasonable people can disagree about the conduct of the war, but it is irresponsible for Democrats to now claim that we misled them and the American people," Bush said. "Only one person manipulated evidence and misled the world - and that person was Saddam Hussein."

Bush, who wore a flight jacket, was cheered and applauded by the receptive audience.

The president tried to defend himself against criticism by Democrats that he manipulated intelligence and misled the American people about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction as he sought grounds to go to war against Saddam's regime in 2003.

Meanwhile, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters aboard the presidential aircraft that two agenda items on Bush's Asia trip were the huge Chinese trade surplus with the United States and a U.S.-Japanese dispute over U.S. beef imports.

Neither dispute was expected to be resolved on the president's trip, Hadley said.

"I don't think you're going to see headline-breakers" from the president's trip, Hadley said.

On Sunday, Hadley acknowledged "we were wrong" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, but he insisted in a CNN interview that the president did not manipulate intelligence or mislead the American people.

Iraq and other problems - from the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina to the indictment of a senior White House official in the CIA leak investigation - have taken a heavy toll on the president's standing. Nearing the end of his fifth year in office, Bush has the lowest approval rating of his presidency and a majority of Americans say Bush is not honest and they disapprove of his handling of foreign policy and the war on terrorism.

In his Alaska remarks, Bush noted that some elected Democrats in Congress "have opposed this war all along.

"I disagree with them, but I respect their willingness to take a consistent stand," he said. "Yet some Democrats who voted to authorize the use of force are now rewriting the past. They are playing politics with this issue and sending mixed signals to our troops and the enemy."