The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

p> TAKING LEAVE OF THEIR SHORE br> Democrats in the House led by Rep. Henry Waxman have asked the GAO to investigate the costs incurred by the Bush administration to pull off the presidential address on the USS Abraham Lincoln last Thursday. The decision to have Waxman make the request came in a closed-door House Democratic caucus meeting in which the party's congressional leaders discussed how they might drag down the Bush team's momentum coming out of the successful war. /p>

"This was not about what was right, or whether they thought something illegal had occurred," says a House Democratic leadership source. "This was all about how can we hurt the Bush team."

House Democrats leaked word to congressional reporters early Tuesday that a request to the GAO was to be made. This allowed several White House reporters to raise the issue with Ari Fleischer during his late morning press briefing at the White House. Democratic staffers on the Hill pointed to some inconsistencies in the White House explanation of how and why the plan for Bush to fly out to the aircraft carrier came about. Reporters grilled Fleischer on the ship's distance from shore at the time that Bush flew the S3 Viking to its tailhook landing.

Fleischer had told reporters several days before Bush's speech that the carrier would be several hundred miles offshore. But on the day of the landing, the Lincoln was closer to shore than the White House had expected. Theoretically, this would have allowed Bush to more readily use the presidential helicopter to make the trip.

However, as the Prowler reported last Friday, the S3 Viking flight was not out of the ordinary, and according to several White House sources, there were no major expenses incurred at any time during the planning or execution of the speech.

"We don't expect the GAO to come up with anything," said the Democratic staffer. "But Henry [Waxman] is so good at keeping these kinds of things alive in the media that we'll probably gain something from having him do this."

p> SINKING FAST