President George Bush Costanza
Showing once again that honor and dignity live together in harmony like ebony and ivory since the last presidential election, the NYT reports:
The White House on Wednesday changed its account of a
widely reported encounter between Air Force One and a British Airways
jetliner during President Bush’s secret trip to Baghdad last week.Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, told reporters on the
trip that the British Airways pilot had spotted the president’s distinctive
747 in the air and radioed its pilot. But on Wednesday, Scott McClellan,
the White House spokesman, said the conversation was between the British
Airways pilot and the London control tower and had been overheard on Air
Force One.
A British Airways spokesman told The Associated Press that none of its pilots has come forward to acknowledge either making or overhearing the purported conversation.
How long before one of them conservative bloggers dimisses this story by resorting to the old favorite Chewbacca defense?
Thanks to Blair for the NYT and Newsday links.
Update: World O’Crap has the latest, and it involves super powers!
And Air Force One junket-grabber Mike Allen writes in today’s Washington Post:
The White House has updated its account of an airborne conversation in which a British Airways pilot wondered into his radio if he had just seen Air Force One and was told that it was a Gulfstream 5, a much smaller plane. White House officials first said that the British Airways pilot had talked with the Air Force One pilot. Bush aides now say the conversation occurred between the British Airways pilot and an air traffic control worker.
“I don’t think everybody was clear on exactly how that conversation happened,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
British Airways said it has been unable to confirm the new version. “We’ve looked into it,” a spokeswoman said from London. “It didn’t happen.”
Washington Post link