KYOTO, Japan — With his approval ratings slipping at home, President Bush on Monday flew overseas for the second time this month -- but not before taking a parting shot at critics of his Iraq policy.
Bush, who arrives in Japan this morning for a four-nation Asia swing, used a refueling stop in Alaska to accuse Democrats of "playing politics" in their accusations that the White House manipulated intelligence to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
He recited old quotes from three senior Senate Democrats -- John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, Carl Levin of Michigan and Harry Reid of Nevada -- without identifying any of them by name in his remarks. All three backed the war in 2001 and 2002 but have recently led the criticism that the White House misled the public when it tied Iraq to Al Qaeda and said that Saddam Hussein's regime had pursued nuclear weapons.
"Here's another quote from a senior Democrat leader: 'Saddam Hussein, in effect, thumbed his nose at the world community. And I think that the president's approaching this in the right fashion,' " Bush told U.S. airmen at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage.
"They spoke the truth then and they're speaking politics now," the president said as the audience cheered.
Bush's remarks reflected a new offensive by the White House to stem sagging public support resulting from a growing impression that the administration misled the public in the months before going to war.
Public skepticism has grown since a senior White House official was charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements as part of an inquiry into the public identification of a CIA official whose husband emerged as an early critic of the administration's use of intelligence.
In Veterans Day remarks last week, Bush singled out his 2004 reelection challenger, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), for shifting his stance on the war. Kerry responded Monday with a fiery speech on the Senate floor, suggesting the president has failed to grasp that the chorus of criticism over his Iraq policy does not consist of Democrats alone.
"Does the president think that the many generals, former top administration officials and senators from his own party who have joined over two-thirds of the country in questioning the president's handling of the war in Iraq are all unpatriotic too?" Kerry asked. "The president does not have a monopoly on patriotism, and this is not a country where only those who agree with him support the troops and care about defending our country."
