In a column titled "Mainstream media still treating Bush with kid gloves," a Democrat hack named Ed Garvey (who apparently lost an election to Tommy Thompson) demonstrates that he is totally looneytunes.

Wouldn't it be refreshing if Fox News, CNBC, CBS and others were to make the same apology for the what can only be described as "journalistic fraud" as they slant the news to favor President Bush and his factually unsupportable justification of the invasion of another country?

Substitute Bill Clinton for Bush over the past six months and you will see my point. What would TV talking heads be saying today? William Kristol, Sean Hannity and the others would be demanding Clinton's impeachment. They would be screaming that there were no weapons of mass destruction and Clinton knew it. He lied to the U.N., to the American people, and he deliberately and unnecessarily placed American troops in harm's way.

Well, with Bill Clinton, it would all sound pretty plausible, seeing how much else he lied about, and given the fecklessness of his military policy. But of course, this is a true fantasy, because Mr. Clinton would not have invaded Iraq. The thought of him standing up (as opposed to sucking up) to the UN, and France, simply beggars my imagination.

And if that was insufficient to start an impeachment proceeding, they would be screaming that he did all of this without a congressional declaration of war.

Ummm...he had congressional approval. Did you miss the vote last fall? The one that you folks demanded last summer?

This would be "Wag the Dog" all over again. A war to divert attention from a flagging economy. And, to top it off, Clinton did not secure the Iraqi nuclear sites to prevent looting, did not protect the national museum, did not capture Saddam or his sons. He led people to believe that the invasion of Iraq was about Sept. 11, not oil.

Sure, there would probably be some partisan Republicans who'd do that. But Fox and the other "right-wing" news outlets you're complaining about are letting hordes of Democrats do it now, as is the Capital Times, with your insane rant.

What's your point?

They would save the best until last. Do you remember the famous haircut on Air Force One? Clinton supposedly had his hair cut while planes were diverted around Los Angeles International Airport. It didn't happen, but Clinton was condemned on right-wing talk shows throughout America for this alleged waste of funds.

Imagine if Bill Clinton had slowed down an aircraft carrier and had landed on the deck in a jet for photo ops for his campaign. Oh, my goodness! The folks at Fox would be in cardiac arrest. Rush would froth at the mouth.

"Slowed down an aircraft carrier"? My understanding is that carriers generally go at full steam in order to allow aircraft to land on them--it reduces the relative velocity and makes for a safer landing...

Mr. Bush may get some nice campaign footage out of it, but the purpose was to make a nationwide speech and boost morale of the troops, the latter being something that Mr. Clinton tended to achieve in reverse.

And actually, Mr. Clinton did delay air traffic at LAX for a haircut, to the best of my knowledge. I've never seen a persuasive debunking of the story. And no one was complaining about a "waste of funds." The complaint was that he was so inconsiderate as to delay hundreds of passengers' departures for his personal vanity.

My recollection was that unlike the troops who were cheering for the President on the carrier, the passengers waiting on the tarmac were fuming. Other than that, the two incidents are exactly the same, of course.

When the right-wing forces control the media, what chance is there for the truth to raise its head? And the concentration is only getting worse. Those who control the electronic media can keep the Dixie Chicks off the air, praise Bush for bush league antics, and yet find time to take swipes at the Democrats.

Amazing. I don't have time to do the whole thing, but there's plenty more for folks to chew on.

The authors got it completely backwards. Fact is most of the guys he names wanted Clinton to remove Saddam years ago. Most of them wanted Saddam removed for numerous reasons, WMD was only one. Taking out Saddam, WMD or not, is probably the one thing that might have made the right actually say something nice on Clinton's behalf.

Relative to "slowing down the carrier" as a scandal, at my Rotary meeting last Thursday, I had the privilege of listening to the commander of Lemoore NAS and the squadron commander of the flight that took off from the Lincoln and flew to Lemoore. The squadron commander effectively dispelled the fatuitious claims that Bush had inconvenienced the troops. According to the commander, he wished all cruises could end with that way, the crew of the Lincoln knew that Bush was sincerely thanking them for their work, Bush's remarks may be extremely useful in helping to retain 5,000 highly trained service people who were not used to ten month deployments [and he didn't disagree with one Q and A that described critics as "idiots."]

Not only did Clinton shut down LAX, but in an imitation of the event, a San Fran DJ calling itself "Mancow" reinacted it on the Bay Bridge, shutting down and snarling commute time traffic for a few hours and earning him a summary dismissal from the air. Wonder if he ever got another job in radio.

As for the Lincoln arrival timing-- there was no point in arriving early, because everyone who wanted to be there to greet it wouldn't have got there in time, and most of the crew still had to continue on to Bremerton. Timing is everything, which this guy does not understand.

Mancow Muller is a DJ in Chicago who appears (or used to) every morning on Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends."

So I guess that's where he went.

"Slowed down an aircraft carrier"? My understanding is that carriers generally go at full steam in order to allow aircraft to land on them--it reduces the relative velocity and makes for a safer landing...

It doesn't matter so much for the landing, but certainly unless the wind is very favourable its pretty hard to launch from a carrier unless it is at full steam. One of the reasons why carriers get practically infinite "hit points" in naval war games - the Australian navy, of all things, demonstrated this in a naval exercise in the pacific many years ago.

On planet Earth, if Gore had been elected, the antiwar opposition would have consisted mainly of paleoconservatives and that curious subset of the Religious Right which blames 9/11 on American sinfulness. This has been greatly muted by the presence of a Republican in the White House; what we got instead was the Hollywood crowd and a few wannabe-high-profile Dems making asses of themselves. Overall, it's a wash: pick the kind of idiot you'd rather be exposed to.

On behalf of the people of Wisconsin (not the kingdom of Madison)I wish to apologize for Mr. Garvey's comments. The guys a nutbag and doesn't represent most of us hard working and major tax paying (some of the highest in the country)citizens of Wisconsin. I spent a career in the aviation Navy and know how much it meant to the sailors and Marines on board that ship. Can you imagine if clinton had wanted to visit a carrier. The first thing out of his piehole would have been "how many broads you got on board?"

Some of you might remember Ed garvey from his days as head of the NFL Players' Union.

Ever wonder why players in basketball and baseball have virtually unlimited free agency rights and are free to sell their services to the highest bidder, while pro football players don't?

That's a direct result of Ed Garbey's negotiating acumen. He traded away unlimited free agency (which the players had won in court) in return for the owners allowing players to wear beards, sideburns, and unusual hairstyles.

I swear to God I'm not making this up. Garvery is a genuine, bona fide dope.

"Slowed down an aircraft carrier"? My understanding is that carriers generally go at full steam in order to allow aircraft to land on them--it reduces the relative velocity and makes for a safer landing...

The complaint is that Bush delayed the arrival of the Lincoln in San Diego. But that's not what happened. Bush flew out the day before the ship was scheduled to arrive. As it turned out the ship had made a fast crossing of the Pacific so it was close to shore, but it still wouldn't have docked until the following morning.

Even if he did delay entry into port, I might take such a complaint seriously if it came from Lincoln crew. So far, the only people I've heard complaining about it are people ashore. People who reflexively complain about anything that Mr. Bush does.

I don't support Bush but I think his faults are often exaggerated.