Daschle is a traitor.
Bush Strikes Back at Daschle's Foreign-Policy Criticisms
AP
Thursday, July 19, 2001
LONDON — As President Bush made the rounds in London, the White House quickly and sharply disputed criticisms of the administration's foreign policy levied by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.
Mr. Bush personally took exception to the timing of Sen. Daschle's criticism, since it is longstanding practice not to attack a president's foreign policy while he is abroad.
"One of the things America prides itself on is a bipartisan foreign policy," the President said. "And I would hope that tradition would continue. It's a very important tradition."
Sen. Daschle told USA Today that the administration suffers from "fragile" relations with U.S. allies and that "we're isolating ourselves."
The United States currently has differences with some of its allies, such as Germany and France, over the president's efforts to proceed with missile defense and his opposition to the Kyoto treaty on global climate change that would place major restrictions on U.S. energy usage.
AP
But White House counselor Karen Hughes called Sen. Daschle's comments an unseemly departure from standard practice.
"I don't know whether to chalk this up to the fact that the majority leader is still adjusting to his new role as majority leader," Hughes said. "But this sort of thing is simply not done."
The White House also disputed the substance of Daschle's remarks, which covered missile defense, the Middle East, Africa and AIDS.
Earlier Thursday, Bush embarked on a VIP tour of London sights and enjoyed luncheon cocktails with the queen.
While Bush was easing into his latest European trip, he didn't shy from the policy differences that separate him from U.S. allies.
"I will just tell people what I think,'' the president said about the six-day tour's centerpiece, a summit of world powers that begins Friday in Italy.
"Some will like it, and some won't like it," Bush said. "But they always know that I will be willing to listen."
But before Bush sits down in Genoa to talk through missile defense, global warming, global economic woes and other thorny issues with skeptical Group of Eight leaders, he and his family were getting in some tourism.
Bush, whose last visit to London was for a business networking conference in 1990, arrived late Wednesday with wife Laura and 19-year-old daughter Barbara to bunk at the U.S. ambassador's gated residence in Regent's Park, once a hunting ground for King Henry VII.
On Thursday, the Bushes were getting a private tour of the British Museum, whose treasures include the Rosetta Stone, the discovery that led to the translation of Egyptian hieroglyphics. The president and first lady planned to repay the museum's hospitality by participating in a special session of its regular story-hour programs for local children.
After another VIP tour of the once-secret underground war rooms, where Winston Churchill plotted World War II strategy, the Bushes were being treated to the ultimate London tourist opportunity: cocktails and lunch at Buckingham Palace with Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip.
The business side comes later Thursday, when Bush meets Tony Blair at Chequers, the British prime minister's country estate outside London, and takes questions at a news conference.
Fox News' Jim Angle and The Associated Press contributed to this report |
