Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe complained on Sunday that President Bush shouldn't have worn a flight suit on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln earlier this year because of allegations he didn't fulfill a commitment to serve in the Alabama National Guard 30 years ago.
Complaining about the president's May 1 appearance on the Lincoln's flight deck, McAuliffe told CNN's "Late Edition" that Bush "didn't wear [a flight suit] when he should have worn one when he was supposedly in the Alabama National Guard."
The insinuation that Bush dodged military service stunned fellow "Late Edition" guest Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, who shook his head in disgust as McAulliffe recycled the discredited charge.
The president did fly high-performance aircraft during a stint in the Texas Air National Guard in the 1970s, a fact McAuliffe omitted from his diatribe.
The DNC chief delivered the low blow while complaining that Bush had prematurely declared major combat operations over during his Lincoln speech, while speaking beneath a sign that read "Mission Accomplished."
Revisiting the controversy, McAuliffe told CNN, "What the president was saying when he was strutting around on that aircraft carrier wearing a flight suit - which I remind you, he didn't wear when he should have worn one when he was supposedly in the Alabama National Guard - but clearly what came out of that was, he was saying that our job had been completed [and] major combat operations were over."
When the New York Times examined Democrat accusations that Bush hadn't fulfilled his full Alabama National Guard commitment during to 2000 election campaign, it turned up no evidence that he had dodged serving.
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