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© St. Petersburg Times, published October 20, 2002
Retiring House Majority Leader Dick Armey's remarks last week praising Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network as better organized than the Democratic-led Senate led to some predictable tut-tutting from the loyal opposition.
Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe issued a statement saying the Texas Republican's "behavior couldn't be any more partisan or his rhetoric any more intemperate."
At a news conference Thursday, Armey slammed Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., for not passing a version of a homeland security bill favored by House Republicans.
The bill would create a new Department of Homeland Security. But Senate Democrats have objected to President Bush's demand for flexible personnel management policies in the department.
The impasse on the labor issue has stalled the bill. The lack of action prompted Armey's unfavorable comparison of Daschle's management skills to bin Laden's.
"Why is it that al-Qaida, this ragtag bunch of terrorists scattered all over the globe, can reorganize themselves . . . and the United States cannot reorganize itself? Al-Qaida doesn't have a Senate. Al-Qaida doesn't have a Sen. Daschle," Armey said.
The Glacier Girl is ready to fly.
The World War II fighter plane that was frozen in a glacier for 50 years is set to fly Saturday in Middlesboro, Ky.
The P-38 plane, featured in a St. Petersburg Times article in July, was abandoned in Greenland in 1942 and buried under 268 feet of ice. It was found 10 years ago and removed in pieces. Kentucky businessman Roy Shoffner has spent more than $3-million to restore it.
Shoffner said the plane is now painted (Army green on top, sky mist blue on the belly) and has been certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. It will be flown by Steve Hinton, 42, a Los Angeles pilot who has experience with P-38s.
Shoffner said thousands of people are expected in the tiny Appalachian town for the first flight, including Kentucky's governor and many World War II veterans who flew or worked with P-38s.
Shoffner's daughter recently told him, "Everybody can have a dream. You seem to be the kind of person who has dreams and makes them come true."
For information, go to www.thelostsquadron.com.
There's no question, to borrow a favorite phrase from Donald Rumsfeld, that the often crusty defense secretary became a media darling after Sept. 11.
The cover of the National Review went so far as to feature a caricature of the Pentagon chief with his backside showing and the headline: "The Stud. Donald Rumsfeld, America's New Pin-Up."
Inside the Pentagon, however, it's no lovefest, at least according to the Washington Post.
In an article this week about the divide between the civilian and military leadership at the Pentagon, senior officers describe Rumsfeld as "frequently abusive and indecisive."
Not so, Rumsfeld told reporters Thursday. "I am sweet and lovable. Goddang."
-- Times staff writers Mary Jacoby, Paul De La Garza and Bill Adair contributed to this report.