Governors as one
on Iraq tripLingle and five others say
partisan political battles should
not be waged over the issue
WASHINGTON >> Governors who went to Iraq on a trip arranged by the White House are determined to keep their trip and the war from becoming a partisan election issue, Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday.
Lingle spoke to reporters after she and five other governors met with President Bush, who they said was interested in hearing about daily life in Baghdad.
"One of the conclusions we managed to reach here is very important in the presidential election year, is that this issue not be politicized during political debates," said Republican Lingle. The governors who spent two days in Iraq included four Republicans and two Democrats.
"We know it is an election year, and yet we feel there are simply too many American lives at stake; there's been too many American resources put into this effort to allow it to degrade into political fighting in a presidential election year," she said.
The governors, she said, agreed to carry that message to their home states, along with the idea that "this is a unique historical opportunity to take a part of the world that has known nothing but conflict for decades and to be part of creating an open and free democracy with a market economy."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney met yesterday with New York Gov. George Pataki, left, Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle in the White House Oval Office to discuss their visit to Iraq.
Lingle, in a later interview on Fox News, said she was in the cockpit of the National Guard plane carrying the governors out of Iraq when the crew saw tracer fire as the plane roared down the runway.
U.S. officials said there was no indication the tracer fire was aimed at the governors' plane, although the plane was forced to change direction.
Lingle said she felt safe at all times during the trip "or as safe as you can be in a combat zone."
She said shopkeepers she met are optimistic about their future and have a lot of hope. She said they want their country back but do not want coalition forces to leave yet because they need the security while they build a new democracy.
Besides Lingle, the other governors were Republicans Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, George Pataki of New York and Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho, and Democrats Ted Kulongoski of Oregon and Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana.
The trip was organized by the White House, and the governors said they were selected to form a bipartisan group and for regional balance.
Lingle said all the governors are "committed to our troops who are over there and committed to the American ideals that they are fighting for and ... to make certain that we never have to fight these terrorists here at home."
The visit to Iraq marked the first time governors had visited the country since the United States toppled Saddam Hussein. Members of Congress visit Baghdad regularly.
Bush was joined by Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House chief of staff Andy Card.
