Presidents Bush christen carrier

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Spraying the bubbles from sparkling wine across the enormous bow of the USS George H.W. Bush, the Bush family Saturday christened the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier named after the 82-year-old former president.

"I know you join me in saying to our father, President Bush, 'Your ship has come in,' " the current president said during a ceremony attended by thousands for the last of the Nimitz-class carriers, the CVN 77.

The 41st president of the United States punctuated an affectionate reminiscence of his own storied life with a father's unconditional defense of the 43rd. "I am very proud of our president," said George H.W. Bush to loud applause. "I support him in every single way, with every fiber in my body."

It seemed a pointed response to speculation, fanned most recently by the new Bob Woodward book — "State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III" — that the former president is anguished over the Iraq war and that his closest advisers see the son's administration as a debacle.

The current occupant of the Oval Office paid warm tribute to a "great dad" and "a man who exemplifies the great character of our country."

President Bush also drew laughs in lauding the warship's state-of-the-art design before pausing for a punch line aimed at his mother's well-known steely constitution: "She is unrelenting, she is unshakable, she is unyielding, she is unstoppable," he thundered.

"As a matter of fact," he added, "[the ship] probably should have been named the Barbara Bush."

The official occasion Saturday was the "christening" of the George H.W. Bush, a naval ceremony that marks the completion of the hull of the ship and its ability to float. Two more years of work are necessary before manufacturer Northrop Grumman delivers the $6 billion ship to the Navy in 2008, company officials said.

The George H.W. Bush, the length of more than three football fields, will be the 10th and last of the great Nimitz-class carriers.

Saturday's ceremony was held at the foot of the giant gray bow of the unfinished carrier, in the midst of a rainstorm whose claps of thunder periodically startled the thousands of dignitaries, Bush family friends, Navy personnel, shipyard workers and company officials gathered at Northrop Grumman Newport News.

A huge cheer went up from the crowd when the ship's "sponsor," presidential daughter and sister Doro Bush Koch, smashed a bottle of American sparkling wine across the bow of the carrier at the end of the ceremony. The crowd also cheered the two Bush presidents. The former president, holding Barbara Bush's hand, sang enthusiastically along with the famous tenor Ronan Tynan as he rendered "God Bless America."

Bush is the first living president to attend the christening of a carrier named after him, and when it came his turn to speak, Bush told the crowd, "This is any naval aviator's dream come true."

As a young pilot, Bush flew bombing missions off the USS San Jacinto, part of a naval task force in the Pacific; in 1944, his plane was shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire. He parachuted into the sea before being rescued by a Navy submarine after more than two hours aboard a rubber life raft.

It is not known where the carrier is to be stationed.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.

Jeb Bush takes cover to avoid demonstrators

PITTSBURGH — Protesters greeted Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on his way to a campaign event for a Pennsylvania senator, and he briefly took refuge in a subway-station supply closet to avoid the demonstrators.

The president's brother encountered protesters chanting "Jeb go home" on their way to join a demonstration outside the Duquesne Club, where Republican Sen. Rick Santorum held a fundraiser Friday night.

Bush, accompanied by a security guard and an aide, retreated into a nearby subway station and was followed by about 50 pickets, said Bob Grove, a Port Authority spokesman.

"It was a very tense situation," Grove said, so as a precaution, Bush was ushered into a supply closet and stayed there until the crowd left.

The Associated Press