Note: Karl Rove Will Remain Safely At White House

President Bush plans to make history today by landing in a
small plane on a moving aircraft carrier hundreds of miles
from shore to declare an end to the combat phase of the war
in Iraq.
The White House downplayed
any danger to the president, whose
four-person Navy S-3B Viking
anti-submarine aircraft will hook
onto a steel cable after landing to
prevent it from plunging off the
flight deck and into the Pacific
Ocean. Mr. Bush will be in the
co-pilot's seat.
"He is a former pilot," White
House Press Secretary Ari
Fleischer said of his boss, who
once flew jet fighters for the Texas Air National Guard.
"For the sake of the landing, I'm sure he will be doing no
piloting," the spokesman deadpanned. "Hope he's not
watching today's briefing."
But later in the day, Mr. Bush playfully left open the
possibility that he would take the controls of the plane.
"Never can tell what's going to kick in — the urge," he
told reporters in the Oval Office. "Let me just say: Stay clear
of the landing pattern."