Bush over Baghdad

The jokes that write themselves, from the Wall Street Journal's account (subs. req;d):

Mr. Bush landed at ... a semi-deserted airstrip a good distance away from the main terminal of Baghdad International Airport Tuesday afternoon. He was immediately flown to the fortified Green Zone by helicopter, and then driven to the Republican Palace ... Mr. Bush had arrived in Baghdad after secretly leaving Camp David, where cabinet members and senior military commanders had gathered for what were billed as two days of talks about Iraq. After a working dinner with cabinet officials and aides like National Intelligence Director John Negroponte and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace, the president excused himself at approximately 7:45 p.m. by saying that he was "losing altitude" and wanted to go to bed to read a bit before falling asleep, Mr. Bartlett said. The meeting adjourned around 8 p.m. but the president had by that point already quietly left for Andrews Air Force Base.

Mr. Bartlett declined to specify how the president snuck away without the other officials noticing his absence, but said that the helicopter Mr. Bush flew to Andrews was not the green and white helicopter normally used as Marine One.

"Our cabinet is not completely aware," he said. "They all expected him to show up at breakfast with the ambassador of Iraq."

Mr. Bartlett said the extraordinarily tight protective measures were necessary because of Iraq's tenuous security situation, which also meant that the option of having Mr. Bush stay overnight in Iraq was "never seriously considered."