Political fight over aircraft carrier pains Bush brother

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's defense blueprint calls for eliminating an aircraft carrier, and that's making life difficult for his brother, Jeb, governor of Florida, where the USS John F. Kennedy is based.

Florida has been thrust into a high-stakes, highly political budget fight that also involves Virginia, home of a major Navy port at Norfolk, and its two senators, John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and George Allen, up for re-election in 2006.

While the budget doesn't say which carrier could be scrapped, the Mayport, Fla.-based ship is a likely candidate because it's the Navy's third-oldest carrier and one of only two in the fleet powered by oil. The Kennedy, commissioned in 1968, is scheduled to be retired in 2018.

Underscoring the stakes, Jeb Bush came to Washington for a two-day visit this week, arriving one day after the president rolled out his budget. The governor, who has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2008, is to meet with members of his state's congressional delegation and lobby lawmakers on Wednesday to keep the carrier at Mayport Naval Station near Jacksonville.

It's a dance that happens each year in Washington after the president sends his budget proposal to Congress. State officials with a lot to lose descend on Washington to try to get Congress to reject parts of the president's proposal. Members of Congress wage their own campaigns to protect pet projects for their home states.

Florida and Virginia are home to the two Atlantic ports for the Navy's aircraft carriers, while the Pacific fleet resides at three naval bases off the coasts of California and Washington state. One carrier also is based in Japan.

Pentagon cutting costs

The Pentagon proposed eliminating a carrier as a way to save money as the country spends billions a month to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Defense officials say the Navy can perform the same functions with 11 carriers.

Warner, a powerful Republican and a former Navy secretary, says that while he has "long supported maintaining 12 carriers," he still has a responsibility to consider the president's proposal in good faith.

So, he is refraining from endorsing legislation by two senators who serve on his committee to require the Navy to keep a fleet of 12 carriers. However, Warner also is pressing the Pentagon for more answers about its plan.

During lunch with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and a few other lawmakers on Monday, Warner expressed his concerns about reducing the fleet. Then late Tuesday, he issued a statement saying he planned to question closely the Navy chief of operations this week on the impact decommissioning a carrier would have on national security.

The second-ranking Republican on the committee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, also is choosing his words carefully on the issue, despite his reputation as a maverick. McCain, another potential candidate for president, promised "a careful examination" of the proposal.

"We ought to look at all options, such as maybe moving one of the carriers out of Norfolk to Jacksonville. Maybe we ought to have the case made as to whether we ought to delay construction of another carrier," he said.

Meanwhile, Allen, also a possible White House candidate in 2008, and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., the two committee members who are co-sponsoring the bill to freeze the number of carriers at 12, are lobbying the Pentagon directly. They argue that it's not smart to decommission a carrier while the country is at war.

Allen pressed Rumsfeld on the issue on Tuesday. "The conversations will continue," Allen said. "We're going to keep fighting to keep the Kennedy."

Nelson also sent a letter to Adm. Vernon Clark, chief of naval operations, proposing that one of the nuclear-powered aircraft carriers stationed at Norfolk be moved to Florida. He wants the ships to be divided between two ports on the East Coast.

"You sure don't want all your ships in one port. We learned our lesson in Pearl Harbor," Nelson said.

But that proposal won't fly with the Virginia senators.

They argue that it would take millions of dollars to make the Florida port capable of accommodating a nuclear-powered carrier and that carriers often are away from their home ports.

Losing a carrier means losing jobs -- a political problem no lawmaker can afford.

"Clearly, I'm going to work to make sure they stay in Virginia," Allen said.

Even Nelson acknowledged that the proposal would be a tough sell: "John Warner isn't going to want any of his nuclear carriers to move from Norfolk."