Not Your Sweetie

Bush Unsure He's Been to Space Center


ASSOCIATED PRESS

SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) -

President Bush is no longer so sure he's been here
before.

A day after telling reporters that Bush had visited
Johnson Space
Center while serving as governor of Texas in the
1990s, White
House spokesman Ari Fleischer backpedaled from that
assertion.

"I think right now it's somewhat murky," the press
secretary said
aboard Air Force One Tuesday, en route to a
memorial service for the
seven Columbia astronauts who died in last
weekend's tragedy.

On Monday, Fleischer dismissed suggestions that
Bush had not
been interested in the NASA program before the
Columbia crash
and rejected a report that Bush had never been to
the Space Center.
He told reporters the president visited the
facility near Houston in
1995 or 1996.

The spokesman did not know the exact date, and
promised to do
more research.

Fleischer said Tuesday that after further review,
Bush's staff could
find no record of the visit. "Johnson Space Center
says that he did
not go there, and I'm not able to find the exact
date. So that's why I
say it's murky," Fleischer said.

"To the president's recollection, he thinks he has
been there," his
spokesman said, adding that Bush's staff from Texas
also thought
they recalled such a visit.

The spokesman said Bush has never seen a NASA
launch or
landing, in part because there are so many other
beautiful things to
see in the country that he has yet to explore.