Aircraft carrier named after Bush senior

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Former President George H.W. Bush and his presidential son, the most famous father-son act in American politics since the Adams family, saluted one another at a rain-drenched, shore-side ceremony Saturday as an aircraft carrier was christened in the name of the father, a naval aviator who survived a direct strike by Japanese anti-aircraft fire over the Pacific 62 years ago.

Doro Bush Koch, the former president's daughter and the current president's sister, smashed a bottle of sparkling wine against the bow of the vessel and declared, "I hereby christen thee USS George H.W. Bush. May God bless all who sail her."

There were Bush family, friends, political supporters, longtime advisers and members of the administration of the first President Bush, some of whom also served the second Bush presidency.

But against the backdrop of the reunion on a barge tied up at the bow of the vast vessel ran an undercurrent of the troubles facing the present Bush administration.

On the stage just yards from the ship's bow were two Presidents Bush, the current and former first lady and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, whose direction of the war is drawing increasing criticism. Next to Rumsfeld was Sen. John Warner, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman from Virginia who a week ago became the most prominent Republican officeholder to publicly question the course of the Iraq war.

In the audience was Colin L. Powell, the retired Army general who served the first President Bush as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the second as secretary of state. His disagreements with the current president over the Iraq war are slowly surfacing.

Two other key members of the first Bush foreign policy team — former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and James A. Baker III, the elder Bush's secretary of state and White House chief of staff, — were seated nearby. Vice President Dick Cheney, who was the first President Bush's defense secretary, was not present.

Without mentioning the war but sending an unmistakable signal, the senior Bush declared: "I am very proud of our president. I support him in every single way, with every fiber in my body."

The ceremony took place against a backdrop of renewed questions about the complicated relationship of the father and son, famously competitive and proud and yet never shy about demonstrating their love for each other, as they did again Saturday.

The most recent questions were prompted by a report that the elder Bush and his wife, Barbara, felt that their son had taken the wrong approach in dealing with Saddam Hussein and Iraq.