Bush Makes Another Surprise Trip to Iraq

Watch for the outrage from the press today as President Bush has made another surprise trip to Iraq:

President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday to meet newly named Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and discuss the next steps in the troubled, three-year-old war.

It was a dramatic move by Bush, traveling to violence-rattled Baghdad less than a week after the death of terror chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a bombing attack. The president was expected to be in Baghdad a little more than five hours.

The trip was known only to a handful of aides and a small number of reporters sworn to secrecy because of obvious security threats for Bush and members of his entourage.

Landing at Baghdad airport, Bush transferred to a helicopter for a six-minute ride into the heavily fortified Green Zone. White House officials said the helicopter ride posed the greatest risk for the president.

You may remember how upset the press got in 2003 when Bush dodged the press in Crawford, TX and made a Thanksgiving trip to Iraq. For security reasons, I'm sure most of the press was unaware of this trip, and you know that's going to tick them off.

Bush even surprised his own staff:

After a day of meetings at Camp David, Bush had dinner with his aides and Cabinet members and then returned to his cabin. After darkness, he boarded his helicopter and slipped away, flying to Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington for the 11-hour flight to Baghdad.

Bush's aides had expected the president to be with them on Tuesday for a video conference between Baghdad and Camp David of al-Maliki and his cabinet members and Bush and his team.

Instead, Bush was in Iraq for the video conference.

I like his style.

UPDATE: Here are the press pool reports. Here's the part that's going to get the pressies knickers in a knot (from Drudge):

White House loaded press corps onto bus to go see Bush at Camp David, then when bus left -- announced he was in Iraq!