Virginia Declines Request for the President of the Free World

Virginia - The Secret Service asked Virginia to close key HOV lanes during rush hour to get U.S. President George Bush to a political fundraiser -- and was turned down.

The Secret Service asked state officials to close the center HOV lanes of I-395 from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday for a fundraiser the president was heading too, this would have created a traffic jam for the average driver that would not have been cleared until 10 p.m.
Virginia officials were stunned by the request: If they had granted it, commuter buses normally using the high-speed lanes would have to be rerouted or canceled and the thousands of multi-passenger cars normally in the HOV lanes would be added to the already crowded lanes of I-95. "It would give a new meaning to political gridlock in D.C.," John Townsend, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said. "You have to wonder, What were they thinking?"