WELL, YES...BUT

Governors who went to Iraq on a trip arranged by the White House are determined to keep their trip and the war from becoming a partisan election issue, Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday.

Lingle spoke to reporters after she and five other governors met with President Bush, who they said was interested in hearing about daily life in Baghdad.

"One of the conclusions we managed to reach here is very important in the presidential election year, is that this issue not be politicized during political debates," said Republican Lingle. The governors who spent two days in Iraq included four Republicans and two Democrats.

"We know it is an election year, and yet we feel there are simply too many American lives at stake; there's been too many American resources put into this effort to allow it to degrade into political fighting in a presidential election year," she said.

Would someone tell John Kerry?