Bush Cites Democrats"Angry Attacks'

APNews ^ | 12/30/03 | Scott Lindlaw

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

President Bush cited "angry attacks" by Democrats in a fund-raising appeal to potential donors on Wednesday, while his aides told hundreds of government workers that Bush expects them to remain focused on government business this election year.

"The pace of the presidential campaign is picking up and we will soon know who the Democrat nominee will be," Bush wrote to supporters, asking them for a "special contribution of $100 or $50."

"Whoever wins the nomination will have done so by energizing their party's left wing with angry attacks," Bush wrote.

The e-mail letter previewed what is likely to be a theme of his re-election campaign: that his Democratic opponents offer only criticism, while Bush is laying out what he called in the letter an "optimistic, compassionate conservative philosophy."

His message was indirectly aimed at Democratic front-runner Howard Dean, who some Bush advisers predict will turn voters off with his attacks on the president.

Bush has repeatedly said he is paying little mind to the candidates vying for his job.

"Well, occasionally it blips on my radar screen, but not nearly as much as you would think. I've got a job to do. I'm occupied," Bush told the Fox Broadcast Network in September.

In the fund-raising appeal, Bush also pointed to the bitterly contested 2000 presidential election, without mentioning the Florida recount or the Supreme Court decision that ended the stalemate in his favor.

"As we saw so clearly in 2000, every vote matters," Bush wrote. "A strong foundation has been laid for victory in 2004, but I need your help to win what could be a close election."

The letter also represented a personal bid by Bush to accelerate his re-election campaign's aggressive get-out-the-vote effort. Political advisers to Bush believe two factors could make or break his re-election 11 months from now: their success in winning over the 5 percent to 7 percent of undecided voters, and their ability to energize Republican voters.

"The strength of our grass-roots team - friends like you who make the phone calls, mail the brochures, put up signs, and knock on doors - will make the winning difference," Bush wrote.

Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and surrogates including Bush family members have raised some $120 million for his re-election - money that must officially be spent in the primary, in which he faces no opponent. He is well on his way to banking his goal of $170 million, and resumes his fund-raising schedule Monday in St. Louis.

Bush has a half-dozen fund raisers planned in the next five weeks; he has already headlined 48 of them. But he told recipients of the letter that "I've got an important job to do that limits my time on the campaign trail."

Also Wednesday, the White House said Bush was putting his appointees throughout the government on notice that he expects them to work hard at their government jobs during the upcoming election year.

In a letter to Bush political appointees throughout the government, the White House said Bush planned to summon them to a hall near the White House on Jan. 9 to hammer home that message.

"The theme of his remarks will revolve around the distractions an administration can face during a political year, and his expectation that his team continue to strive for results on behalf of the American people," the White House letter said.

Dean had raised just over $15 million in the final quarter of 2003 by mid-afternoon Wednesday, according to his campaign. That meant Dean has raised about $40 million during the year, far more than any of his Democratic competitors.

The Bush letter hit e-mail inboxes on a day when the president was out of sight on his central Texas ranch. He has made no public remarks or appearances since starting his Christmas vacation at Camp David on Dec. 22.

[weegee]

Could someone tell me why AP thought that the Supreme Court was relevant in this discussion of the 2000 election???

In the fund-raising appeal, Bush also pointed to the bitterly contested 2000 presidential election, without mentioning the Florida recount or the Supreme Court decision that ended the stalemate in his favor.

"As we saw so clearly in 2000, every vote matters," Bush wrote. "A strong foundation has been laid for victory in 2004, but I need your help to win what could be a close election."

Al Gore Jr. only got 0.52% more of the popular vote and that is a statistically neglible figure (it is well with the margin of error). President Bush's point was that the vote was very close (in Florida as well as nationally); EVERY VOTE MATTERS (even the overseas military ballots that were court approved but did not actually make it into Flordia's final certified totals). Put that in your pipe and smoke it, AgitProp.

[mickie]

When votes are counted the absentee vote is not counted unless the election is very close.
Now how many absentee votes do you think there are that never got counted across the Country?

[CFC__VRWC]

Now how many absentee votes do you think there are that never got counted across the Country?

I heard from somewhere back then that there were about 1 million absentee votes not counted in California alone (since Gore won the state with about a 2 million vote margin, these absentees wouldn't have changed the outcome).

[weegee]

Yes and the answer is we will never know (just that the absentee ballots tend to favor conservatives). There were also voting irregularities in a number of states (including proven instances of some voters submitting multiple ballots, college students have admitted doing this to support Gore).

The left likes to trot out that "popular vote" nonsense to say that the majority doesn't support Bush as President when that can be stated with absolutely NO certainty. What is certain is that George W. Bush got more actual votes and a higher percentage of votes than Bill Clinton ever got yet no one in the press ever questioned that there was no mandate for the Clinton presidency.

[mickie]

Thats exactly right.
There are probably multimillions of absentee votes that were never counted, almost all conservative, may I add.
Why oh why, do the liberals get away with all the nonsence about Bush not winning the election.
I guess they think that if it is repeated enough, it will be true.......NOT.

[CyberAnt]

What ..?? EVERY ABSENTEE VOTE IS COUNTED NO MATTER WHAT THE FINAL COUNT IS. Where on earth did you hear that absentee is only counted if the vote is close ..?? Absurd.

[okie01]

"Yes and the answer is we will never know (just that the absentee ballots tend to favor conservatives)."

Not necessarily true anymore.

The Democrats have perfected the art of:

a. Canvassing their precincts for pliant voters, suggesting they vote absentee and helping them fill out the form to request an absentee ballot.

b. Then, on the day when the ballots are delivered, they follow the mailman around the precinct, recovering the ballots -- either from the mailbox or from the voter, with or without their permission.

c. The ballots are then taken to a central location...and "properly" filled out for the Democrat candidates. They are then signed -- no need to bother the voter for their signature -- and dropped in the mail.

d. Another trick, as employed in St. Louis in the 2000 election, multiple absentee ballot requests were filed for multiple non-existent people, all living at the same non-existent address. It was up to fifty ballots at one particular address, as I recall. When they were returned, they all seemed to be signed by different names...in the same hand.

The 'Rats have this vote fraud thing down to a science.

[Archangelsk]

The President is supposed to stay above the fray. There is more to this than meets the eye.