MILITARY VISIT: Vice President Dick Cheney speaks to Marines at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base Tuesday. He also visited wounded service members.
Sandy Huffaker/AP
Posted on 07/28/2004 8:28:29 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney met both support and opposition during a California trip aimed at rallying for Republican congressional candidates. At a Riverside hotel Tuesday, Cheney cheered on U.S. Senate candidate Bill Jones, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer. He said Jones was in lockstep with President Bush on issues of national security, the economy and tax reform, and portrayed Boxer as being out of touch with Californians.
Outside the $1,000 per plate dinner that attracted about 200 people to the Mission Inn, several hundred protesters and Bush supporters faced off on opposite street corners.
"Cheney and Mr. Bush are a travesty of freedom," said Mel Flemming II, 46, of Riverside. "In my opinion they are the most deceptive leaders I've seen in the history of the United States since Nixon."
Before the dinner, Cheney was in Bakersfield stumping for a GOP candidate for the U.S. House. Cheney said state Sen. Roy Ashburn would help cut taxes, strengthen the military and support homeland security.
Ashburn is locked in a tough race with former state Sen. Jim Costa to replace Democrat Cal Dooley, who is retiring.
Earlier in the day, Cheney made a morale-boosting stop at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base.
About 2,500 Marines and sailors listened as Cheney spoke about the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
"We saw a foe whose hatred for us is limitless," Cheney said. "This is an enemy, as the 9/11 Commission reported last week, whose purpose is to rid the world of religious and political pluralism."
"This is not a foe we can reason with or negotiate with or appease ... an enemy that we must vanquish, and we will vanquish this enemy," Cheney said, as his audience responded with an approving Marine "hoo-yah."
Cheney also told the Marines that America was proud of them. He then presented Purple Heart and other medals to Marines home from Iraq.
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AP Writer Michelle Morgante in Camp Pendleton contributed to this report.
MILITARY VISIT: Vice President Dick Cheney speaks to Marines at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base Tuesday. He also visited wounded service members.
Sandy Huffaker/AP
SALUTE: Marines salute during the playing of the national anthem during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney.
Photo-Sandy Huffaker/AP
Yesterday I was in Riverside, CA trying to get on the highway and the on ramp was blocked by a large moving truck (didn't see the CHP unit in front of it). So as I'm sitting there locked in traffic, I begin seeing motor officer after motor officer on the freeway.
This goes on for several minutes. The some CHP units, then 2 black limos, obviously armored, then Secret Service SUV's and more CHP cars. Overpass bridges all had a police unit parked on them, all ramps closed.
For a west coast boy, it was well worth the wait to see Cheney's trip. We don't see that much out this way.
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