Posted on 03/28/2002 2:53:25 PM PST by Druidstl
Bush Raises $1.8 Million for Texas Republicans Updated 3:19 PM ET March 28, 2002
By Mark Egan
DALLAS (Reuters) - President Bush flew to Dallas on Thursday, spending a few minutes with local firefighters before moving on to the main business of the day: raising about $1.8 million for fellow Republicans.
Bush's speech at a fund-raiser for U.S. Senate candidate John Cornyn brought his two-day take for Republicans in South Carolina, Georgia and Texas to more than $4 million since he signed a law on Wednesday limiting U.S. political donations.
The president spent nearly every minute of his three-hour visit to Dallas helping Cornyn, posing for pictures with the Texas attorney general along with local firefighters and then headlining the fund-raider at a swanky downtown hotel.
His 26-minute drop-by to meet a Dallas Fire Department search and rescue team gave him an official event that allowed the White House to ask taxpayers to pick up much of the tab for his trip rather than the Republicans.
It also allowed a television crew hired by Cornyn's campaign to film the candidate, who hopes to win the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Phil Gramm, side by side with Bush and the firefighters.
The footage with Bush and the firefighters, some of whom flew to New York after Sept. 11, could help Cornyn win over local voters given the patriotic upsurge in the United States following the attacks on New York and Washington.
In his speech, Bush said it was vital for Republicans to retake the U.S. Senate from the Democrats in part to get ``good, conservative judges appointed to the bench,'' to push for tax cuts and spending restraint, and to promote domestic oil exploration -- a natural stand for a Texas Republican.
``We need him in the United States Senate to make sure our agenda moves forward,'' Bush said, noting that one of his choices for the federal bench -- Charles Pickering -- was voted down by a Senate committee earlier this month.
After refraining from overt political activity in the first months after Sept. 11, Bush has hit the road hard this year seeking to help Republican candidates erase the Democrats' one-seat advantage in the Senate.
Cornyn is expected to face the winner of an April 9 run-off between Democrats Ron Kirk, a former Dallas mayor, and Victor Morales, a high school teacher.
Emulating former Democratic and Republican presidents, Bush arranged official visits in South Carolina, Georgia and Texas over the past two days -- meeting rescue workers at each stop -- to help defray the travel costs.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe sought to play down the idea that Bush's 26-minute visit to a suburban Dallas Fire Department training center on Thursday was simply to provide cover for the president's fund-raising.
``The president thought it was important to thank the fine work of the (firefighters) in the Dallas area for the work they do on a daily basis,'' Johndroe said.
Asked if it was unusual for Bush to spend so little time on official business, he said: ``We are following a formula that has been in place for over two decades'' on sharing travel costs between the White House and political campaigns.
I don't recall this guy ever writing anything in the past about political money coming from mainland China or Buddist temple donations. I guess treating the Lincoln bedroom like a Super 8 motel is also much more honorable.
You wouldn't be able to write about that stuff either if you spent eight years on a pair of kneepads.
So all those political photo-ops by the Clintons were paid by Democrats? Yeh, right. Hell is going through an ice age, too.
"So what?
Who cares?"
And NONE of it was from the Chinese government. Where was this idiot "writer" when Clinton was screwing the country? How about following EVITA to Ireland. She took 30 "business" people with her to "help" New York. Another RON BROWN type scam that Hillary created no doubt. But let's all worry about Bush raising LEGAL campaign cash from US citizens and THANKING firefighters for helping New York when they needed REAL help. Not the phony crap the Clintons pretend to give just to help them get reelected. GAG!
I guess I must have missed this little item during those "wonderful" Clinton years. /sarcasm
Mrs Hillary Clinton was presented with the Irish-American Peace Prize last night in recognition of her contribution to the peace process in Northern Ireland.
Okay, someone PLEASE enlighten me as to what exactly Hillary Clinton contributed to the "peace process" in Northern Ireland?
How can Enron best be used by the left in the forthcoming general election? In two ways. First, to lend a generally criminal air to Republican fundraising, and fundraising by Bush in particular. Second, to depress turnout by rightist voters, by inducing apathy through disillusion.
The award, a Belleek Pottery basket of flowers, was presented to Mrs Clinton by Mr Niall O'Dowd, publisher of the Irish Voice newspaper. The presentation, at the Georgetown home of Ambassador Frawley Bagley and her husband, Smith, was attended by leading Democrat politicians, including the Secretary of Education, Mr Richard Riley. It was organised by the IrishAmerican Democrats lobby group. Part of the estimated $30,000 raised at the presentation will be used to help finance Mrs Clinton's campaign to win a Senate seat in New York in the November elections.
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