Posted by Mark Silva at 6:15 am CST
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- In a 10-state tour with his closing campaign for his party's midterm congressional elections, President Bush has picked Missouri and Montana as the two states with close races where his presence might help spur Republican voters in races that may turn on turnout.
Bush has arrived in Missouri for an eleventh-hour push for Sen. Jim Talent (R., Mo.), following a swing through Montana on Thursday where the president hoped to offer a similar push for Sen. Conrad Burns (R. Mont.). It's all part of averting a Democratic takeover of the Senate on Tuesday. Read a longer version of an article about all this that appears in today's Tribune, here in the Swamp:
By Mark Silva<
Tribune national correspondent<
BILLINGS, Mont. – Beyond the mountains of this big-sky state where a bruising political campaign nears an end, the contest between Republican Sen. Conrad Burns and Democratic rival Jon Tester will help determine far more than who represents Montana in Washington.
It will help decide which party controls the Senate for the remaining two years of George Bush's presidency.
President Bush, fighting to avert a threatened six-seat loss to the Democratic Party and loss of his party's control of the Senate, campaigned here Thursday at the start of a 10-state campaign-closing tour – likely the last for the second-term president – that will carry him from Colorado to Florida before Election Day.
The president is stumping in 10 states that he carried with his reelection in 2004 hoping that his appearances can stir his party's most faithful base of voters to make the differences in close races – including the Senate race here in Montana and another close Senate contest for a GOP-held seat in Missouri.
The president is spelling out the stakes of this contest, as he perceives them: Preserving the tax-cuts he has won, waging a "winning'' war in Iraq and upholding the conservative values which he vows to protect with his appointments to federal courts – with the Senate holding the power of confirmation for his nominees.
"When the people of Montana cast their vote on Tuesday, your vote will determine more than who represents you,'' Bush told a few thousand supporters assembled inside a chilly arena in Billings on Thursday. "It will also determine what kind of federal judges sit on courts all across the United States.''
With more than 50 vacancies on federal benches, the president told his audience, it's essential that Republicans maintain control of the Senate. Citing his own two appointees to the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, Bush recalled the resistance that Democrats posed to Roberts' nomination. "If the people of Montana want good judges, judges who won't legislative from the bench, judges like John Roberts and Sam Alito,'' he said, "you vote for Conrad Burns for the United States Senate.''
The president and advisers are campaigning with a confidence that they can stem a takeover of the Senate – as well as averting a 15-seat loss of House seats to Democrats that would turn the House Democratic.
"I smell victory in the crisp Montana air,'' Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser, said before the rally in Billings.
Pollsters sense something else in their surveys: A potential loss of this, one of six Senate seats that Republicans are fighting to save on Tuesday.
The Billings Gazette, endorsing Burns' rival in an editorial this week, suggested that Tester, president of the state Senate, a farmer and music teacher, offers a "welcome change'' in the U.S. Senate.
"In 18 years in the U.S. Senate, Conrad Burns has done a lot of good for Montana, chiefly in wrangling earmarked appropriations for Montana projects, an effort that is the centerpiece of his re-election campaign,'' the newspaper opined. But "Burns has problems that haven't beset the other two members of Montana's delegation, one being a tendency to make offensive comments that hurt him and Montana's image.''
And the newspaper cited Burns' involvement in a scandal that rocked Washington this year, with his acceptance of campaign contributions from the disgraced lobbyist, Jack Abramoff: "At a time when Washington, D.C., scandal is rocking the country, it is troubling that Montana's three-term U.S. senator responded to allegations of impropriety by saying he didn't know what money came into his campaign funds, didn't remember why he voted a certain way and didn't have control over the people who worked for him.''
Burns' supporters have rallied to his defense, as Tammy Hall did before thousands at a rally here.
"I am ashamed of the attacks,'' she told the crowd, reminding everyone that this is still a state "where we’re not afraid to say, 'One nation under God.''' She added: "I can tell you, I feel good that I have a president who gets down on his knees every single day.''
It's that sense of bedrock values that Dallas Eidem cites when asked about how he perceives the contest between Conrad and Burns. Eidem, who manages apartments in the town of Hardin, about 45 miles from here, wears new running shoes, blue jeans and a tan work-shirt to the president's rally on this wintry day.
"I'm sort of a big-picture guy,'' Eidem said, and this is the picture he sees when he ponders a Democratic takeover of the Senate: "I start picturing gays getting married everywhere, more abortion rights, kids not needing parental consent for things. I think of the world falling apart – morally, just a downward spiral.
"I think of giving in to the terrorists,'' Eidem added with a knowing glance from beneath the brim of his blue cap. "You know they're all voting Democratic. They know they won’t fight as hard.''
This is precisely the message that Bush is delivering with a campaign-closing appeal for support for a party that promises to wage war on terrorism, with its "central front'' in Iraq.
"Imagine this,'' Bush told his audience in Billings. "We're in the middle of a war on terror, and one of the most fundamental fights is in Iraq, and yet the Democrats have no plan for victory and they have no idea about how to win… Harsh criticism is not a plan for victory.
"If we leave before the job is done, it would embolden the extremists and it would dishonor the sacrifice of the men and women who have worn the uniform of the United States of America,'' Bush said to cheers in the Metrapark arena. "The consequences of retreat from Iraq would be felt for generations.''
This is the same message that Bush delivered in Nevada later in the days and will take to Iowa and Missouri on Friday, Colorado on Saturday, Kansas and Nebraska on Sunday, and Arkansas, Florida and Texas on Monday – before returning to his Crawford, Texas, ranch for his vote on Election Day.
Concentrating his campaign-closer on states that have supported him before, the White House is counting on Republican turnout making the difference on Tuesday.
"This is about Republican turnout, and these are all close races where he can turn up the vote,'' a senior administration official said aboard Air Force One en route from Montana to Nevada. In Montana and Missouri in particular, the president hopes to save two critical Senate seats for his party: "These are the two where we believe the president can have the biggest impact on turnout.''
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Comments
"Imagine this,'' Bush told his audience in Billings. "We're in the middle of a war on terror, and one of the most fundamental fights is in Iraq, and yet the Democrats have no plan for victory and they have no idea about how to win… Harsh criticism is not a plan for victory.
We are in a war in Iraq....We went after the 9/11 terrorists in the Afganistan war. A war the republicans had no plan for victory either. We did not finish the job there before we were mislead into Iraq. The republicans are great at picking wars, just not so good at winning or finishing the job. Harsh criticism is nothing compared to the botched leadership we have had for 6 years.
"I'm sort of a big-picture guy,'' Eidem said, and this is the picture he sees when he ponders a Democratic takeover of the Senate: "I start picturing gays getting married everywhere, more abortion rights, kids not needing parental consent for things. I think of the world falling apart – morally, just a downward spiral.
Big picture guy...small thinker. Another trooper from the witch burning crowd. Imagine,,,gays getting married "everywhere"! Kids not needing
parental consent for things...like getting drafted to fight in Iraq. By the way..the world "is" falling apart..and this man is the reason.
Posted by: bill r. | November 3, 2006 6:58 AM
Same old bull from Bush that will cost Americans billions more dollars, thousands of lives in Iraq, and a two year stay of prosecution for war crimes. By the way, what is that Repub. plan for victory in Iraq? No, you don’t have a plan either, never did, and if Repubs. hold on to the congress you will have no reason to get us out of this nightmare. It’s back to “stay the course” policy that makes billions for war profiteers at the expense American lives, and taxpayers dollars.
Posted by: Rory M | November 3, 2006 8:09 AM
Back in the seventies the governement was stricken with scandals about the military padding enemy combatant casualties and deaths. They thought that if the public didn't see progress in the war that the public would lose faith in job that the soldiers were doing. Well let's see what happened when we were fighting a war for a country who population was split with no clear objective. The government kept lying to the American people, until finally the country was fed up enough we withdrew, but only after 50,000 soldiers died.
Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney can rip Kerry's botched speaking and lame joke justifiably, but they can never discredit the crimes that were taking placed in Vietnam. It was a failed policy run by failing Generals. It had nothing to do with the troops. The same thing is happening all over again.
I don't know anyone who doesn't support the soldiers who are doing their job. They are proud to serve their country. Everyone assumes that the soldiers agree with the administrations policies. Who is talking to them? there is a growing discontent with the soldiers on the ground that the Bush plan is failing and the administration is not adapting well to the needs of the conflict.
Posted by: Todd M | November 3, 2006 8:22 AM
Hey W! These items should help!
This Just In:
Investigations led by a Republican lawyer named Stuart Bowen Jr. in Iraq have sent American occupation officials to jail on bribery and conspiracy charges, exposed disastrously poor construction work by well-connected companies like Halliburton and Parsons, and discovered that the military did not properly track hundreds of thousands of weapons it shipped to Iraqi security forces. And tucked away in a huge military authorization bill that President Bush signed two weeks ago is what some of Bowen's supporters believe is his reward for repeatedly embarrassing the administration: a pink slip, in the form of an obscure provision terminating the federal oversight agency that he heads, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
The provision, inserted by the Republican side of the House Armed Services Committee over the objections of their Democratic counterparts during a closed-door conference on the bill, has generated surprise and some outrage among lawmakers who say they had no idea the line was in the final legislation. ..............then
"It's truly a mystery to me," Collins said. "I looked at what I thought was the final version of the conference report, and that provision was not in at that time."
.......then
The termination language was inserted into the bill by congressional staff members working for Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Hunter declared on Monday that he plans to run for president in 2008.
For the whole article go to;
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0611030159nov03,1,7557298.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Now what is going on? This is not the first case of mystery lines being added to legislation, is it? Looks like Duncan Hunter is in charge of misdirection and subversion of the legislative process.
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A leading evangelist and outspoken opponent of gay marriage has given up his post as president of the National Association of Evangelicals while a church panel investigates allegations he paid a man for sex. The Rev. Ted Haggard resigned as president of the 30 million-member association Thursday after being accused of paying the man for monthly trysts over the past three years.
go to:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-haggard-sex-allegations,1,7233632.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Ya know, it's only a matter of time until Roberston, Dobson and Falwell are outed. They just protest too much.
Posted by: C.Morris | November 3, 2006 8:37 AM
Of course Bush is pushing voters to save the Senate. He knows the House is lost. If this becomes a truly democratic congress Bush is done removing our Constitutional and Civil rights. His regime will come to an end. The wolf in sheep's clothing will be exposed. Investigations will begin and the truth will out. We can't have that - now can we?! Darn right we can! And we will!
Posted by: Donald R. | November 3, 2006 9:41 AM
Save the senate? Great idea Mr. President. Let's save the senate from corrupt senators like Conrad Burns, bigots like "Macaca Allen, and loonies like Rick "man-dog" Santorum.
Posted by: Tom O | November 3, 2006 10:46 AM
This is the most important election ever for W.
If the Wingnuts lose their races,W.,Cheney and Crooked Karl are going to be held responsible for the lying,and stealing they've been doing for the last six years.
The Death penalty would be to kind for these Wingnut losers.
Posted by: John E. | November 3, 2006 12:04 PM
Oh my gosh, he's right about the activist judges!!!
Court Blocks Order To Identify Cheney's Visitors
By JOSH GERSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
November 2, 2006
A federal appeals court has blocked a district judge's ruling that could have led to the disclosure of the identities of visitors to Vice President Cheney's home and White House office.
Late yesterday afternoon, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted an emergency stay of the lower judge's order, which required the Secret Service to turn over two years of visitor logs to the Washington Post or offer a detailed legal justification for withholding the records.
The appeals judges, Karen Henderson, David Sentelle, and David Tatel, did not offer a detailed explanation for their decision. The government "satisfied the stringent standards required for a stay," the judges wrote.
The newspaper argued that the upcoming election lent urgency to its Freedom of Information Act request. The district judge, Ricardo Urbina, concurred.
Posted by: Catherine | November 3, 2006 1:36 PM
Listen up, cons without a clue. Terror is a tactic, not a war in the sense it can ever be totally won. The reason Bush has NOT made the world safer, is because his "cowboy ways" have created a recruiting tool for "jihaddist" everywhere. Plus our "allies" in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan continue to finance, and shelter fundamentalist nutjobs like Wasabi Islamist and the Taliban while we thanks the Saudi's for keeping the oil spigots flowing and forgive the Paki's for speading nuclear technology to the world's most dangerous countries. But the "war on terror" does serve it's purpose for cons. It allows them to frighten the ignorant into voting Republican, and perpetuate a Republican Congress complicate in underminding our constitutional rights.
Posted by: Richard out west | November 3, 2006 2:52 PM
The Fraudulent(Never Should Have Been)Bush Adminstration "OFFICIALLY" ends on Wednesday November 8, 2006. (6 years to the day that the highest offices in the United States of America were highjacked by NEO-CON REPUBLICAN NEW WORLD ORDER MILITARY INDUSTRIAL LUCIFERIANS) If you have been deceived into believing that George(6) Walker(6) BushJr(6) is a christian it's OK I was deceived too, but now I know "THE TRUTH" and so should you before the "Skull & Bones" Masonic Luciferian destroys our great country & our precious freedoms while manipulating you into believing a bunch of bandits in the desert are a threat. If you want to know "THE TRUTH" I can assure you the only way for everyone to know what is really going on and what has transpired since November 8, 2000 will be for you to vote 100% Democratic to restore TRUTH, JUSTICE, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND VISIBILITY so you can "SEE" & "KNOW" "THE FACTS", remove the criminals from our highest offices and send them to "PRISON", and "REVERSE & REPAIR THE EPIC CRIMNAL DECEPTIONS & MALFEASANCE COMMITTED BY THE NEO-CON CONTROLLED WHITE HOUSE, SENATE, AND CONGRESS.
Posted by: Todd Restelli | November 3, 2006 5:43 PM