Bush tackles key seniors issues in fund-raising trip to Florida
By Mark Silva | Sentinel Political Editor
Posted July 1, 2003
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TAMPA -- President Bush, pitching prescription drugs for seniors and collecting $3 million for his re-election campaign Monday, capped an aggressive fund-raising drive in a state he must hold to secure a second term.
"In two-and-a-half years we have come far, we really have; but our work is only beginning," Bush said, repeating in both Miami and then Tampa a message that he has carried from Washington, D.C., to California.
In Florida, Bush posed for pictures with sex counselor Dr. Ruth Westheimer, misspoke the name of Miami's mayor and dispensed family humor in appearances with his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush.
"We both share the same political consultant, our mother," the president said.
This was the Republican's 15th tour of Florida since his inauguration, but his first as a candidate for re-election in the state that in 2000 narrowly handed him the White House.
Bush, assembling loyal donors, voiced the refrains of a campaign well-rehearsed during two weeks of a cross-country fund-raising debut for 2004. He has raised close to $30 million in mailed checks and $2,000 per-ticket fund-raisers such as his Florida events: $1.8 million in Miami, $1.2 million in Tampa.
"It was relatively easy," said Stanley Tate, a Miami businessman who has backed both Bush brothers and who served as a host for Miami's luncheon. Hosts raised at least $50,000 apiece. Tate raised $100,000.
Westheimer attended for free.
"I don't have to give money. I'm Dr. Ruth," said the smiling, 4-foot-7 personality. "I got my picture taken with the president; he went on his knees."
Ahmed Kabani, Miami businessman and president of the Pakistani-American Chamber of Commerce, served as a host.
"I'm a Muslim," Kabani said, "But he has made it known to the world that evil has to be taken out."
Outside a bayfront Tampa hotel where Bush's cocktail reception was held, a few dozen protesters lined up near a strip club, the Tanga Lounge, and waved critical signs: "The best democracy America can buy."
Undaunted, Jeb Bush welcomed his brother again inside a Tampa ballroom: "This is Bush country. Come November 2004, you're going to swamp 'em."
The president is embracing issues that Democrats once owned andisplying them on well-worn paths. In Miami, he started at a Little Havana senior center, where his brother once expressed elation nearing his re-election in 2002. (Jeb Bush then: "I'm having an out-of-body experience.")
The president had a rougher time there. He greeted the mayor of Miami, Manny Diaz, as "Alex." But Alex Penelas is the Democratic mayor of Miami-Dade County. Bush quickly fixed his faux pas.
The seniors' hall served as a stage for Bush's public pitch for Congress to finish work this summer on prescription drugs for people on Medicare.
"If medicine is changing," Bush said, "we want Medicare to change with it."
Bush fashioned himself as a "reformer with results" in his first race. Now, pressing for drug benefits, Bush is seeking results on a reform that Democrat Al Gore had promised in the 2000 presidential campaign.
"Everyone has talked about the changes we're going to make in education and prescription drugs," said Carole Jean Jordan, state GOP chairman, "but the Bush family has accomplished it."
Bush is reviving his original themes.
"We believe every child can learn," he said. "We are challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations. The days of excuse-making are over."
Bush also is brandishing a new resolve against a war on terrorism that has become the defining challenge of his presidency: "This country will not rest, we will not tire and we will not stop until this danger to civilization is removed."
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