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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill who wrote (340422)	1/8/2003 4:01:13 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Fundraiser-in-Chief II Saturday, August 31, 2002; Page A24 WHEN WHITE HOUSE officials announced that President Bush was going to spend most of August in Crawford, Tex., they also warned reporters not to describe the sojourn as a vacation. Now we know why. Mr. Bush has indeed been working hard -- at raising money for Republican congressional, senatorial and gubernatorial candidates. On Thursday he attended his 69th and 70th fundraisers of 2002, pushing his total take for the year past $120 million. Just this month, while based in Crawford, he has raised money in 12 states. Mr. Bush is making President Clinton, who raised something like $50 million for his first midterm election, look like a model of restraint. Like Mr. Clinton and presidents before him, Mr. Bush has every right to campaign for his party and to try to win a Congress more to his liking. There's nothing illegal about bending your schedule and travel itinerary to the electoral map. But, just as some Republicans pointed out in Mr. Clinton's case, there are reasons to worry when speaking for money seems to be a president's chief pursuit. It doesn't enhance the prestige of the office when most people can meet or hear you only if they pay up front. When the vice president is articulating foreign policy while the president is concentrating on pulling in the bucks, it's bound to raise questions about governing priorities. There's a particular reason for disquiet when the nation is at war and, as Mr. Bush has stated many times, in peril. In Washington, he appeals for bipartisan support; in fighting the war against terrorism, he has mostly received it. Yet when appealing for donations, he suggests that only Republicans really can be counted on. It's important to have members of Congress "who understand the need for this nation to be steady and resolved and determined and honest about the difference between good and evil," Mr. Bush said at a fundraiser Thursday. To suggest on the hustings that Democrats don't understand that distinction can't much help Mr. Bush's justifiable desire for bipartisan support on the war when he returns after his unvacation in Crawford. © 2002 The Washington Post Company