White House - AP
Bush 'Welcomes' Kerry Into Race for Office Thu Mar 4, 4:05 AM ET Add White House - AP to My Yahoo!
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES -
President Bush marked his first campaign appearance after John Kerry's ascension as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee with a humor-tinged yet bare-knuckled critique of the Massachusetts senator.
"He spent two decades in Congress; he's built up quite a record," Bush said to laughter at a cocktail reception. "In fact, Senator Kerry has been in Washington long enough to take both sides on just about every issue."
It was similar to a performance Bush unveiled before another appreciative fund-raising audience last week as Kerry closed in on the nomination, but this time he named names.
Last week, it was "one senator from Massachusetts."
On Wednesday, it was "Senator Kerry."
On Thursday, the Bush campaign was launching a $10 million television advertising blitz even as the president headed to Silicon Valley to gather more cash for a re-election operation that has already raised more than $153 million.
While the initial ads were aimed at emphasizing Bush positives, the president's remarks Wednesday made clear his campaign will seek to contrast what it sees as a straight-talking president and a flip-flopping challenger. "We'll leave no doubt where we stand and we will win on the second of November," told the crowd of 600 at the Shrine Auditorium that added $800,000 to his campaign coffers.
The president's comments came on the first day of two-day swing through California scooping up millions for his campaign and those of fellow Republicans.
He started talking about Kerry by telling the crowd of the congratulatory call he made to the senator Tuesday night when Kerry's Super Tuesday primary victories made clear he had wrapped up his party's nomination.
But Bush quickly turned to a less gracious approach, accusing Kerry of wanting to raise taxes, expand the federal government, oppose effective job-creation measures and take control away from Americans.
"He seems to be against every idea that gives Americans more authority, more choices, and more control over our own lives," Bush said. "It's the same old Washington mind-set: They'll give the orders, and you will pay the bills."
Saying matters of national security present voters this fall with "the clearest possible choice," Bush took particular exception to what he said has been Kerry's assertion that the war on terror is "far less of a military operation and far more of an intelligence-gathering, law-enforcement operation."
"I disagree," Bush said. He said the Clinton administration had followed such an approach after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing by prosecuting those responsible and then thinking the matter settled — to disastrous results.
"After the chaos and carnage of September the 11th, it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers," Bush said. From the fund-raiser that raised $800,000 for his own campaign, Bush's motorcade took him across town to swanky Bel Air and the fine art-bedecked home of A. Jerrold Perenchio, the chairman and chief executive of the Spanish-language media giant Univision. There, closed to the press and the public, he helped pile $3.5 million into the Republican National Committee's account at a dinner featuring just 150 guests and the personally supervised cooking of famed chef Wolfgang Puck.
Although Bush lost California's 55 electoral votes by a wide margin in 2000, the election of GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who attended the Bel Air event, and other factors have the White House hoping to manage a better result in November.
Kerry and other Democrats have been hitting Bush hard on the economy, blaming him for job growth that has lagged behind other signs of improvement in the nation's fiscal health. They kept up that drumbeat as Bush traveled through California.
From California, Bush was going to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, for a long weekend that will include a visit by Mexican President Vicente Fox.
