Florida GOP Candidate Snubs Bush

White House Irked At Gubernatorial Candidate For Ducking President

(CBS/AP)  As the midterm election drew close to the finish line Monday, President Bush jetted to a conservative corner of Florida's panhandle. He was met with cheers and an enthusiastic crowd, but also got a big snub.

To the White House's embarrassment and irritation, Republican Charlie Crist, whom Mr. Bush came to help in his bid to succeed the president's brother as governor, decided at the last minute to skip the chance to be by the president's side. Crist said he needed to campaign elsewhere in the state, CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller reports.

President Bush's aides are now battling the perception he is doing his party as much harm as good and was unwanted in many districts.

The White House did not hide its irritation at Crist for ducking the president, though Mr. Bush still urged Republicans to vote for Crist.

Crist's campaign said it was not a case of Crist distancing himself from Mr. Bush, but White House political chief Karl Rove took something of a swipe, saying he wanted to see how many people turned out for Crist in Palm Beach versus the 9,000 supporters expected at the Bush rally.

The White House already had distributed schedules saying Crist would introduce the president at the rally.

Crist's opponent, Democratic Rep. Jim Davis, seized on the news.

"Now that the president is so unpopular, Charlie refuses to stand side by side with him," Davis said. "It says when the going gets tough, Charlie won't stand up."

Crist's chief of staff, George LeMieux, said the candidate already has strong support in the heavily Republican Pensacola area and thought his time would be better spent campaigning elsewhere. LeMieux said the decision had nothing to do with the president's job approval ratings.

Outgoing Gov. Jeb Bush attended the Pensacola event in Crist's place. Rep. Katherine Harris, who is mounting a lukewarm challenge to Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, was also with the president. Before the September primary, Republican leaders failed to support Harris.

Mr. Bush is using the last day of his 10-state campaign swing to flush out GOP and swing voters needed to keep Republicans sitting in the governor's offices of Arkansas and Texas as well.

It is his fifth consecutive day of campaigning, traveling to states where his advisers believe he can best help fend off the Democratic threat to take over Congress and end up with a majority of governorships for the first time in 12 years.

After Florida, Mr. Bush is heading to Arkansas where the race for governor pits Democratic Attorney General Mike Beebe against Republican Asa Hutchinson, a former congressman and federal Homeland Security official.

The Beebe-Hutchinson faceoff for the open governership already is the most expensive gubernatorial campaign in state history. Overall, Beebe, who is leading in the polls, has raised $6.3 million and spent $5.7 million in his bid for governor. Hutchinson, a former congressman, has raised nearly $3.3 million and spent about $3.1 million.

Before returning to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Mr. Bush is speaking at a rally in Dallas for Gov. Rick Perry, who is leading the polls in his re-election bid.

On Election Day, Mr. Bush plans to vote in Crawford and then fly back to Washington to wait for returns from the voting.

[laurieleemoo]

pakaal - an independent group did a study on all news related to republicans, democrats over the past year. They came to the conclusion that 88% of what the media puts out for the democrats is positive and 77% of what they put out for the republicans is negative. That proves the media is liberal and that they promote liberal PROPAGANDA. Maybe thats what your problem is---you get all your information from the liberal media. So, whether I read this article or not really has nothing to do with the facts---because this article is NOT FACTUAL!!!

[laurieleemoo]

pakaal---whats the matter---you only listen to one news station---CBS? I read this article---but I also heard my information from other sources. What I stated is the actual fact. The fact IS NOT that Christ was snubbing Bush as all the liberals would just LOVE to believe.!!!!!

[pakaal]

laurieleemoo, please try to read the articles before commenting on them - that's how this is supposed to work, in theory. Note this:

"White House political chief Karl Rove took something of a swipe, saying he wanted to see how many people turned out for Crist in Palm Beach versus the 9,000 supporters expected at the Bush rally."

Karl Rove wouldn't diss someone like this if Bush hadn't been snubbed. Yeah, Crist was campaigning somewhere else, but it's obvious Rove and Bush wanted Crist there - equally obvious that Crist knew better than to be caught standing next to Bush a week before midterm elections. And who can blame him?

[laurieleemoo]

okay here goes the liberal media ONCE AGAIN deciding to put their little spin on facts to try to make viewers believe that President Bush's own people don't support him. Well, I hate to disappoint all the liberal viewers of the liberal media-----that NO, it WAS NOT a snub. If they got their info correct--they would have found that Christ decided to campaign in Jacksonville that day---since he has so many supports in Pensacola. Plans were changed thats all. I love they way people believe bad things about people just because they WANT to believe bad things about someone. So, liberals----why don't you start EXPECTING MORE from you liberal media and actually have them start reporting the facts instead of thier LIBERAL PROPAGANDA.

[newsjeff-2009]

Crist not showing up to meet with President Bush might be something lots of democrats in Florida love to see, but I will say even though I do not live in Florida, I think it is a very poor example of GOP strength and GOP unity, when the GOP republican canidate for governor of Florida, does not even show up for a meeting with President Bush or Governor Jeb. Bush. President Bush's approval ratings may be down now, but Crist not showing up, displays a lack of GOP party strength and unity, and I am not saying that is a reason for Davis to get all the votes and become Florida's next democrat governor, and according to the polls Davis is far behind Crist anyway, but if a political party either the GOP or democrats cannot be united on election year, that shows a lack of party strength and unity.

[mh4cbs1]

Hey dixieman06,

Who do you think is the biggest terrorist recruiter?

Thats right, George Bush. The world was behind us after 9-11. But Bush took our troops out of Afghanistan, letting Osama gang walk into Pakisatan. All to invade Iraq. He exploited 9-11 and LIED his way into invading a country that was NOT a threat. Read the PNAC papers if you want to understand why, read Scott Ritter, Terry Drumheller. Read books by ex-Republican administration people, Richard Clark for example.

Are you the only one left in America who doesn't get it? You believe what you WANT to believe. Research the FACTS. My extended family has. They are life-long Republicans who realize that the Cheney-Rumsfeld NeoCons have Hijacked the GOP. They admit that Bush is the worst president our country has ever had.

If you love America, and if you get informed, you will realize that we need to STOP Bush from running our country into the Ground.

BUSH is a ****ing DISASTER.

[pakaal]

Seriously, North Korea's gone nuclear, six Arab nations have decided to start nuclear testing. What else are they going to do? We hit Afghanistan to try to get Bin Laden. The world understood that. But suddenly Bin Laden's out of the picture, and we're off to Iraq, after nonexistent terrorists, WMDs and nuclear weapons programs, and now we're threatening Iran, while of course saying nothing about actions taken by that country in the Middle East that is the State of Israel.

Bush's foreign policy, if he has one, is a shambles. We need to support the people of Iraq as well as we can - and as much as they request, while leaving them alone to sort out the problems we've created and exacerbated by toppling Saddam Husssein's government. And we really do need to find the guy responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

[pakaal]

Real wages are down, America eats up 25% of the world's energy, largest ozone hole yet, worlds oceans empty of fish in 40 years. Yeah, good point pwrslm, except for the "Democrats" part. If you'd put "Politicians" in there instead, I would have agreed wholeheartedly.

But yeah, things suck all over, what to do but maybe try not getting ourselves any further into a country we toppled under false pretenses and back to Afghanistan and Bin Laden, FINALLY implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, getting out of the biggest national debt ever, increase minimum wage, take back a few billion in tax breaks, work at separating lobbyists from government....

So, that's the Democrat's plan, and that's a lot better than we're getting now, and maybe the other problems we're talking about may actually get paid attention to, once they're in.

[pwrslm]

Democrats sold this country down the river. The Republicans didnt do a thing to stop them. What makes anyone thing these two parties have the interest of the people in mind? Housing costs are up 300 % in a decade, food prices are doubled, and they tell us that its ok because refrigerators only went up 45%?

Wake up America, we are being fleeced by the rich. The Government is nothing more than a puppet for the Money ******.

[pakaal]

dixieman06, Democrats certainly DO know what made this country great, and doing things like posting plans on how to build nuclear weapons - in Arabic - on a US Government website is not one of them. Nor is lying to the American people about WMDs in Iraq, taking the word of someone the CIA said was "crazy" about Saddam buying yellow-cake uranium, putting a horse show manager in charge of our national emergency services (oops here comes Katrina), listening to armchair neocons who said Iraq would be a "cakewalk", gutting our legal system by eliminating habeus corpus, taking America from its largest federal surplus to its greatest deficit ever, abandoning the search for Bin Laden, abandoning our mission in Afghanistan and its people.... Ugh, I'm tired of writing this endless litany!

So dixieman06, you just go ahead and tell me what's so great about all that, huh?

[doodlebug35]

The American people aren't stupid! They can be fooled,used, lied to,made to feel, unpatriotic!But in the end they see whats happening.The majority does!So Lets hope,who ever wins tomorrow,is not a goofy front man, for all the evil fools around him! Sad Sad bunch!!!!!!!!

[mh4cbs1]

The American People are finally waking up to understand that the Bush policy of
FEAR
HATE
LIES
WAR
PLUNDER
has been one massive DISASTER!

In case you didn't notice (of course CBS gave it ZERO converage), Bush signed HR5122, Public Law 109-364 into effect in October, the same day that the military tribunals law was passed. This law basically revises the Insurrection Act and the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, allowing Bush (the "War President") to declare martial law. He may need this if the NeoCons are planing to steal this election with their DieBold machines!

Section 1076 entitled, "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies." Section 333, "Major public emergencies; interference with State and Federal law" states that "the President may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United States, the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of ("refuse" or "fail" in) maintaining public order, "in order to suppress, in any State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy."

[pakaal]

By the way, only those who are morally bankrupt call someone who has served in our military a coward. Smearing the names of people like Murtha, Duckworth and Kerry is, plainly and simply put, shameful conduct. And please, don't bother posting those lies by America's largest political donor Bob Perry - his Swiftboat slander is not only factually in error, it's certainly embarassing to anyone who repeats it.

[pakaal]

Of course candidates are snubbing Bush. The ever-shrinking core of hardliners who still believe in the PNAC version of world reality in which the US must militarily dominate the rest of the planet, are hardly going to be enough to win anything like a majority in government from here on in. I mean heck, even Perle, Adelman and Frum - PNAC founders - are jumping ship!

The Bush administration has been selling out the tragedy of 9/11 for political gain six years now, and people are finally beginning to realize it.

[ibcrazybones]

dixieman06

Hmmmm, 56? You have not accumulated much wisdom for those advanced years. Still name calling like a child on the playground.

[dixieman06]

Hey, frankly6, I'm 56 years old and you don't have a clue to what I have done in my past. I can tell you this,real heroes don't go around talking about their purple hearts that they got by self-inflicted wounds.

[frankly6]

dixiemoron

I think you should show your courage by joining up to fight for your country. That's what Kerry did.

[wayfedup]

ticktockticktockticktock Time is TICKING DOWN, and the MORON MAJORITY is on their way OUT

[pakaal]

dixieman06 is right! no partying now, wait 'till Wednesday morning! y'all should be getting out the vote and helping at the voting booths to make sure the voice of the American people is heard.

And yeah, dixieman06, you're right, we could have had Kerry. In '04 we might still have had a chance at solving the Iraq problem that Bush and his PNAC neocon cabal threw in America's laps.

The bad news is that even if the Dems manage to take over both houses of Congress they're still stuck trying to fix what Bush broke - a daunting task to say the least. But at least the American people will FINALLY have someone in there looking out for their interests instead of just the "Special" ones.

[wayfedup]

dixieman...

kerry, a coward? how many medals do you have?