Ms. Reno And 'The President'

CBS Early Show Contributor Craig Crawford reports from Florida, where a candidate for governor got some campaign help from the commander in chief. And neither of them were named Bush.

On the lips!

Oh sure, the nation's longest-serving attorney general in history was only smooching television's fake president, Martin Sheen, who plays the commander in chief on the prime-time series "West Wing."

But hey, the real president's affections are taken in this fight for the governorship of Florida. The sitting governor, Jeb Bush, is his brother. And Al Gore proved a little kissy-face goes a long way toward loosening a stiff politician's image.

So Reno traveled the state over the weekend with a fictional president, launching their three-day swing with a tender moment in front of 750 contributors at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.

"Martin Sheen, thank you for your passion, for your caring about the humankind of this planet," Reno told her supporters after greeting the actor to the stage.

Sheen returned the praise in kind.

"Florida is fortunate enough to have a very rare opportunity to engage the most qualified and gifted public servant imaginable in Miss Reno."

Getting cozy with celebrities has become a hallmark of the Reno campaign. Talk-show host Rosie O'Donnell raised money for her. Reno showed up on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. And she is a fixture in the scripts of "Saturday Night Live."

In Reno's Miami fund-raiser speech, she only hinted at the substance of her campaign, keeping power dry for what will undoubtedly be a hard-fought general election campaign if she wins the Democratic nomination in the September primary against wealthy Tampa attorney Bill McBride.

On the subject of the missing welfare child, Rilya Wilson – and reports of hundreds more missing in a growing scandal for the Jeb Bush administration – Reno previewed what will likely become a sustained attack on the state agency in charge of foster kids.

"I want to give our children a good, healthy, safe start in this world. I don't want them lost. I don't want them missing. The governor talked a good line, but he has not delivered to an agency that is under-funded, under-staffed and overwhelmed."

But Florida Democrats are up against a governor who targets his owns weaknesses as soon as they spot them. He was quick to launch an investigation of the state's missing foster children and put pressure on the agency in charge.

In perhaps the most effective move against Reno, the Bush brothers shored up their credentials on the environment. Reno is a native of the Everglades, where her mother built their home. Throughout her public career, starting as a state prosecutor in Miami, she has advocated protection of South Florida's fragile ecosystem.

Thus it was no mere coincidence that President Bush recently announced a federal buyout of oil-drilling rights in the Everglades and elsewhere in Florida.

And Jeb Bush is no slacker on the celebrity front. His brother will make his tenth trip to Florida since becoming president later this month, headlining yet another fund-raiser for the state Republican Party at Universal Studios in Orlando.

Even as Reno and Sheen prepared to campaign together, Gov. Bush brought in former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for a talk with Orlando firefighters. Giuiliani brought tears to their eyes with stories of brave New York City firemen on 911. Then they voted to endorse Jeb Bush.

Reno's president could not deliver millions of dollars in taxpayer money to save the Everglades, but he could make people cry. As only a Hollywood method actor can do, Sheen moved his Miami audience with poetry. And then he talked as though he thinks he really is president.

"On my desk in the West Wing I keep a small plaque with a powerful prayer I read every day," Sheen said without a smile or any hint of humor. The prayer is one President John F. Kennedy kept on his desk in the Oval Office.

"Oh Lord, your sea is so great and my boat is so small."