Bush, Cheney tie Dem win to terrorists / GOP leaders turn up the rhetoric to stoke voter base Article:Bush, Cheney tie Dem win to terrorists / GOP leaders tu:/c/a/2006/10/31/MNG1GM2U2M1.DTL Article:Bush, Cheney tie Dem win to terrorists / GOP leaders tu:/c/a/2006/10/31/MNG1GM2U2M1.DTL advertisement | your ad here <http://www.sfgate.com/mediakit/>
[image: SFGate] </> Back to Article</cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/31/MNG1GM2U2M1.DTL> [image: SFGate] Bush, Cheney tie Dem win to terrorists GOP leaders turn up the rhetoric to stoke voter base Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post Tuesday, October 31, 2006 *(10-31) 04:00 PDT Sugar Land, Texas* -- President Bush said terrorists will win if Democrats win and impose their policies on Iraq, as he and Vice President Dick Cheney escalated their rhetoric Monday in an effort to turn out Republican voters in next week's midterm elections. Faced with potential GOP defeat in both the House and Senate, Bush and Cheney aimed to avert that by convincing voters they cannot risk giving the opposition party any power in Washington. "However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses," Bush told a raucous crowd of some 5,000 GOP partisans packed in the arena at an earlier stop at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Ga. "That's what's at stake in this election. The Democrat goal is to get out of Iraq. The Republican goal is to win in Iraq." Democrats reacted sharply to the latest White House attacks. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Bush "resorted to the same tired old partisan attacks in a desperate attempt to hold onto power." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said Bush is looking to retain a "rubber-stamp Republican Congress that has done nothing to change our failed Iraq policy." Cheney, meanwhile, said in an interview with Fox News that he believed insurgents in Iraq are timing their attacks to influence the American elections. "It's my belief that they're very sensitive of the fact that we've got an election scheduled," he said. Cheney said the insurgents believe "they can break the will of the American people. ... That's what they're trying to do." The increasingly combative tone from the White House signaled a coordinated GOP effort to use every channel to remind conservatives why they should turn out to vote, despite what many say is their disenchantment with the Mark Foley page scandal, anger over escalating federal spending and anxiety over the course of the Iraq war. The president's travel schedule in the final week of the campaign is a stark reminder of his political weakness in many parts of the country -- and in many swing districts -- where it is too dangerous for GOP candidates to be seen with Bush. After his rally in Georgia on Monday, Bush flew to Sugar Land to stump for the GOP candidate trying to succeed former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who won his seat by 14 points two years ago before resigning his seat amid the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. There was no sign of the man who once relished his Capitol Hill reputation as "The Hammer" on Monday's visit. "The fact that Republicans are working hard to hold onto one of the most Republican districts in the country -- that tells you the depth of the Republican struggles around the country," said Amy Walter, who tracks House races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. White House aides disputed this characterization, saying the Sugar Land race is a special case since DeLay resigned too late for the courts to allow the GOP to replace him on the ballot. Instead, Republicans are promoting Shelley Sekula Gibbs, a Houston city councilwoman and dermatologist, as a write-in candidate. The crowd at Georgia Southern seemed to respond most enthusiastically to Bush's most conservative lines, roaring after Bush criticized last week's ruling from the New Jersey Supreme Court that gay couples are entitled to the same rights as heterosexual couples. Bush said the ruling "raises doubt about the institution of marriage." "We believe that marriage is a union between a man and a woman and should be defended," Bush shouted. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/31/MNG1GM2U2M1.DTL This article appeared on page *A - 5* of the San Francisco Chronicle © 2006 Hearst Communications Inc. </chronicle/info/copyright/> | Privacy Policy </pages/privacy/> | Feedback </feedback/> | RSS Feeds </rss/> | FAQ</chronicle/faq.shtml>| Site Index </index/> | Contact </staff/> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/31/MNG1GM2U2M1.DTL&type=printable ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:303945 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
