President Bush was in the neighborhood Wednesday on a fundraising visit for Congressman Bob Beauprez, but if you were expecting a public rally with balloons and speeches and chest-beating campaign promises, you’d be awfully disappointed. Bush and Beauprez did not appear in public together.
The president was headliner at a private fundraiser for Beauprez’s Republican gubernatorial campaign.
At this stage of the election season, you’d think the second-term president and the House member who was with him on 98 percent of the key votes would link arms and parade down Colfax Avenue kissing babies and asking for voters’ support. Instead, with the president’s approval rating hovering in the 40 percent range, GOP strategists kept Bush and Beauprez behind a security cordon at the Inverness Hotel and Conference Center, with contributors.
One key Republican skipped the event. Rick O’Donnell, the candidate vying to succeed Beauprez in the hotly contested 7th Congressional District, said he had a previously scheduled event with seniors.
Bush’s visit was the last stop on a Western campaign swing that also included Nevada, California and Arizona. Beauprez’s fundraising has lagged behind that of his Democratic opponent, Bill Ritter. The money raised by Bush will fortify Beauprez’s war chest for the last month of his campaign.
Since the president did not appear in public, we’re pretty certain no critics were arrested for challenging his policies. That’s what happened last June when Vice President Dick Cheney was in the state.
Cheney was posing for pictures and shaking hands in Beaver Creek when Steven Howards of Golden happened upon the scene, shuttling his young sons to piano camp. Howards stopped long enough to tell the vice president: “I think your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.”
Five or 10 minutes later, when Howards was walking by again with his son, he was arrested by a Secret Service agent and charged with assault, according to a lawsuit Howards filed on Tuesday. The piano dad maintains he didn’t come close to touching let alone assaulting the vice president. Charges eventually were dropped.
The Secret Service has declined to comment. The lawsuit is in its early stages, but if Howards’ allegations prove out, they constitute a shocking abuse of power.
By comparison, limiting the administration’s public appearances may be less complicated for everyone.
