Some GOP flee from Bush, but not his money

'The big issue now is the war'
Worries over the Iraq war are weighing down all Republicans and causing strains between Bush and his congressional allies. “The big issue is now the war,” said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

In a White House news conference earlier this week, Bush acknowledged the war was dominating the nation’s attention. “So there’s a certain unease as you head into an election year. I understand that,” he said.

A president is typically his party’s fundraiser-in-chief, and Bush has embraced the role like no other, besting even the reception-loving Bill Clinton in total dollars collected. Bush headlined events that raised more than $140 million for Republican Party committees and candidates in each of the 2002 and 2004 election cycles.

In 2005, Bush held 20 fundraising events, raising $75.5 million, while Cheney held 36 events that brought in $15 million. So far this year, Bush has held six events raising $12.5 million, and Cheney has held 11 events that raised $1.6 million, according to a GOP tabulation.

“The Republicans want to make withdrawals from the White House ATM. But at the same time, they don’t want to be photographed or be seen being anywhere near the White House at this time,” said Phil Singer, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

But Brian Nick, spokesman of the counterpart National Republican Senatorial Committee, said the large sums of money that Bush and Cheney are able to attract are “indicative of what both the president and the vice president have been willing to do since their election. ... It shows the dedication to keeping the majority.”

Popular with the base
Polls show Bush and Cheney remain enormously popular with the GOP base and conservatives. An AP-Ipsos poll earlier this month showed Bush holding a 74 percent approval rating among Republicans, compared with 37 percent overall.

“He enjoys very strong support there. His problem is with swing voters,” said Rutgers political scientist Ross Baker.

It is in states like New Jersey and Ohio, where swing voters have the most clout, that the races are the tightest, and where Democrats are working hard to tie Republican candidates to Bush administration policies.

Democrats, for instance, had some fun with Kean missing Cheney at the New Jersey fundraiser, pointing to news accounts that he had taken traffic-clogged Route 1 — at rush hour — rather than driving on the less-congested New Jersey Turnpike. “We made the photo that Tom Kean Jr. feared,” said a Democratic news release with a computer-generated picture of Kean and Cheney standing side by side.

For his part, Cheney seemed to take Kean’s absence in stride. “I do some of my best work when I’m without a candidate,” he quipped at the fundraiser.

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