Spring Break
Bush gives Musgrave a pocketbook boost
STEVEN K. PAULSON, Associated Press Writer
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DENVER - As hundreds of people protested outside, President Bush helped pump $450,000 into the re-election campaign of Rep. Marilyn Musgrave on Tuesday during a fund-raiser that saw his plan to slow down illegal immigration win only lukewarm support from Colorado Republicans.
Bush said the two-term congresswoman needs help "to defeat the special interests that are trying to drive her out of office."
Musgrave represents the sprawling 4th District, which sweeps from northern Colorado's fast-growing cities to the farms and ranches of the eastern and southern plains. She is considered by some GOP analysts to be among the party's most vulnerable lawmakers in next year's election.
Outlining a plan he also discussed during stops in Arizona and Texas, Bush said he wants to end the "catch and release" cycle that sends illegal immigrants back across the border, only to have them quickly return. The president's new plan calls for returning them to their hometowns, making it more difficult for them to sneak back into the United States.
"I stand strongly against amnesty. Amnesty sends the wrong message," he said.
Bush said he is counting on support from Musgrave, who last year opposed the president's plan to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants.
"I look forward to working with her on a rational immigration policy. The United States of America will secure our borders," he said.
Bush, faced with sagging approval ratings and growing questions from within his own party, has been trying to bridge two competing interests within his conservative constituency: businesses that want cheap labor and conservatives who want to seal the borders.
Musgrave's campaign manager, Guy Short, said the new plan is an improvement but it still falls short.
"What the president said about catch and release and securing the borders, those are certainly principles she supports," Short said.
Other conservative Colorado Republicans called the plan a backdoor attempt to grant amnesty.
"He calls it a guest worker program, but it would reward people who have been here illegally," said state Rep. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs.
"It's totally unacceptable. He's trying to walk a fine line on both sides of the issue, and it isn't working," said Schultheis, who recently toured the Mexican border.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who became a pariah in the White House after he took on the president over illegal immigration, was not part of Tuesday's fund-raiser. His spokesman, Will Adams, said Tancredo was too busy with media appearances criticizing the president's plan, though Tancredo welcomed the president's commitment to increase border patrols and end "catch and release."
"The more he talks about that, the more he's pinned into a corner to do what he says," Adams said.
As Bush spoke in the Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver, about 500 people swarmed outside, blowing whistles, chanting and pounding on pots and pans in a noisy but largely peaceful protest. Most denounced the war in Iraq.
Some protesters briefly blocked the path of two media buses that were trailing Bush's motorcade, and some shouted and made obscene gestures before police cleared them out of the way.
Inside, Bush repeated his defense of the war in Iraq, saying the goal of insurgents is to drive the United States out of the struggling nation.
"It's not going to happen on my watch," Bush said to sustained applause.
The president later hugged Musgrave, who generated controversy two years ago by promoting a constitutional ban on gay marriage, a campaign she said she has put on hold while she runs for re-election.
She beat Democrat Stan Matsunaka in 2002 by 13 percentage points, but in a rematch last year, her margin shrank to about half that after a barrage of unflattering television ads. Musgrave said gay rights groups and others spent $2.5 million on television advertising attacking her.
Musgrave thanked Bush for his support, saying she was proud to be one of the few members of Congress to get personal support from the president for next year's elections. With Tuesday's total, she has raised about $1.5 million for next year's election campaign.
Her only announced Democratic challenger, state Rep. Angie Paccione of Fort Collins, expects to raise $100,000 by the end of this year.
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Associated Press Writer Jon Sarche contributed to this report.
