Bush

President Bush sidestepped two controversial environmental issues Monday as he took a brief swing along the West Coast.

In Portland, Ore., where Bush arrived Sunday night and left Monday morning, the President avoided committing himself on protection for the northern spotted owl, the bird whose fate has been bound up with the future of the Northwest’s remaining stands of “old growth” virgin forest.

Bush called for “balance” but did not define it.

Later in the day, during a brief stop in Los Angeles before flying back to Washington, Bush avoided any comment on offshore oil drilling. Last week, he said he was within “days, not weeks” of making a decision on whether to restrict drilling off the coasts of California and Florida.

Bush is widely expected to allow drilling off at least some parts of the Southern California coast. The White House has delayed for months announcing its policy, in part out of concern for the impact a politically unpopular decision to drill would have on Republican hopes of winning this fall’s election for governor.

Politics was at the center of the trip, which brought Bush from Texas to Oregon to Los Angeles and back to Washington in about 31 hours, roughly 11 hours of it on airplanes and only about 45 minutes in public.

But he will have spent several hours in political functions, mostly behind closed doors, in efforts to raise money for Republican candidates.

The chief purpose of Bush’s three-hour stop in Los Angeles, for example, was a lunch at the Bel-Air home of David Murdock, head of Castle Entertainment, where guests paying up to $25,000 apiece were expected to contribute about $700,000 to Republican coffers.

In Oregon, GOP officials estimated Bush raised more than $750,000 for Dave Frohnmayer, the Republican candidate for governor, as he spoke to several hundred people who had paid $1,000 to eat scrambled eggs and listen to political rhetoric at 8 o’clock on a Monday morning.

Because the White House added two non-political stops to the schedule–a 20-minute visit to view the model of a planned memorial to slain policemen in Portland and another 20 minutes at an anti-drug program here–the trip is considered “presidential,” rather than purely “political.” As a result, taxpayers, rather than the GOP, foot much of the bill.

In his remarks on Frohnmayer’s behalf, Bush spoke on both sides of the spotted owl issue.

“I reject those who would ignore the economic consequences of the spotted owl decision,” he said. “I also reject those who do not recognize their obligation to protect our delicate ecosystem.”

His audience, however, left no doubt about their sympathies, loudly applauding when he spoke in favor of considering economic factors and greeting his call for environmental protection with silence.

One of the GOP candidates Bush praised, Rep. Denny Smith (R-Ore.), was even more blunt. “There are millions of owls in the world,” he said. “The bottom line is people are more important than owls.”

Outside the hotel where Bush spoke, several dozen protesters demonstrated against logging. They were joined by other demonstrators protesting about a range of issues from AIDS to the policies of the Indian government in Kashmir.

One group of protesters did a dance across a downtown Portland street representing forest creatures. In keeping with the area’s reputation for civility, the group pranced into the street only when street lights said “Walk,” quickly returning to the sidewalk each time the “Don’t Walk” sign lit up.

Later, however, some demonstrators burned American flags and piles of newspaper in a street near the hotel, sparking at least 27 arrests, police said.

Environmental activists have campaigned to preserve the owl, which lives only in dense “old growth” forests of the Northwest, in large part as a way of protecting the forest ecosystem. Environmental groups argue that the remaining old-growth forests will be entirely gone within a generation if logging of them is not restricted.

Timber companies and many timber industry workers argue that logging restrictions sought by conservationists will put them out of work.

The federal Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed protecting the owl under the Endangered Species Act and is supposed to make a decision by June 23.

Bush has little role to play in that decision. But if the owl is listed as “endangered” or “threatened,” the White House could strongly influence the required writing of a plan to protect the creature. Environmentalists, in turn, could go to court if they believe the Administration does not protect the owl sufficiently.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — President Bush carried his message of military victory and economic challenge to the job-blighted Silicon Valley on Friday, thanking defense workers for their contributions to the war with Iraq and pressing his tax cut plan as the cure for the region’s — and nation’s — economic ills.

“We’ve come through some hard times,” Bush told engineers and technicians at United Defense Industries, which makes combat fighting vehicles. “Remember, we’ve overcome a recession. We’ve overcome an attack on our soil. We have been in two major battles in the war against terror, one in Afghanistan, one in Iraq.”

As he gears up for his 2004 reelection campaign, Bush has been formulating a message that puts the blame for the sluggish economy and rising unemployment on outside forces and national security emergencies. But to call attention to his record on national security issues, Bush has been choosing defense-related settings for speeches on the economy.

Bush on Friday acknowledged the especially difficult circumstances in Silicon Valley, which he described as “this incredibly vibrant part of the American economy over the past years [which] is not meeting its full potential.”

The president’s visit came as the Labor Department in Washington announced a jump in the unemployment rate for April, bringing it to 6%. That tied the figure for December as the highest rate in almost nine years.

Bush noted the news and called it “a clear signal to the United States Congress we need a bold economic recovery package so people can find work.”

The president then devoted much of his speech to pushing for a tax cut of at least $550 billion, which he claimed would create 1 million jobs nationwide by 2004.

“The plan I just outlined is one that will boost the economy in the Silicon Valley,” Bush said. “It’s a plan that is bold because we need a bold plan. It’s a plan that is thoughtful because we need a thoughtful plan. Most importantly, it’s a plan that will invigorate the entrepreneur spirit, which has been so strong here, and make it more likely somebody who’s looking for a job will be able to find one.”

But Bush’s plan has run into resistance in Congress. The president initially proposed a $725-billion, 11-year tax cut plan to stimulate economic growth. House Republican leaders, responding to concerns about the mounting federal budget deficit, have reduced the plan to $550 billion. In the Senate, moderate Republicans have led the push to limit it to $350 billion.

“I know you’ll hear talk about the deficit,” Bush said. “And we’ve got a deficit because we went through a recession. A recession means the economy slowed down to the extent where we’re losing revenues to the federal treasury. We got a recession because we went to war, and I said to our troops, if we’re going to commit you into harm’s way, you deserve the best equipment, the best training, the best possible pay.”

The president also reprised the theme he laid out a day earlier in a national address from the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln off the coast of San Diego — that the military conflict with Iraq was “one victory” in the war on terrorism that began after the 2001 attacks on America.

“On September the 11th, 2001, America learned that the vast oceans no longer protect us from the threats of a new era,” Bush said. “On that day 19 months ago, we also began a relentless worldwide campaign against terrorists and those who hate freedom in order to secure our homeland and to make the world a more peaceful place. And we’re making great progress.”

The defense sector is a bright spot in Silicon Valley, one of the most beleaguered regions of the state. According to Bureau of Labor statistics, the San Jose area has lost almost 16% of its workforce since Bush took office in January 2001, a total of about 175,000 jobs.

Nationwide, 2.7 million jobs have been lost since March 2001, when the recession began.

“The economy is not growing fast enough, and you know it as well as anybody here,” Bush said.

Democrats responding to Bush’s remarks pointed to the job-loss figures. “There continues to be serious question in his leadership on economic security issues,” said Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.).

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called on Bush to extend federal unemployment benefits in response to the rising jobless rate — “a very fast way for us to inject purchasing power into the economy,” she said.

As president, Bush has been an infrequent visitor to California, which he lost to Democratic candidate Al Gore in 2000 by 14 percentage points. Bush’s trip was the sixth in his presidency and the first since Aug. 24. In contrast, Bill Clinton had visited California 17 times at this stage in his presidency.

Silicon Valley leans Democratic politically, but the choice of a defense industry plant ensured a warm and responsive crowd. The president spoke at a division of United Defense Industries, based in Arlington, Va., which makes ground combat systems such as the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, which was integral in Iraq.

Bush noted the 750-employee Santa Clara facility also makes the Hercules Tank Recovery Vehicle, which helped topple the statue of Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad.

“The guy with the sledgehammer on the statue needed a little help,” Bush said to laughter and cheers from the audience. “Thankfully, there was a Hercules close by.”

As he left Santa Clara, Bush was joined by Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his wife, who were to ride with him on Air Force One to his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Howard, who was a strong supporter of the president’s confrontation with Iraq, was to spend a night at the ranch — an honor that has been reserved for foreign leaders closest to Bush.

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Times staff writers Joseph Menn in San Francisco and Nick Anderson in Washington contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — Washington National Cathedral on Thursday hosts a bipartisan show of respect and remembrance for Dick Cheney, the consequential and polarizing vice president who in later years became an acidic scold of fellow Republican President Trump.

Trump, who has been publicly silent about Cheney’s death Nov. 3, was not invited to the 11 a.m. memorial service.

Two ex-presidents are coming: Republican George W. Bush, who is to eulogize the man who served him as vice president, and Democrat Joe Biden, who once called Cheney “the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history” but now honors his commitment to his family and to his values.

Daughter Liz Cheney, a former high-ranking House member whose Republican political career was shredded by Trump’s MAGA movement, will join Bush in addressing the gathering at the grand church known as “a spiritual home for the nation.”

Others delivering tributes include Cheney’s longtime cardiologist, Jonathan Reiner; former NBC News correspondent Pete Williams, who was Cheney’s spokesman at the Pentagon; and the former vice president’s grandchildren. Hundreds of guests are expected.

Cheney had lived with heart disease for decades and, after the Bush administration, with a heart transplant. He died at age 84 from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, his family said.

The White House lowered its flags to half-staff after Cheney’s death, as it said the law calls for, but Trump did not issue the presidential proclamation that often accompanies the death of notable figures, nor has he commented publicly on his passing.

The deeply conservative Cheney’s influence in the Bush administration was legendary and, to his critics, tragic.

He advocated for the U.S. invasion of Iraq on the basis of what proved to be faulty intelligence and consistently defended the extraordinary tools of surveillance, detention and inquisition employed in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Bush credited him with helping to keep the country safe and stable in a perilous time.

After the 2020 election won by Biden, Liz Cheney served as vice chair of the Democratic-led special House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. She accused Trump of summoning the violent mob and plunging the nation into “a moment of maximum danger.”

For that, she was stripped of her Republican leadership position and ultimately defeated in a 2022 Republican primary in Wyoming. In a campaign TV ad made for his daughter, Dick Cheney branded Trump a “coward” who “tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him.”

Last year, it did not sit well with Trump when Cheney said he would vote for Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential election.

Trump told Arab and Muslim voters that Cheney’s support for Harris should give them pause, because he “killed more Arabs than any human being on Earth. He pushed Bush, and they went into the Middle East.”

Woodward writes for the Associated Press.