[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
[August 29, 2002]
[Pages 1496-1502]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Luncheon for Gubernatorial Candidate Steve Largent and Senator James M. Inhofe 
in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
August 29, 2002

    Thank you all. It's nice to be here in Oklahoma. Thanks. I 
appreciate so very much the invitation to come and throw my support 
behind a fine United States Senator and a person this State is surely 
going to reelect, and that's Jim Inhofe. And I'm also honored to be here 
with ``Governor'' Largent. It's got a nice ring to it.
    Thanks for inviting me. There's not much that differentiates Texas 
and Oklahoma--maybe the Red River, a little difference of opinion about 
football. [Laughter] But

[[Page 1497]]

I'm thrilled to be here to see so many friends. I've always felt at home 
in Oklahoma, and I want to thank you all for such wonderful hospitality. 
As my friend said, he said, ``You got to remember when you're heading up 
there, civilization ends at the Red River.'' And as my Oklahoma friends 
said, ``Yeah, depends on which side you're coming from.'' [Laughter] But 
one thing is for certain--people on both sides of the Red River love 
America.
    I want to appreciate Don Nickles. He is a 
leader in the United States Senate. I spent a lot of quality time with 
him. There in the Cabinet Room, we're talking about important issues and 
plotting strategy on how to get things through the Senate that are 
positive for America. Don, he loves Oklahoma, of course, and he always 
reminds me about the virtues of Oklahoma. But he clearly loves America 
too. He's providing important leadership for our country, and for that I 
am grateful. And I, too, want to call you friend, and thanks for being 
here, Don.
    I appreciate so very much Kay Inhofe for 
putting up with Jim and for being such a good mom. The Inhofes are--got 
fantastic values, because they understand: Good values, first and 
foremost, start at home. I'm honored to meet--gosh, I don't know how 
many grandkids I met--11 of them. Well, if they all get out to vote, 
it's going to be a landslide. [Laughter] But I want to thank the Inhofe 
family. I want to thank Kay. And I also want to thank the next first 
lady of Oklahoma, Terry Largent, in her 
support for her husband, Steve.
    All of us up here on this stage married above ourselves. [Laughter] 
I had the privilege of saying goodbye for a brief period of time to our 
First Lady, who's down there in Crawford. She 
is--she was born and raised in west Texas. That's kind of like western 
Oklahoma, not a lot of native trees and not a lot of water but a lot of 
really good people. She's down to earth; she's capable. You know, when I 
married her, she was a public school librarian, and the truth of the 
matter is, she didn't particularly care about politicians or politics. 
And here she is, and what a great comforting voice and what a great 
wife, and what a wonderful First Lady we have. I am incredibly proud.
    Anyway, she sends her love. She sends her 
love, and she joins me in thanking those of you who want to help these 
good candidates. Thank you for what you've done and what you're going to 
do, which is turn out the vote, which is to go to your coffee shops and 
your churches and your community centers and tell the people of Oklahoma 
you've got two good ones in these candidates. It makes sense to send 
these people to their respective jobs, not for the good of Republicans 
but for the good of all the people in the great State of Oklahoma.
    I want to thank the members of the Oklahoma congressional 
delegation. I am proud to work with them on a regular basis. I'm proud 
we have worked together to accomplish some things on behalf of the 
American people. I want to thank Congressman John Sullivan, who is here. I want to thank Wes Watkins. And we're going to miss you, friend. Ernest 
Istook is here; thank you for coming, 
Ernest. Frank Lucas is here. I appreciate 
you, Big Frank, for coming. And finally, another man we're going to miss 
is J.C. Watts. I appreciate you, J.C. I'm 
sure you'll be able to figure out how to get a hold of me if you need 
me. [Laughter] But thank you both for your service, and thank all the 
congressional Members for being here.
    I was so pleased to see that my friend Tom Cole 
won a primary in a convincing way. He beat a field of good people. But 
he's going to be the next Congressman, replacing J.C. Watts. I thank you for coming, Tom.
    I appreciate your Lieutenant Governor, Mary Fallin, for coming today. I appreciate her long service to the 
great State of Oklahoma. I appreciate her working with my

[[Page 1498]]

friend Frank Keating, who's done a fine job on 
behalf of the people of Oklahoma. I want to thank the mayor of Oklahoma 
City, Kirk Humphreys. Kirk has done a fine 
job for Oklahoma City. I'm proud to call him friend, and I know the 
people of this city are proud to call him mayor.
    I thank Brenda Reneau for being here, who 
is the head of your department of labor. I also want to thank Chad 
Alexander, who's the chairman of the 
Republican Party. And again, I want to thank you all for coming.
    Most of all, I want to extol the virtues of your next Governor. He's 
a solid citizen. He doesn't need a poll to tell him what to think or 
what to believe. It's clear when you get to know Steve that he's got his 
principles indelibly etched on his heart. He's got his priorities 
straight. He has faith foremost in his life, and his family are his two 
priorities, and then comes government. But it's with--those kind of 
priorities are important for a leader. And that's what you're trying to 
figure out, who's the best leader for the people of Oklahoma, who has 
got a vision based upon principle, not based upon polls, who will set 
the right priorities for the people of this State. And there's no doubt 
in my mind that Steve Largent has the right priorities for the people of 
this great State of Oklahoma.
    And his first priority--his first priority is to make sure every 
child in this State gets educated, not just a few, not just some from 
the big, fancy school districts, but every child. That's his vision. 
See, he understands what I know, that if you have low standards, you get 
low results. If you don't believe every child can learn, then certain 
children won't learn, and that's inexcusable to the State of Oklahoma.
    So Steve travels this State, talking about setting the highest of 
high standards with the belief that every child can learn. He also 
understands that if the legislature micromanages the public schools, if 
they decide to set all kinds of rules that require permission slips in 
order for there to be local control of schools, you won't get excellence 
for every child. So like me, he is a strong advocate of local control of 
schools.
    But as well, he understands what I know: You've got to hold people 
accountable. You see, if you believe every child can learn, then you're 
willing to say, ``Let's see.'' If you believe certain children can't 
learn, then you don't support accountability. If you believe every child 
can learn, you're not afraid to measure, to determine whether every 
child is learning. You see, the accountability is so important to make 
sure no child gets left behind. It's important also to make sure that 
you address problems early, before it's too late. Steve knows what I 
know: There are no second-class children in the State of Oklahoma.
    I appreciate his attitude about the role of Government and the 
entrepreneur. The role of Government is not to create wealth. The role 
of Government should create an environment in which the entrepreneur can 
flourish, which means you've got to have wise tax policy. You see, you 
use your Tax Code in order to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit. If 
you over-tax the entrepreneur, it diminishes the capacity for the small 
business to grow and to create good, vibrant jobs. He understands that.
    And one of the big issues that he is going to take on is to reform 
the workers' compensation system here in the State of Oklahoma. He also 
knows that by far the biggest engine of job creation is small business. 
That's where most of the new jobs come from in America, and therefore, 
we've got to have policy aimed at small business. And one thing we've 
got to do, in order to make sure small business grows, is to understand 
the role of the lawsuit in our society. You need to have yourself a 
Governor who's willing to look at the plaintiff's attorney straight in 
the eye and ask for and get tort reform in the State of Oklahoma.
    I appreciate his values. I appreciate his vision. I appreciate his 
background. I appreciate the fact that he's a winner. And

[[Page 1499]]

I appreciate that I'm on the stage with the next Governor of Oklahoma, 
Steve Largent.
    And I appreciate being with a United States Senator who stands on 
principle, who does what he thinks is right and has lived up to his 
word. He's a fellow that said, ``I'm going to Washington. I'm not going 
to change.'' And he didn't. I think the thing that struck me most about 
Jim in our conversation on Air Force One--by the way, it's not a bad way 
to travel--[laughter]--was that when he described when his daughter was 
professor of the year. See, he's from a family of teachers. His 
wife is a teacher. They raised some teachers. Jim 
understands the importance of teaching, and for those of you who have 
got family members who are teachers or you're teachers yourself, I want 
to thank you from the bottom of our collective hearts up here for what 
you do. But he's a man who understands the importance of teaching in our 
society, teaching not only lessons of reading and writing but teaching 
right from wrong.
    He understands the role of energy, the need for an energy policy. 
See, the people of Oklahoma also understand that. We need an energy 
policy in America. We need a policy that encourages conservation and 
renewables, but we need a wise policy that makes sure we've got energy 
here at home. It's in our economic interests that we promote jobs 
through good energy policy, and it's in our national security interests 
that we become less dependent on foreign sources of crude oil. We need 
to get us an energy bill. These two Senators understand that. We need to 
get that bill to my desk as soon as they get back from the August 
recess. It's in our Nation's interest that we do so.
    Jim also was supportive of the tax relief plan that I campaigned on 
and got through the Congress. And that was important. You see, you've 
got to remember something about our economy: When we came in there, the 
economy was just beginning to get into a recession. There had been a 
slowdown, but the first three quarters of my administration was in 
recession. That means the economy was going backwards. Thankfully, the 
last three quarters have been going forward. But one of the reasons 
why--I'm absolutely certain one of the reasons why is because we let the 
people keep their own money.
    We read from the same textbook. It's the textbook that says, if you 
let the people have their own money, they will demand a good or service. 
And if they demand a good or service, somebody will produce the good or 
service. And when somebody produces that good or service, somebody is 
more likely to find jobs. The tax cut, which needs to be permanent--it 
needs to be permanent--came at the right time for the American economy. 
And I want to thank Jim for his strong support.
    See, he and I understand this: When it comes time to spend the money 
in Washington, we're not spending the Government's money, we're spending 
the people's money.
    I want to thank Jim for his support of making sure our seniors have 
got prescription drugs and Medicare. It's time to modernize an important 
system. The system has lagged behind reality. Medicine has changed; 
Medicare hasn't. And we need leadership in the Senate to make sure the 
Medicare system meets the needs of our seniors, not only in Oklahoma but 
all around the country. And I want to thank you on that, Jim, very much 
for your leadership.
    And finally, we need to get him back up there so he'll support some 
judges that I nominated. I found fine people to serve on our bench, 
good, honorable, honest people. We named one, Priscilla Owen, recently. She's smart. She's capable, one of the 
top students when she was in law school at Baylor. She got elected 
twice--I think twice, but I know she got elected at least twice 
statewide in Texas, with overwhelming numbers. She's a very, very smart

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and capable woman. But somehow, some of them up there don't like her. I 
guess maybe they don't like the fact that I nominated her. But this 
isn't right for the judicial system, for them to be playing politics 
with a fine, smart, capable woman. And we need people like Jim Inhofe up 
there to defend my judicial nominees in Washington, DC.
    And I need him up there because he is a strong voice for the defense 
of this Nation. He's one of the leading advocates for national defense 
in Washington. We both understand that history has now called us into 
action. History has now said to America: You must defend freedom. And 
that's exactly what this country is going to do.
    I submitted the largest increase in defense spending since Ronald 
Reagan was the President. And I did so for two reasons: One, I want to 
make it absolutely clear that anytime we put one of our soldiers into 
harm's way, that person must receive the best training, the best 
possible pay, the best equipment. We owe it to our soldiers, and we owe 
it to their families.
    And I appreciate Jim Inhofe's strong, strong support for that 
defense budget. He's one of the leaders on the floor of the Senate. He 
also understands that we need to send that increase up there because we 
want to make it clear to our friends and allies and foes that we're in 
this deal for the long pull. There is no calendar on my desk that says, 
by such-and-such a date, we're quitting. See, when it comes to the 
defense of freedom, when it comes to the defense of the values we hold 
dear, this United States will be relentless and tough, and we will be 
victorious.
    My most important job now is to defend innocent life in America. The 
enemy has taken the battle to us, and they're still there. These are 
haters. They're nothing but a bunch of coldblooded killers. You need to 
tell your kids--people say, ``Well, what do I tell my children?'' You 
tell your children, ``Because this Nation loves freedom, they hate us, 
because this Nation values each and every life.'' See, every life is 
important to America. Every life is noble. Every life is worthwhile. 
That's the exact opposite of the enemy. They don't value life. They're 
willing to take innocent life just like that. They've hijacked a fine, 
fine, and important religion just to cover their murderous ways.
    And remember, it's a different kind of enemy. You see, you used to 
be able to measure the strength of an enemy by counting his tanks or 
airplanes or ships. These are the kind that go to a cave and send 
youngsters to their suicidal death. That's the kind of people we're 
fighting. But there's no cave deep enough for America or dark enough to 
hide. No matter how long it takes, one by one we're going to hunt them 
down and bring them to justice.
    And that's what that defense budget says. That's what that defense 
budget clearly says. And that's why, as soon as the Congress gets back, 
they need to get the defense bill to my desk and not play politics with 
the defense of the United States of America.
    No, that's the best way to defend the homeland, is to hunt them 
down. In the meantime, I've got to have a Department of Homeland 
Security that more enables me to tell the American people we're doing 
everything we can to protect the homeland. I mean, we need to know who's 
coming in the country, what they're bringing in the country, and if 
they're leaving the country when they say they're going to leave the 
country. We need to have the capacity to put the right people in the 
right place at the right time to defend America.
    I readily concede I didn't run on the platform: ``Vote for me. I 
promise to make your Government bigger.'' I did say, ``I'm going to try 
to make it work better.'' And so when I got up there and realized 
there's over 100 agencies involved with homeland security, I knew it 
would be hard to hold people to account with that many agencies 
scattered all over Washington. So I made

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a proposal to the Congress. I said, ``Join together, and let's have a 
Department that works.''
    The House responded, and I want to thank the House Members here. 
These two Senators have responded. The problem is, is that there's other 
Senators in Washington who want to micromanage the process. See, they 
put their own turf ahead of the security of the American people. They're 
more interested in special interests in Washington than the interest of 
homeland security. I will not accept a homeland security bill that ties 
the hands of this administration or future administrations to defend the 
homeland against the enemy.
    My point to you is, Jim understands this. He doesn't need--he 
doesn't need a special meeting at the White House to understand this. 
See, he understands it right off the bat, and that's why it's important 
that you reelect him. He also understands that there's going to be some 
tough times ahead for America; there just are. If you're in this for the 
long pull, if you're fighting an enemy that hides in the shadows of the 
world, it's going to take a while.
    We owe it to our children, however, that we keep going on. That's 
who we owe it to. But not only to our children, we owe it to children 
all around the world. We will enforce doctrine--one doctrine says, 
``You're with us, or you're with them.'' And we work hard to keep this 
coalition of nations together. It makes it easier to share intelligence 
and to haul them in when we can find them. And by the way, we've pulled 
in over--a couple a thousand of them. A couple of thousand Al Qaida 
types and terrorist leaders are no longer circulating around. By the 
way, about equal that number weren't as lucky.
    We've got a lot of work to do. We've got a lot of work to do to also 
enforce that doctrine that says, ``If you harbor one of them, you're 
just as guilty. If you harbor a terrorist, you're as guilty as the 
terrorist.''
    So it's important to have Senators and Members of the House who 
understand the need for this Nation to be steady and resolved and 
determined and honest about the difference between good and evil. It 
also is important to have leadership that understands that we must not 
allow the world's worst leaders to develop and harbor the world's worst 
weapons.
    I've got a lot of tools at my disposal, and I'm a patient man--and 
I'm a patient man. But I understand that history gives us an opportunity 
to make the world more peaceful. See, out of the evil done to America is 
going to come some incredible good. And you need to tell your little 
ones that part of that good is a more peaceful world, that there's going 
to be some steep hills to climb between now and then, but by being tough 
and strong, patient, smart, and wise about using our assets and all the 
tools at our disposal, that we can make the world more peaceful for 
generations to come.
    By fighting terror where we find it, and by rallying people to join 
us, I believe the evil done to America--out of that evil will come 
peace. I also know here at home that we'll be a better America.
    I don't know what went through the minds of the enemy when they 
attacked us. They probably thought we were so materialistic, so selfish, 
so self-absorbed, so greedy, that all we'd do after September 11th is 
maybe file a lawsuit or two. They didn't understand the character of 
this Nation. They didn't understand that if you try to take away our 
freedoms, we're going to respond. See, we love--we love freedom. That's 
what they didn't understand. They hate things. We love things. They act 
out of hatred. We don't seek revenge; we seek justice out of love.
    They also couldn't have possibly realized that the evil done to 
America would waken a spirit of compassion in this country. See, people 
say to me, ``How can I join the war on terror?'' I say, ``Just love your 
neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself. If you want to fight 
evil, do some good. If you want to fight evil, put your arms around a 
child and say, `I love you. I'd

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like to mentor you. I want to help you.''' You see, in this land of 
plenty, there are pockets of despair, addiction, and hopelessness. I 
understand full well Government can hand out money, but it cannot put 
hope in people's hearts. It can't provide a purpose for people's lives. 
No, that is done when our fellow citizens take the time out of their 
life to love somebody. That's when that happens.
    See, America is changing, one heart, one soul, one conscience at a 
time, because our fellow Americans have now understood--understand--that 
being a patriot is more than the Pledge of Allegiance, pledging your 
allegiance to ``one Nation under God.'' A patriot is somebody who is 
willing to take responsibility for their lives, willing to love a 
neighbor, willing to mentor a child, willing to go to a shut-in and help 
somebody in need, willing to feed the hungry, willing to be a Boy Scout 
leader, willing to change America one soul, one conscience at a time. 
And that's what's happening here in America.
    America has understood that each of us can't do everything, but each 
of can do something to make our country a better place. Perhaps that was 
best illustrated on Flight 93. Citizens flying across the country--they 
realized their plane was going to be a weapon. They told their loved 
ones they loved them. They said a prayer. A guy said, ``Let's roll.'' 
They saved lives. They served something greater than themselves.
    No, out of the evil done to America is going to come some incredible 
good, peace, and a more compassionate, decent, hopeful America for 
everybody--I mean everybody--who's lucky enough to call themselves 
citizen of this great country.
    We're going to succeed. There's no question in my mind. On my wall 
there's a painting of a west Texas scene by Tom Lea. He said: ``Sarah 
and I live on the east side of the mountain. It is the sunrise side, not 
the sunset side. It's the side to see the day that is coming, not to see 
the day that has gone.'' I see a day that is coming that is fantastic 
for America, because we are the greatest nation on the face of the 
Earth.
    God bless, and God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 11:25 a.m. at the Cox Convention Center. In 
his remarks, he referred to Kay Inhofe, wife of Senator James M. Inhofe; 
Tom Cole, candidate for Oklahoma's Fourth Congressional District; Gov. 
Frank Keating of Oklahoma; Chad Alexander, chairman, Oklahoma Republican 
Party; and Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen, nominee to be 
U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit.