    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book I)]
    [May 19, 2006]
    [Pages 970-976]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Reception for Congressional Candidate Geoffrey C.
    Davis in Florence, Kentucky
    May 19, 2006

        The President. Thank you all very much. Geoff, thanks very much for
    your kind introduction; thanks for your service. I'm here because
    there's no doubt in my mind, Geoff Davis is the right candidate for the
    Fourth Congressional District.
        I've gotten to know him. I got to know the kind of person he is. And
    you know, when you find somebody who is full of integrity, somebody who
    prioritizes his faith and his family above all else is somebody you need
    to send back to Washington, DC.

    [[Page 971]]

    He came and campaigned hard here, and he told you what he was going to
    do, and he has done what he said he's going to do. Geoff Davis needs to
    be reelected to the United States Congress for the good of this district
    and for the good of the United States of America.
        You know, one of the interesting things about Washington is we've
    got plenty of lawyers up there. [Laughter] I'm not one. [Laughter]
        Congressman Davis. Me, neither.
        The President. Neither is the Congressman. [Laughter] Seems like
    when you've got somebody who has got the kind of experience we need in
    Washington--I'm talking about experience outside of politics--that you
    ought to keep him up there. See, he's a fellow who's a small-business
    owner. This is a really vibrant part of our country, right here in
    northern Kentucky. It's a part of the world where the entrepreneurial
    spirit is strong. And it makes sense to have somebody in the United
    States Congress who has lived the life that many of our entrepreneurs
    have lived.
        And we're a nation that is at war. And I need allies in the United
    States Congress, people who understand what the military is all about.
    This man wore the uniform of the United States of America. Send him back
    to the United States Congress.
        Davis really wanted--he really wanted Laura.
    He said, ``You stay at home, Mr. President.'' [Laughter]
        Audience member. Next time.
        The President. Yes, next time. Unfortunately, she was tied up. But she's a believer. She wants me to tell
    you all, thanks very much for supporting this good fellow. I bring a
    message from her, and I bring a message from myself: Any time when you
    find somebody who is willing to run, that's making a sacrifice, it means
    a lot to have the support of the people. And so thank you all for coming
    today. Thanks for contributing to this man's campaign.
        And I want to remind you that money is one thing, but he's also
    going to need people out working those coffee shops, working the
    neighborhoods. And so I'm going to thank you not only for what you have
    done; I want to thank you for what you're going to do, which is turn out
    the vote to make sure he gets back to Washington, DC.
        Anyway, Laura sends her best. And old Geoff
    is like me; he married well. [Laughter] All you've got to do is--if
    your six kids were 21, it would be a landslide.
    [Laughter]
        But we flew down on Air Force One together. We talked about two
    things, I think, that will interest you. You can get to know a person
    pretty well when you're with them for a while and nobody else is around
    listening and there's not any--not any cameras and not any agenda
    papers. And so guess what he wanted to talk about? First, he wanted to
    talk about his
    children. I
    thought that was
    interesting. He could have talked about anything. He could have said
    bridges, or how about----
        Congressman Davis. We did talk about--[laughter].
        The President. How about this, Mr. President? Or why don't you tell
    them this, Mr. President? Presidents get a lot of advice. Some of it is
    solicited, and some of it is unsolicited. [Laughter] He wanted to talk
    about his family, how proud he was of his family. He wanted me to make
    sure I understood that he had six children and that one of them is going to NKU and one of them is 6.
    [Laughter] He wanted me to know how much he loved his wife and how much he respects her. I think that says something
    about the nature of the man. And I think the voters of this district
    ought to pay attention to the values of the candidates who are running
    for office. This is a man who's got strong values, the kind of values we
    need in the public arena.
        Then he wanted to talk about the military. He wanted to share some
    thoughts. See, he went to West Point.
        Audience member. Hey!

    [[Page 972]]

        The President. Yes.
        Congressman Davis. His son went to West Point.
        The President. I'm glad somebody appreciates it. [Laughter] He
    wanted to share his experience with me as an officer, a West Point grad
    who--he's got friends out in the trenches still fighting for America. I
    think it's interesting to have a Congressman who feels comfortable
    enough to talk to the President about the command structure, the
    decisions we make that influence the troops in the field. See, we need
    people in Congress who understand that once you commit somebody into
    harm's way, they deserve all the support of the Federal Government. They
    not only deserve monetary support, they need strong moral support of our
    Government.
        I'm proud also that Jim Bunning is
    with us today. He's a fine United States Senator, good man. That big
    right-hander is big enough to be able to see all way in the back. And
    his wife, Mary, is with him as well. Thank
    you, Mary. Thank you all for coming.
        I want to thank State Senator Dan Kelly, the
    senate majority floor leader, for being here. Senator, thanks for
    coming. You make sure you turn out to help this guy turn out the vote.
        You know, one of the interesting things about--one of the things I
    learned in Texas politics is the importance of the--we call them
    ``county judges;'' you call them ``country judge executives''--``county
    judge-dash-executive.'' [Laughter] I remember campaigning for my
    dad in 1964. He was running against--yes,
    he's a good old boy. [Laughter] And he said, ``Your job is to go tell
    them you'll pass out the literature in the courthouse.'' Then I got in
    the courthouse, and of course, it was completely empty. [Laughter] The
    courthouses were dominated in those days by the Democrat Party.
        Good politics starts at the courthouse. You can tell whether a
    person is going to do well politically if he can get the courthouse
    crowd going for him, because that's--local politics always is the base
    of support. So I'm honored to welcome today Gary Moore, Ralph Drees, and Steve
    Pendery. These are the county judge executives
    of Boone County, Kenton County, and Campbell County. And we're glad
    you're here. Thanks for coming.
        I want to thank the grassroots activists who are here. Somebody who
    is a grassroots activist is somebody who gets on the telephone at the
    right time and says, ``I know Geoff Davis, and it's in our interest, our
    mutual interest, for you to go vote for him.'' A grassroots activist is
    somebody who does the tedious tasks of stuffing envelopes full of
    mailers that say, here's a good man with a good record. A grassroots
    activist is somebody who goes to their place of worship and says, ``Oh,
    by the way, we have a duty to vote, and we've got a good man running
    here; don't let him down.'' That's what a grassroots activist is. And
    for those of you who are grassroots activists, thanks very much for
    being involved in campaigns; thank you for turning out the vote.
        Let me talk about a couple of issues that are important. You win
    elections based not only on your values but what you believe and what
    you do. See, there's an interesting debate in Washington right now.
    There's a lot of anger in Washington. But anger is not a philosophy.
    Anger is not a set of principles. Anger is--you can't win elections by
    being angry. You win elections by being optimistic and hopeful and
    leading. That's how you win elections.
        And we're in the lead. And I want to thank Geoff for joining this
    Nation as we lead the world toward peace. Our biggest challenge in
    Washington is to protect the American people. That's the biggest calling
    we have. It's the most important responsibility. When somebody says,
    ``Name your most important responsibility, Mr. President,'' it's easily,
    ``To protect you.'' I learned that lesson on September the 11th, 2001.
    It's a lesson I'll never forget as your President, that my most solemn
    duty is to

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    protect the American people. And therefore, it's important to have
    allies like Geoff Davis who are willing to stand strong in observing and
    honoring that duty.
        I learned some lessons on September the 11th, and one of them is we
    face an enemy that is full of hate, that adheres to an ideology that is
    backwards, an ideology that's the opposite of freedom. An ideology,
    nevertheless, is one that can bind people together. I learned that these
    are folks you can't negotiate with; you can't hope for the best. You,
    kind of, can't sit back and say, well, maybe they'll change their mind.
    The only way to protect the American people and do our duty is to stay
    on the offense and bring them to justice. And it's important to have
    people in the United States Congress who understand that. And Geoff
    understands that.
        Another lesson I learned is that it's really important to make sure
    this enemy can't find safe haven, can't hide in places so they can plot
    and plan in order to attack us. See, they have stated their objectives
    clearly. They want to spread their ideology, and they want us to retreat
    from the world. They think we will. They think it's just a matter of
    time for the United States to lose our nerve and to be--and to withdraw.
        But they don't understand me, and they don't understand people in
    the United States Congress, like Geoff Davis. We understand our duty. I
    said, ``If you harbor a terrorist, you're equally as guilty as the
    terrorist.'' Just as an aside, when the President says something, he
    better mean what he says. When a member of Congress says something, they
    better mean what they say, as well. I meant what I said, and the Taliban
    no longer is in power, and now 25 million people are free.
        One of the interesting lessons of September the 11th, in this world
    in which we live, is that the United States cannot be complacent when we
    see a threat. If we see a threat, we must deal with that threat before
    it comes home to hit us. It used to be, we could see a threat, and we'd
    say, wait a minute, we're okay; we've got oceans protecting us--you
    know, we're fine, because we're pretty well insulated from those kind of
    threats.
        That changed on September the 11th. And I saw a threat. Matter of
    fact, people in both political parties saw the same threat I saw.
    Countries from around the world saw the same threat I saw. And the
    threat was a dictator who had killed millions of his people--killed
    hundreds of thousands of his people, used weapons of mass destruction,
    had invaded his neighborhood, declared the United States an enemy,
    harbored terrorists.
        The President must use diplomacy before he ever commits troops into
    harm's way. We--worked as hard as I could to solve the issue of Iraq
    peacefully. When we couldn't do so, Saddam Hussein had a choice to make: disclose and disarm, or face
    serious consequences. He made the choice. The world is better off
    without Saddam Hussein in power.
        And we have a plan for victory in Iraq. And a victory in Iraq is a
    country that can sustain itself, govern itself, and defend itself, an
    ally in the war on terror, and someone who will deny that which the
    enemy has declared they want, which is a safe haven from which to launch
    further attacks. And we're on our way. And it's really important to have
    Members in the United States Congress who understand the power of
    freedom to transform societies, the ability of our fighting forces--if
    given the proper equipment--to be able to achieve an objective, and not
    cut and run before the mission is complete.
        These are difficult times for the American people. War is tough,
    particularly when you face an enemy that is able to put bloodshed on our
    TV screens on a regular basis. See, these people have no conscience;
    they have no sense of justice; they will take innocent lives in order to
    drive us out. That's what they're trying to do. And I need allies in
    Congress who are willing to understand the stakes, who know

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    that there is no option other than victory; that we're not going to
    retreat; that we're not going to allow the enemy to be able to have a
    safe haven in Iraq. And we will not abandon the 12 million people who
    defied car bombers and terrorists and said to the world, we want to be
    free.
        We're going to succeed. We're going to succeed. You know, there are
    some interesting lessons in history--Geoff and I were talking about them
    as well. It's important for those of us in Washington to study history
    and to learn from history. One of the interesting lessons of history is
    the power of liberty to transform societies. It's happened. It's
    happened in recent times. World War I was a terrible war; World War II,
    also a terrible war. Both of them took place on the continent of Europe.
    And yet there are no wars on Europe today. Europe is free and whole, at
    peace because democracies don't war with each other. That's one of the
    lessons of history.
        One of my better buddies in the world is Prime Minister
    Koizumi of Japan. That's probably not much
    of interest, until you realize my dad--or think about the fact that my
    dad fought the Japanese. One of the really
    interesting things that I think about when I visit with Prime Minister
    Koizumi--and, by the way, when I'm visiting with him, we're talking
    about the peace; we're talking about how to help democracy in Iraq;
    we're talking about what to do about the man in North Korea; we're talking about how to work together as strong allies
    to lay the foundation of peace. I find it interesting, and I think the
    American people ought to listen carefully to that lesson of history,
    that because Japan adopted a Japanese-style democracy, an enemy, a sworn
    enemy of the United States is today an ally in keeping the peace.
        The same thing is going to happen in the broader Middle East. As
    democracy takes hold in the broader Middle East, we will have an
    ideology that defeats the ideology of terror in place, and someday an
    American President is going to be sitting down with a duly elected
    leader of Iraq saying, how do we keep the peace? We're laying the
    foundation for peace, and I need allies like Geoff Davis who understand
    the stakes.
        Government doesn't create wealth; government creates the environment
    in which people are willing to take risk to realize their dreams. And
    there is a fundamental difference in Washington, DC, on how to run this
    economy. We believe that the best way to run the economy is to let the
    people run the economy by keeping more of their own money.
        This economy of ours is strong: 3.5 percent GDP growth last year;
    4.7 percent unemployment rate across the Nation; 5.2 million new jobs in
    2\1/2\ years. Productivity is on the rise; small businesses are
    flourishing; more people own a home today than ever before in our
    Nation's history. More minorities own a home today than ever before in
    our Nation's history. And the reason it's strong is because of the tax
    cuts we passed.
        And I know what's going to happen if the other party runs the United
    States Congress; they're going to run up your taxes. Make no mistake
    about it; their view on how to grow this economy is to take more money
    out of your pocket. Our view on how to grow the economy is to let you
    keep more money. The tax cuts need to be made permanent.
        Oh, you hear a lot of talk about the deficit in Washington, and the
    other side will say, well, here's how you solve the deficit--raise your
    taxes. See, it becomes a convenient excuse. That's not how it works in
    Washington. And Geoff understands that--that it doesn't work that way,
    to raise your taxes and balance the budget. No, what happens is, they're
    going to raise your taxes, and they're going to figure out new ways to
    spend your money. That's how Washington works.
        The best way to balance the budget is to keep progrowth economic
    policies in place which generate more revenue for the

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    Federal Treasury and hold down Federal spending. And that's why I need
    allies like Geoff Davis who are fiscally responsible with the people's
    money. We're on our way to cutting that deficit in half by 2009.
        And by the way, if the United States Congress sees that supplemental
    I sent up there--that supplemental, by the way, aimed to make sure our
    troops have the combat equipment necessary to win this war on terror and
    to help the people down in Katrina--if they bust a 92.2 barrier I put on
    it, I'm going to veto the bill.
        In order to make sure that we're a competitive--I just--by the way,
    I had a fantastic experience at NKU. I really enjoyed myself there. And
    it's a wonderful institute here. And I was talking about how to keep
    America competitive. That's one of the things we need. We need forward-
    thinking people in Washington, DC, who don't fear the future, because we
    intend to shape the future. We intend to make sure that we put policies
    in place that keep us the most competitive nation in the world.
        And one thing we need to do in order to be the most competitive
    nation in the world is to get off our addiction to oil. In order to make
    sure America has the economic security for the future and the national
    security that we need, is we've got to do something about oil, and we've
    got to diversify away from it.
        Here's some ideas: one, clean coal technology. We're going to spend
    research and development money to make sure we can use the coal--250
    years worth of coal and burn it in an environmentally friendly way. We
    can do that. We'll be able to do that.
        Secondly, we need to use coal to help get liquid fuels, see. And one
    of the things about Davis, he understands that. And he put, in the
    defense bill, $5 million to help us make sure we can extract liquids
    from coal. In other words, it's a different way to make us less
    dependent on foreign sources of oil.
        We need to change how we drive our cars. I want Kentucky farmers
    growing the fuel for the future. I'm a big believer in ethanol. We've
    got battery technology going on that would mean that you can drive your
    first 40 miles on electricity and your thing doesn't have to look like a
    golf cart. [Laughter]
        We're working on new solar technologies. We're working on wind
    technologies. We're investing in hydrogen so the little fellow here will
    be driving his car, not driven by gasoline but powered by hydrogen. I
    need----
        Audience member. Good----
        The President. I was about to say, this man is a nuclear power guy,
    and so am I. [Laughter] The best way to protect the environment and to
    have renewable sources of energy is through nuclear power.
        And so I need allies in the United States Congress who understand
    that we have got to diversify away from oil. It's in our national
    interest and our economic interest that we develop a broad-based energy
    strategy that will get the job done.
        Finally, I do want to talk about the importance of people in
    Congress who understand that values are important. One of the areas
    where we're making progress is promoting the culture of life. I think
    it's really important for our society to be a welcoming society, a
    society that recognizes everybody has worth, born and unborn.
        Geoff Davis is an ally in promoting a culture of life. He's an
    ally--look, he didn't get to vote on these deals. He's in the House. But
    I can assure you, he supports my nominees for the Supreme Court and for
    the circuit court. These are people who will not legislate from the
    bench, people who are solid constructionists, strict constructionists.
        It's really important to have people in Washington who understand
    that government can hand out money, but government can't put hope in a
    person's heart. That's done when a loving soul says, ``I love you,
    brother. What can I do to help you?'' Some of the most intractable
    problems in our country cannot be solved by money.

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        One of the things that we've initiated in Washington is the Faith-
    Based and Community-Based Initiative, which says to people of faith, you
    can apply for Federal grant money so that you can help heal broken
    hearts, and you don't have to lose the core of your mission. And we
    ought to have people in the United States Congress who understand that
    in order to solve problems, problems of the heart, that requires a
    higher power than the United States Government sometimes to do so. Geoff
    Davis understands that.
        You know, de Tocqueville came to America in the 1830s. He came to
    America and observed that America was such a unique place because of the
    voluntary associations all across our country, where people would show
    up to help a neighbor in need. That spirit is still alive in America
    today, by the way. We've got people doing millions of acts of kindness
    on a daily basis, and there hasn't been one law that says you've got to
    do it, except for a higher calling. And the power of government must not
    stand in the way of those trying to practice their faith to heal open
    hearts, but to stand side by side with them, and Geoff Davis understands
    that.
        So I've come to northern Kentucky to support this good man and to
    ask you to continue to support him. He's making a difference in the
    United States Congress. He understands the challenges of the world in
    which we face, and he shares the same sense of optimism that I share,
    that this great country of ours can solve any problem when we put our
    mind to it. Send him back to the United States Congress and you'll be
    better off for it.
         Thank you, and God bless.

    Note: The President spoke at 5:34 p.m. at the Hilton Greater Cincinnati
    Airport. In his remarks, he referred to Pat Davis, wife of
    Representative Davis; former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; Prime
    Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan; and Chairman Kim Jong Il of North
    Korea.