[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book II)]
[October 3, 2006]
[Pages 1750-1757]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Breakfast for Congressional Candidate Richard W. 
Pombo in Stockton, California
October 3, 2006

    Thank you all very much. Thanks a lot. Please be seated. I don't 
want your eggs to get cold. [Laughter] Mr. Chairman, thank you for 
welcoming me to your district. I'm proud to be here on behalf of Richard 
Pombo, and I'm proud to be able to tell the people of the State of 
California, he's doing a fine job for the people of this district.
    I know firsthand; I watch him up close; I've seen him in action. I 
think it makes sense for people from the State of California to send 
somebody to Washington, DC, who trusts the people of California. And 
that's Richard Pombo. I think it makes sense to send somebody from the 
State of California to Washington, DC, who knows what it means to make a 
living off the land. And that's Richard Pombo.
    In all due respect to those of you who are here who are attorneys of 
law--[laughter]--we've got enough of those kind of people in Washington. 
[Laughter] It makes sense to have a rancher and a farmer speak 
commonsense language. See, what we need is some common sense in 
Washington, DC. Chairman Richard Pombo brings common sense to the big 
debates of our time. He brings practical experience when it comes to 
promoting cooperative conservation.
    He understands, like I understand, that being dependent on foreign 
oil endangers the United States of America. It's a national security 
risk and an economic security risk. Richard Pombo thinks strategically 
on behalf of the people of this district and the United States. I'm 
proud to support his efforts to pass comprehensive energy. See, he and I 
know that technology is going

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to help us become less dependent on foreign sources of energy in the 
longer term. We'll be using ethanol from a product grown right here in 
California to power our cars. We'll have plug-in hybrid batteries. We'll 
be using hydrogen to power our automobiles. But in the meantime, we need 
to be exploring in environmentally friendly ways for energy from the 
United States of America, to make us less dependent on foreign sources 
of energy.
    I'm proud to support Richard Pombo, a commonsense leader in the 
House of Representatives, and urge you to send him back to the United 
States Congress.
    I want to thank you all for coming. I told Richard when I walked up 
here, it's a good sign when the home folks show up in the numbers like 
you have. [Laughter] It's always a good indication that when the people 
who know you best support you the strongest. So I want to thank you for 
contributing of your hard-earned dollars and urge you to help this good 
man as we're coming down the stretch. And that means turning out the 
vote, finding those solid Republicans, discerning Democrats, and wise 
independents to go to the polls and send Richard Pombo back to the 
United States Congress.
    Laura sends her best. She sends her best to 
Richard, she sends her best to Annette and the 
Pombo family, and she sends her best to our many friends here in 
California. I'm a lucky man, when Laura said yes when I asked her to 
marry me. She has got to be the most patient woman in America. I realize 
I'm not very objective, but I'll report from the homefront, America's 
got a fabulous First Lady in Laura Bush.
    And old Richard, the chairman, married well himself; Annette, thank you for being here. Thank you for supporting 
Richard. And I'm proud to be here with Rena and 
Rachel. It's good to see you young women. 
Thanks for coming today. I know you'll be putting up the signs and 
making those phone calls for old dad coming down the stretch.
    I'm proud to be with Ralph and Onita 
Pombo, Richard's mom and dad. I suspect that 
Mrs. Pombo has something in common with my 
mother, that they're both not afraid to tell us what to do. [Laughter] 
And my only advice, Richard, is you make sure you listen to her, because 
I'm listening to mine, you'll be happy to know.
    I'm proud to be here with Mayor Ed Chavez, the mayor of Stockton, California. Mr. Mayor, thank you 
for coming. It gives me great joy to be able to look out in the audience 
and see one of the city's finest citizens and a family we call friend in 
my household, somebody who's been a friend with you during good times 
and somebody who's a friend with you during not-so-good times but 
somebody who's always a friend, and that's the Spanos family. 
Alex and Faye, thank 
you for coming.
    I want to thank all the local and State officials who have joined 
us. I especially want to thank Specialist Gerry Lee, United States Army National Guard, who not only served 
in Iraq but went down and helped those souls recovering from Hurricane 
Katrina. It's an honor to be the Commander in Chief of such fine, fine 
men and women, people who put on the uniform to the protect this 
country. And I'll tell you one thing about Richard Pombo. You don't have 
to worry, and I don't worry about him making sure our troops have all 
that's needed to do their job to support the United States of America 
and its people.
    There's a lot of issues I could talk about, because there's big 
differences of opinion in Washington, DC. I don't know how it gets 
translated back here at home. Sometimes they go up to Washington and say 
one thing, and then come back and talk differently when they--in front 
of the home people. You don't have to worry about Richard Pombo. He 
tells you exactly what he thinks. You don't have to try to read between 
the lines. You don't have to worry about him taking a poll to determine 
what he believes. He stands on principle,

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and that's what you need in Washington, DC.
    And he and I share a principle, and that is what to do with your 
money, how do we deal with the hard-working people's money. And make no 
mistake about it, there is a philosophical divide in Washington, DC. You 
might remember what this Nation went through, what our economy went 
through over the last 5\1/2\ years. We had a recession. We had corporate 
scandals. There was, obviously, the devastating attack on September the 
11th, 2001. We responded and protected this people by taking a war to 
the enemy. We've had hurricanes. We've had high energy prices. Yet our 
economy is the envy of the industrialized world.
    The national unemployment rate is low. The entrepreneurial spirit is 
high. Small businesses are making a living. Our farmers and ranchers--
they probably don't want to admit it, but our farmers and ranchers are 
doing fine. See, I'm used to farmers and ranchers; after all, I'm from 
Texas, you might remember. I also want to take a step back and tell you, 
though, that a strong farm economy and a strong ranching economy is 
really important to the national economy.
    And so in spite of these obstacles, the economy has grown. And 
something happened, and what happened was, we cut the taxes on the 
working people. We understand the role of government is not to try to 
create wealth but to create an environment in which the entrepreneurial 
spirit flourishes. The tax relief we passed is working, and the American 
economy is strong. And the fundamental question is, how do we keep it 
strong? And Richard Pombo and I believe the best way to keep this 
economy growing is to make the tax relief we passed permanent.
    And the Democrats don't agree. If the Democrats were to gain power, 
they will raise your taxes, because they believe they can spend your 
money better than you can. Oh, you'll hear all kinds of excuses: ``Let 
us raise your taxes to balance the budget.'' That's not how Washington 
works. They will raise your taxes and figure out new ways to spend your 
money. The best way to balance the budget is to keep the taxes low so we 
can grow our economy, which increases more tax revenues, and be wise 
about how we spend your money. We're on our way to cutting this deficit 
in half before the year 2009 because of the progrowth economic policies 
we put in place and because of fiscal conservatives like Richard Pombo.
    The issue on the economy is a big issue in any campaign. And I want 
the people of this district to know, plain and simple, that if Richard's 
opponent wins, your taxes will go up. Make no 
mistake about it. The Democrat Party is anxious to get their hands on 
your money. If you want to keep taxes low, if you want to make sure this 
environment for small-business growth and farmers and ranchers remains 
strong, put Richard Pombo back in the United States Congress, and we'll 
work to make the tax cuts we passed permanent.
    I also appreciate his strong support in this war on terror. I wish I 
could tell you that there wasn't a war, but that's not the truth. That 
is not the reality of the world in which we live. There's an enemy that 
still plots and plans, that wants to attack us again. They're a group of 
ideologues bound together by this evil vision of the world, that want to 
inflict harm on the United States because we stand in the way of their 
ambitions and because we strongly believe in liberty.
    The most important job of the Federal Government in the beginning of 
the 21st century is to do everything in our power to protect you from 
further attack. The key issue in this campaign is the security of the 
United States of America. You got to understand, a lot of my thinking 
about the world changed on September the 11th, 2001. I make a lot of 
decisions on your behalf, and many of those decisions were affected by 
the fact that we lost nearly

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3,000 of our citizens, 3,000 innocent lives on our soil on that fateful 
day. I vowed then, and I've vowed ever since, to use every national 
asset at my disposal to protect the American people. And the best way to 
do so is to defeat those people overseas so we do not have to face them 
here at home.
    I thank Richard's support. I appreciate the fact we've got Members 
of Congress who clearly see the enemy for what they are. You can't 
negotiate with these people. You cannot hope that they will go away. I 
like to remind people, therapy isn't going to work. The best way to deal 
with these folks is to bring them to justice before they hurt America 
again.
    You know, there's a debate in Washington, DC, about how to wage this 
war, and that's positive. Ours is a democracy; I welcome the debate. But 
I also have a responsibility to make it clear the consequences of some 
of the positions our opponents take. They say that Iraq is a distraction 
in the war on terror. I strongly disagree. I think Iraq is a central 
front in the war on terror, and we must defeat the enemy in Iraq if we 
want America to be secure.
    But don't take my word for it about Iraq. Our fellow citizens ought 
to listen to the words of Usama bin Laden 
and Mr. Zawahiri, who is his number two 
in Al Qaida. They have clearly stated that Iraq is a central front in 
their war against us. They have made their ambitions clear, and that is 
to inflict harm and damage on innocent life to the point where America 
says it's not worth it and retreats and leaves before the job is done. 
They have made their ambitions clear: to topple moderate governments. Al 
Qaida's leadership has told us loud and clear in their own words, their 
ambitions are to develop new safe haven from which to launch attacks.
    Imagine a world in which there are competing forms of religious 
extremists trying to achieve dominance, a world in which moderate 
governments feel no longer capable of defending themselves against these 
radicals and extremists, a world in which they control oil, and a world 
in which a theocracy may have a nuclear weapon. Those are the stakes as 
we begin the 21st century. We're in the midst of an ideological 
struggle. And the fundamental question is, will we have people in the 
United States Congress who see the world the way it is, who clearly see 
the threats?
    I'm going to tell you this: 20 or 30 years from now it's not going 
to be said, during my administration or during Richard Pombo's time in 
Congress, that the United States of America didn't confront these 
threats now, in order to make our children live in a more peaceful 
world.
    It's hard work, but it's necessary work. Iraq is a central part on 
the war on terror, and we have a plan for victory there. We have a 
security plan that will chase down those extremists and radicals who 
would like to do us harm, and enable the Iraqis to defend themselves. We 
have a political strategy, and that is to stand squarely with the 12 
million people who said loud and clear, ``We want to be free.''
    You know, it must seem like an eternity to you, when you think about 
those elections last December. It certainly does to me, in some ways. 
Ultimately, when this chapter of history will be written, however, it's 
going to be a comma; the Iraqis voted, comma, and the United States of 
America understood that Iraq was a central front in the war on terror 
and helped this young democracy flourish so that a generation of 
Americans wouldn't have to worry about the extremists emanating from 
that country to hurt the American people.
    The stakes are high. The Democrats are the party of cut-and-run. 
Ours is a party that has got a clear vision and says we will give our 
commanders and troops the support necessary to achieve that victory in 
Iraq. We will stay in Iraq, we will fight in Iraq, and we will win in 
Iraq.
    Our strategy is to stay on the offense, and we will do that. You 
just got to know

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there's some fine, fine, brave men and women in uniform--and some not in 
uniform--in the intelligence services, doing everything they can to find 
the enemy every single day. It's hard to plot and plan when you're 
hiding in a cave and are on the run. And that's our strategy, and that's 
the way we're going to keep it.
    But we got to do a job here at home too. See, our job is one in 
which we got to be right 100 percent of the time to protect you, and the 
enemy has got to be right one time. And that's why, in the days after 9/
11, I would--I vowed that we would give those responsible for defending 
you the tools they need to do so. We worked with Congress--my 
administration worked with Congress to pass what's called the PATRIOT 
Act. It's the first measure we took that would break down barriers that 
prevented intelligence and law enforcement personnel from sharing 
information with each other.
    It's probably hard for you to understand, but law enforcement and 
intelligence officers couldn't talk, and so the PATRIOT Act addressed 
that issue. How can you protect the American people if you don't have 
all branches of government sharing information, is what we thought.
    We also established the terrorist surveillance program to monitor 
terrorist communications in and out of our country. We created a program 
with the Central Intelligence Agency to detain and question key 
terrorist operatives that were captured on the battlefield. I told the 
American people we would give our folks on the frontline of fighting 
terror to protect you the tools necessary.
    On each of these programs, the Democrats have said they share our 
goals. But when it comes time to vote, they consistently oppose giving 
our personnel the tools they need to protect us. Time and time again, 
the Democrats want to have it both ways. They talk tough on terror, but 
when the votes are counted, their softer side comes out.
    Let's take the PATRIOT Act. In the weeks after 9/11, we passed this 
vital law, and I want to thank Richard Pombo for his support. You don't 
have to worry about him. He understands that those on the frontline of 
fighting terror need to have the tools necessary to protect you. And in 
the 5 years since that law was passed, it has proved invaluable to 
stopping new attacks on our country. Our law enforcement community has 
used the law to break up terror cells or prosecute terrorist operatives 
and supporters in California, in Texas and New Jersey and Illinois and 
North Carolina and Virginia, Ohio, New York, and Florida.
    In 2001, the vote in the United States Senate to pass this law was 
98 to 1. But when the bill came up for renewal in 2005, Senate Democrats 
filibustered it, that means, tried to talk it to death. That's what 
filibuster means up in Washington-speak. They didn't want it to pass. In 
fact, the Senate Democrat leader bragged, ``We 
killed the PATRIOT Act.'' That's what he said. When he was asked later 
by a reporter whether killing the PATRIOT Act 
was really something to celebrate, he answered, ``Of course it is.'' The 
Democrat attempt to filibuster the PATRIOT Act follows an approach that 
might sound familiar: They voted for it before they voted against it.
    Eventually, common sense prevailed. The bill was passed, and I 
signed it into law, and I firmly believe the American people are safer 
because that bill was renewed.
    After 9/11, we recognized the need for new tools to learn what the 
terrorists are planning and then to be able to move quickly to stop 
them. See, this is a different kind of war--that is, different kind of 
threats--and we've got to make sure the tools are given to those on the 
frontline of protecting you. If the biggest issue and the biggest job of 
the Federal Government is to protect you, we must have the tools 
necessary to do so.

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    So I directed the National Security Agency to establish the 
terrorist surveillance program to track terrorist communications between 
someone overseas and someone in the United States. The philosophy behind 
this program is pretty clear: If Al Qaida operatives are making calls in 
the United States, we need to know who they're calling, why they're 
calling, and what they're planning.
    Apparently, this simple logic is not very clear to the Democrats in 
the United States Congress. Last week, when legislation providing 
additional authority for the terrorist surveillance program came before 
the House of Representatives, 177 Democrats voted against listening in 
on terrorists communications.
    The stakes in this election couldn't be more clear. If you don't 
think we should be listening in on the terrorists, then you ought to 
vote for the Democrats. If you want your government to continue 
listening in when Al Qaida planners are making phone calls into the 
United States, then you vote Republican.
    We got to make sure people have got the tools necessary to defeat 
this enemy in a new kind of war. After the 9/11 attacks, I established a 
CIA program to detain and question key terrorist operatives and leaders 
who were captured on the battlefield in this war on terror. Captured 
terrorists have unique knowledge about where their operatives are 
deployed and what plots may be underway. In other words, they know. And 
it seems like it makes sense for us to know what they know, in order to 
protect you.
    See, I know the security of the United States depends on getting 
this kind of information. For the past 5 years, the good and decent 
professionals of the CIA have worked tirelessly to get information from 
captured terrorists that enabled us to stop new attacks on our homeland 
and to save American lives.
    Every American must understand what this program has meant to the 
security of our country. Information from the terrorists questioned by 
the CIA helped break up a cell of Southeast Asian terrorist operatives 
that had been groomed for attacks inside the United States. The program 
helped us stop an Al Qaida cell from developing anthrax for attacks 
against the United States. This program helped us stop a planned strike 
on a U.S. Marine camp in Djibouti. It helped prevent a planned attack on 
the U.S. consulate in Karachi. It helped foil a plot to hijack planes 
and fly them into Heathrow Airport and London's Canary Wharf.
    Were it not for the information gained from the terrorists 
questioned by the Central Intelligence Agency, our intelligence 
community believes that Al Qaida and its allies would have succeeded in 
launching another attack against the American homeland. The CIA program 
has saved lives, and it remains one of the most vital tools our Nation 
has in the war against these extremists and terrorists.
    Last week, Congress held a vote on the future of this CIA program. 
The choice before every Member was clear: Should the CIA program 
continue or not? Congress voted to continue the program. I look forward 
to signing it into law.
    The vote tells us a great deal about where the two parties stand 
when it comes to defending America in this war on terror. In the House 
of Representatives, 160 Democrats--including the entire Democrat 
leadership--voted against continuing this program. Think about that. 
Almost 80 percent of the House Democrats want to stop a program that has 
provided invaluable intelligence that's saved American lives. In the 
Senate, 32 Democrats, including every member of the Senate leadership 
save one, voted to kill this vital program. That means almost three-
quarters of the Democrats in the Senate, including both of your Senators 
here in California, voted to stop the men and women of the CIA from 
continuing a program to get information from terrorists

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like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed about 
planned attacks on the United States.
    During the debate on the Senate floor, one senior Democrat, their ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, 
compared the brave Americans who question these terrorists to the 
Taliban and Saddam Hussein. This exposes a 
dangerous mindset on the part of Democrats in Congress. You can't defend 
America if you cannot tell the difference between the CIA officers who 
protect their fellow citizens and brutal dictators who kill their fellow 
citizens.
    Another Senate Democrat said that 
allowing the CIA to go forward with this program to question the most 
dangerous terrorists we have captured would diminish the security and 
safety of Americans everywhere. If they feel we are safer without this 
program, the Democrats in the United States Senate need to explain to 
the American people which of the attacks that the CIA program stopped 
would they have been willing to let go forward.
    We got a clear record on this issue. We know this program is making 
Americans safer, and we're not going to allow the Democrats in Congress 
to take it away.
    People of this district have got to understand, there's a different 
mindset. Look, people in Washington are patriotic people. The Democrats 
are good people; they've just got a different view of the world than I 
have. They don't see it the way I see it. The House Democrat 
leader summed up her party's approach to the 
midterm elections. She said this--and I quote--she said this election, 
quote, ``should not be about national security.'' I strongly disagree. 
The security of this country comes first, as far as I'm concerned. And 
this Government, with supporters like Richard Pombo, will do everything 
we can to protect you. Of course, to give the leader some credit, given 
her party's record on national security, I can see why she feels that 
way. [Laughter] I wouldn't want to be talking about the record, either.
    The difference between our parties comes down to this: Democrats 
take a law enforcement approach to terrorism. That means America will 
wait until we're attacked again before we respond. We believe we're at 
war, and we will prevent those attacks from happening in the first 
place.
    Their record is clear. When people go to the polls here in this 
district and districts around the country, I want them to look at the 
record, to look at the facts. Democrats have voted time and again to 
deny our personnel the tools they need to protect you. Republicans are 
giving you the tools they need--giving our folks the tools they need to 
keep this country safe. If you want leaders in Washington that 
understand the enemy we face and who are not going to sit back and wait 
for them to attack us again, I urge you to send Richard Pombo back to 
the United States Congress.
    Again, I want to thank you for coming. I believe the decisions that 
I have made have made this country safer. And I believe the decisions I 
have made to take the enemy on overseas and to promote liberty and 
freedom to people who are desperate to be free, I believe those 
decisions are laying the foundation of peace for a generation to come.
    I'm proud to be on the stage with a fellow citizen who understands 
the power of liberty to bring the peace we want. I'm proud to be with 
you all as you help this good man get reelected. I thank you for your 
prayers. I thank you for being here, and may God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 9:22 a.m. at the Stockton Memorial Civic 
Auditorium. In his remarks, he referred to Annette Pombo, wife of Rep. 
Richard W. Pombo; Alex G. Spanos, owner, San Diego Chargers professional 
football team, and his wife, Faye; Usama bin Laden, leader of the Al 
Qaida terrorist organization; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, senior Al Qaida 
leader responsible for planning the September 11, 2001, terrorist

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attacks, who was arrested in Pakistan on March 1, 2003; and former 
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.