[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 13 (Monday, April 1, 2002)]
[Pages 533-536]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Fundraiser for Senatorial Candidate John Cornyn in Dallas, 
Texas

March 28, 2002

    Thank you very much. Thank you all. Please be seated. Thanks. 
Everybody in Crawford says hello--[laughter]--starting with Laura. I 
wish she'd have come with me today, but--[applause]--she is doing a 
fabulous job. I tell people it's because she's from Midland, Texas. But 
I send her best. She's got a lot of friends here. And the country now 
realizes why I asked her to marry me. [Laughter] A lot of people are 
still wondering why she said yes, but nevertheless, she's doing great, 
and she sends her love. And I want to thank you all for coming here 
today as well.
    It is my honor to come and campaign for the next United States 
Senator from the State of Texas. I'm going to miss Phil Gramm. He is a 
close friend. He is a strong, strong advocate for principles that are 
sound for our freedom. He has been a great United States Senator from 
Texas. I was disappointed he chose not to run again. I understand, but I 
was disappointed. But my disappointment waned when I realized my friend 
John Cornyn was running to take his place. I know John. I've seen him 
work. I've seen him in action. I've not only seen him as a campaigner 
but somebody who does in office what he said he is going to do. There is 
no question in my mind that he can do the job and bring a standard of 
excellence to the United States Senate. And there's no question in my 
mind we need him in the United States Senate to make sure our agenda 
moves forward.
    I want to thank Bill and Rita Clements for being here. I like to 
call Bill the pathfinder for Republican Governors. I appreciate my 
friend Henry Bonilla for taking on the Texas Victory 2002 committee. It 
is important we send Henry back to the United States House of 
Representatives. I know Kay Granger from Fort Worth is here, and I 
appreciate so very much working with Kay. She is a great friend, a 
reliable voice for sound and commonsense policy in Washington, DC.
    I'm so glad to see Greg Abbott, the next attorney general of Texas, 
here. I know that Wallace Jefferson and Mike Schneider are here. Thank 
you all for coming. I know that Jeb Hensarling, the next United States 
Congressman from the 5th Congressional District, is here as well. 
Congratulations on your primary win, Jeb. Charles Matthews is here. Our 
party chairman, Susan Weddington, is here. I want to thank Susan for her 
long-time service to the Republican Party of Texas. I see Tommy Craddick 
is here, other members of the house and the State senate. I miss you. I 
wish I could count on your votes in Washington, like I could have in 
Austin. But thanks for coming by to see your old buddy. And thank you 
all for being here as well.
    This is an important election for Texas. And it's an important 
election for the country. We've got to have a man like John Cornyn 
representing our State in Washington. And there are a lot of reasons 
why.
    First, we've got to get good, conservative judges appointed to the 
bench and approved by the United States Senate. I want people on the 
bench who don't try to use their position to legislate from the bench. 
We want people to interpret the law, not try to make law and write law. 
And I sent such a man up from Mississippi the other day, a good, honest, 
honorable man, who had been approved unanimously by the United States 
Senate earlier, and yet did not get a vote on the floor of the United 
States Senate. We need people like John Cornyn in the United States 
Senate, who will work with the White House to have a solid judiciary, to 
make sure that the judges do what they're supposed to do in the United 
States and not overstep their bounds.
    We need somebody like John, who is going to take a tough position, 
tough stand on issues like energy. I don't need to be telling my friends 
in Texas that we've got an energy problem, but we do. We need to do a 
better job of conservation, no question about it. And we will. As 
technology advances, we will conserve more. But for the sake of our 
national

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security, we need to be finding more energy at home. We need to be less 
dependent on foreign sources of crude oil. John Cornyn will be a steady 
vote and a steady voice when it comes to good, sound energy policy in 
Washington, DC.
    You know, one of the interesting issues that always faces us in 
Washington is what to do with the people's money. The tendency, of 
course, is to overpromise and then overspend. We need fiscal sanity in 
Washington. I want to thank Phil and his leadership on the issue of 
taxation. As you may remember--I think it was in this room--I said, ``If 
you give me a chance to be your President, I will make sure the people 
get to keep a substantial amount of their own money.'' I reminded people 
that we weren't dealing with the Government's money; we were dealing 
with the people's money. John understands that.
    And we passed tax relief in Washington, exactly at the right time. 
You see, we understand--Phil understands, I understand, and John 
understands--that if you let people keep more of their own money, they 
will demand more goods and services. And if they demand more goods and 
services, somebody will help produce those goods and services. And if 
somebody else produces those goods and services, it makes it easier for 
somebody to find work. And so we cut the taxes on the people. Right in 
the middle of a recession, we cut the taxes, which is the right thing to 
do.
    Now, there are some people up there who read a different textbook. 
See, they advocate raising your taxes. They get caught in that 
Washington trap. They forget whose money we're spending. John Cornyn 
understands we spend the people's money, not the Government money, and 
he'll be a reliable ally when it comes to making sure that tax relief 
that we passed is permanent and long lasting and real.
    And I'll tell you an issue that's coming up where we're going to 
need his support, if they don't get it done this year. We put the death 
tax on its way to extinction. But because of a quirk--but because of a 
Senate rule, after 10 years that death tax can come back to life. I 
proposed, Phil has proposed, that we make the death tax--getting rid of 
the death tax permanent. I guarantee he'll vote for that.
    You know, when I was campaigning in Chicago in the general election, 
somebody said, ``Would you ever deficit spend?'' I said, ``Well, only if 
we were at war or there was a national emergency or we were in 
recession.'' Little did I realize we'd get the trifecta. [Laughter]
    We've dealt with the recession with good fiscal policy, a budgeting 
process that holds the line on spending, and at the same time, let 
people have more of their own money back. And it's important for us to 
make sure that those actions we took to stimulate the private sector 
remain in place.
    And we're also dealing with the other two issues. Today I had the 
opportunity of going to the Dallas Fire Department's training center to 
thank Texas Task Force 1 for going to New York City on September the 
16th, to be there at Ground Zero to help rescue those who were trapped 
in the rubble. I went by there because I wanted to highlight one of the 
key initiatives in the homeland defense strategy, which is to make sure 
we've got a coordinated effort with our first-responders, to respond to 
any emergency that may come up from this point forward.
    The reason I bring that up to you is that my most important job as 
your President is to defend the homeland, is to protect American people 
from further attacks. Not only are we working on a first-responders 
initiative, we've got a good, fine bioterrorism initiative as to how to 
respond if there were a bioterrorist attack.
    We're beefing up our border security. It's important for this 
country to understand who's coming in and who's going out. And we know 
we've got a lot of work to do with the INS. It's a troubled agency that 
needs reform, and we will reform it.
    I want to assure you all that we're doing a much better job in 
Washington of coordinating intelligence and information between 
jurisdictional boundaries, and we're sharing information in a much 
better way with State and local authorities. If we get any kind of hint 
that there's an Al Qaida cell in America, we're moving on it. If we get 
any whisper that somebody wants to harm us again, I can assure you, 
we're moving quickly.

[[Page 535]]

    Every morning in the Oval Office, George Tenet of the CIA comes in 
and gives me a briefing about what he knows. And then the Director of 
the FBI, Robert Mueller, comes in. I ask him every single day, ``What do 
you know, and what have you done about it? If you've got any hint, Mr. 
Director, for the good of the American people, I want you and over 4,000 
agents dedicated to protecting the homeland to move quickly.''
    I'm proud of the way we're responding as a nation. The Nation is on 
alert; we're prepared, because we understand that we fight an enemy that 
are nothing but a bunch of coldblooded killers. They can't be 
rehabilitated. They hate what America stands for. They hate our 
religious tolerance. They hate our freedom of speech. They hate freedom 
of the press. They despise freedom. They despise freedom. And therefore, 
the best way to secure the homeland, and the only way to secure the 
homeland for the long term, is to hunt them down one by one and bring 
them to justice. And that's exactly what I intend to do.
    I don't know what was on their mind when they attacked America. They 
must have thought we were so self-absorbed and materialistic that all we 
were going to do was file a lawsuit. [Laughter] But they found out we 
think differently here in this country. They now know we love freedom, 
and we will defend our freedom with all our might.
    I laid down a doctrine early. It said, either you're with us or 
you're against us. And fortunately, most of the world said they're with 
us. And we've put together a vast coalition of freedom-loving nations to 
defend not only America but our friends and allies.
    I also said that if you harbor a terrorist, if you hide a terrorist 
and feed a terrorist, you are just as guilty as the murderers who killed 
thousands of innocent Americans. And the Taliban found out exactly what 
we meant. I unleashed the mighty United States military and other 
coalition forces and, thanks to the bravery of U.S. soldiers, the 
Taliban has been routed out of existence.
    It is so important for young Americans to know that our Nation does 
not seek revenge; we seek justice. And we'll do whatever it takes to 
defend freedom. We view freedom as nonnegotiable. It is precious. It's 
also important for Americans to understand that we went into Afghanistan 
not as a conquering nation but as liberators. Last Saturday, many young 
girls went to school for the first time in Afghanistan, thanks to the 
United States of America.
    We've got a lot more to do. And that's what I want to share with 
you, and that's what John understands. Even though we've upheld the 
doctrine, if you hide a terrorist, you're just as bad as a terrorist, 
there are other countries that might not get the message. And there are 
a lot of people still on the loose that want to hurt America.
    And that's why I've submitted the largest increase in the defense 
budget during the last 20 years. Because here's what I know: If we put 
our soldiers at risk, they deserve the best equipment, the best 
training, the best pay. Oh, some of them are talking in Washington about 
it's too high a price. Listen, there is never too high a price for 
freedom, as far as I'm concerned.
    And I submitted this budget because it's a clear signal to the 
American people and, just as importantly, to our enemy, that we're in 
this for the long pull. I have no calendar on my desk that says this 
must end by a certain date and I'll feel better. It doesn't matter how 
long it takes, as far as I'm concerned. So long as I'm the President, we 
will treat these killers as international terrorists and get them on the 
run and keep them on the run until we bring each and every one of them 
to justice. And that's what we're going to do.
    This fight on the war against terror is larger than any single 
individual or any single network. There are other nightmare scenarios 
that our Nation must be worried about. One such scenario would be for a 
terrorist killer organization to team up with some of the world's worst 
leaders who harbor and develop the world's worst weapons.
    I've told this to a lot of world leaders, that I'm just not going to 
let that happen. History has called us into action. We can't look back 
after our time in Washington, DC, and say, ``How come we let this 
happen?'' For the good of our children and our grandchildren, we must 
deny the world's most dangerous leaders from having and harboring the 
world's most dangerous weapons. We'll be

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deliberate; we'll be thoughtful; we will consult with our friends and 
allies. But when I said ``axis of evil,'' I meant it.
    I believe that out of this incredible evil that has been done to our 
country will come great good, though. I do. When the United States 
remains firm and strong and determined, we can achieve peace in parts of 
the world where people never thought peace could happen.
    Oh, I know the Middle East is--looks like there will never be peace, 
but I can assure you we're not giving up. We're not going to let 
murderers disrupt a march to peace. My heart breaks for those who were 
celebrating Passover in the hotel, when a coldblooded killer came in and 
destroyed innocent life, to derail the attempts of peaceful-loving 
people for coming together.
    But they're not going to stop us as a nation for longing for peace 
and working for peace. And the best way to achieve the peace is to be 
strong and steadfast against terror. I see a peaceful world. I do. The 
rest of the world watches us very carefully. I like to say, if the 
United States blinks, they'll go to sleep. We're not going to blink.
    I also believe at home we can achieve incredible good too. People 
often say, ``Well, what can I do to help in the war against terror?'' My 
answer is, love a neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself. If you 
want to fight evil, do some good. I look around the room and see a lot 
of my friends who I know have been doing good for a long, long number of 
years here in Texas. And I want to thank you for that. But it's 
important you keep doing it. It's important you give of your time and 
your money to help people in need.
    This Nation is based upon some great principles: our love for 
freedom, our love for democracy. But our real strength is the hearts and 
souls of the American people. We're a tough nation; we're a courageous 
nation. But we're also a compassionate nation. And in order to fight 
terror, in order to stand squarely in the face of evil, we must help 
people in need. Just walking across the street to see a shut-in and 
saying, ``I care about you,'' is part of fighting evil. Mentoring a 
child, telling your own child you love him every single day, going to a 
church or a synagogue or a mosque and developing a program to help feed 
the hungry or clothe those who need clothes and help, that's all part of 
not only defining our Nation, but fighting against evil.
    And that's why I'm such an optimistic soul, because not only do I 
know that we've got what it takes to achieve the peace, we've got the 
determination, the will, and the strength to have a more peaceful world. 
I know we've got the heart and compassion to show the world the true 
definition of our Nation. And it's happened. It's the gathering momentum 
of millions of acts of kindness and compassion which show the world the 
true worth of the greatest country on the face of the Earth.
    Thank you for helping John Cornyn. May God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 12:15 p.m. in the Landmark Ballroom at the 
Hyatt Regency Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to former Gov. William 
P. Clements, Jr., of Texas and his wife, Rita; Greg Abbott, candidate 
for Texas Attorney General; Justice Wallace Jefferson, Texas Supreme 
Court; Chief Justice Michael Schneider, Texas First Court of Appeals; 
Jeb Hensarling, candidate for Texas House of Representatives; Charles R. 
Matthews, commissioner, Texas Railroad Commission; Tom Craddick, Texas 
State Representative; and nominee for U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fifth 
Circuit Charles W. Pickering, Sr.