[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 35 (Monday, September 2, 2002)]
[Pages 1453-1458]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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 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--eleven 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

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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 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

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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 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 hadn'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 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

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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 any time 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 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

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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 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

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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 Lee. 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; 
Terry Largent, wife of candidate Steve Largent; 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.