No-shows at GOP fest tonight, but $5 million raised
by Mark Silva
A couple of the GOP’s candidates for president took turns on a stage before four towering pillars in the soaring, four-story center hall of the National Building Museum tonight, site of a Republican National Committee “Presidential Trust Dinner.’’
And at least one was eager to talk about the competition. Mitt Romney, calling himself the candidate of change, said this about the Democratic Party’s front-running candidate:
“Hillary Clinton says she is the candidate of change, and I think she would change America – just not the direction we want to go,’’ he said. “Hillary Clinton talks about taxes, for instance,’’ he said, maintaining that Clinton wants to raise Social Security taxes, estate taxes, corporate taxes and more.
“Her platform today would not allow her to be elected president of France, let alone president of this country,’’ he said. “America is not going to turn left. America is going to follow the red, white and blue.’’
The fundraiser carried a theme, of course, spelled out on banners hanging between the pillars: “Building our Future.’’ And with 700 donors for the dinner here, the party raised $5 million for its presidential campaign in the year and more ahead.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the future of the Republican Party,’’ an emcee was ready to declare, announcing the candidates in the rehearsal in the hall before dinner – Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Ron Paul – to the tune of a booming rock song: “Taking Care of Business.’’
It turned out that Giuliani and Thompson had to take care of some other business tonight, however. They dropped from the evening speaking lineup last-minute – but did manage to spend some time backstage before dinner at the private reception for the biggest donors, the $5,000-per-head crowd.
And McCain’s wife Cindy was ready to stand in for a late-arriving candidate, the senator from Arizona. But the crowd seemed satisfied with dinner.
This decidedly war-supporting party did find room on stage for the anti-war Republican Rep. Paul of Texas, who runs single-digit in the polls but has raised money to beat the band and has a loyal, vocal following in his bid for the 2008 nomination.
And, for a city in which half the fire hydrants don’t work, they mounted an impressive spurting fountain center-hall.
The Democratic National Committee offered its own, emailed note on tonight’s dinner 12 blocks from the White House: “While all of the leading Republican candidates are recycling President Bush's failed agenda, the president is conspicuously - and suspiciously - absent from the dinner's schedule.
“The GOP frontrunners are all from the Bush Wing of the Republican Party, yet they won't utter his name or stand for a photo-op," said DNC spokeswoman Stacie Paxton. "Americans want change, not four more years of the Bush administration, but the Republicans just don't get it.’’
Mike Duncan, chairman of the RNC, drew his own party contrasts here – calling the Democrats the party of “government by investigation’’ and limits on terrorist surveillance and Republicans the ones ready to protect the nation from terrorism and make health care available to more people. His predecessor pressed the theme.
“On Sept. 11, 2001, we were reminded of the vital importance of elections,’’ said Ken Mehlman, former party chairman. “Do we heed the lessons of Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill,’’ that true peace comes with strength, Mehlman asked, or will we fall prey to false promises of “peace in our time?’’
And they played the requisite Ronald Reagan retrospective on the big screen: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’’
The videotaped segment on George Herbert Walker Bush’s presidency skipped over another equally famous line: “Read my Lips.’’ But Bush “41” was quoted as saying: “Communism died this year. By the grace of God, America won the Cold War.’’
Bush “43’’ appeared on the big screen only: “I’ve got a vision for America that is hopeful, optimistic and inclusive.’’ He appeared with a bullhorn atop the wreckage of the World Trade Center on the big screen, and he also said this about the war: ‘We will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail.’’
“Let’s not forget,’’ Romney told the crowd of Bush. “This man has kept us safe the last six years… and that’s not easy.’’
Romney, telling the crowd of the 60th birthday present his boys gave him – a 1962 Rambler, in honor of his father, who had served as president of American Motors until that year – also noted that the old car has a huge old steering wheel because that’s what it takes to turn the corners, and of course no seat belts.
“You see, in the private sector, when they make automobiles, things change every year… They get better,’’ Romney said. “Then I went to government, and I found things never change… But if there is one thing we need now, it’s change, and I’ll tell you what, if I’m elected president, get used to it, change is coming.’’
The crowd sat largely silent through Paul’s talk – except when he proposed abolishing the income tax, when people put their hands together.
But Paul made no mention of the war. He spoke instead of his vision of libertarian freedoms.
Paul spoke of his robust fundraising and his work on the Internet – citing 1,000 Meet-Up groups organized online. Young people are willing to listen to his message, he said. It’s a message of “limited government… free enterprise…. balanced budget… personal privacy… ‘’
“We have a right to our lives, we have a right to our pursuit of happiness and we ought to have a right to keep the fruits of our labor,’’ said Paul. “Ultimately our goal ought to be to get rid of the income tax.’’ And that was a line that played very well here.
