Bush adds to coffers in Kerry's backyard

President Bush attended a splashy campaign fund-raiser yesterday on the home turf of presumptive Democratic nominee John F. Kerry, calling his rival "one of the main opponents of tax relief" and pulling in $1.2 million at a cocktail reception in the Boston Park Plaza Hotel.

"Some people would think we wouldn't have much support here," Bush said, pausing for effect. "But they're wrong."

The trip was the first Bush has made to Massachusetts since its junior senator became the presumptive nominee. While the state is unlikely to provide a victory for Bush in November, the visit was an opportunity to add to the president's fund-raising advantage and tweak Kerry at an event just a 10-minute walk from his Louisburg Square townhouse.

"We're very pleased with the enthusiasm and support President Bush has received in Boston," Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said with a smile. "We're happy to be speaking to the people of Massachusetts about the stark choice they have this fall."

More than 1,000 supporters attended the $2,000-per-plate event, with some contributing more.

Governor Mitt Romney, who has appeared on national television to criticize Kerry as a Massachusetts liberal, huddled with Bush and introduced him as "a true leader, a great leader."

"We have two people running for president," Romney said, "and one of them is a strong leader."

Kerry's campaign didn't let the criticism go unchallenged.

"Massachusetts wants jobs, health care, balanced budgets, and promises kept on homeland security and education," campaign spokesman David Wade said. "In other words, Massachusetts wants the same kind of change America wants, and it starts by electing John Kerry president."

Bush didn't veer far from his usual campaign themes about tax cuts and terrorism. His criticism of judges rewriting laws from the bench -- an allusion to his opposition to gay marriage -- drew sustained applause. Bush tore into Kerry as a tax-happy liberal and a flip-flopper on the issues. "My opponent is one of the main opponents of tax relief in the United States Congress," Bush said.

And while criticism of Bush from one of his former terrorism advisers was still making headlines, the president touted his administration's record in fighting terrorism and questioned Kerry's commitment to national security.

"My opponent says he approves of bold action in the world, but only if other countries do not object," Bush said. "America must never outsource America's national security."

Republicans welcomed the president, but others greeted his visit with protest. Hundreds of mostly young people protested the president's visit, jamming a section of Arlington Street near the Public Garden and the Park Plaza Hotel and holding up signs like "Drop Bush Not Bombs."

Bush's Boston fund-raiser, his fourth trip to the state as president and the first since coming to a fund-raiser in October 2002, is not the first time a presidential candidate has veered onto the home turf of his rival. Bush was not even the first member of his family to make that move.

His father, George H. W. Bush, cruised along Boston Harbor in a ferryboat in September 1988 to criticize the environmental record of his rival, Governor Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts. With pro-Dukakis chants coming his way from boats nearby, Bush mocked Dukakis for not cleaning up the harbor. "My opponent has said he will do for America what he has done for Massachusetts," the elder Bush said that day. "That's why I fear for my country."

Massachusetts residents did not share that fear. Dukakis carried the state, but was defeated in the general election.

Now, 16 years later, it is the younger Bush looking to score points in his opponent's territory.

Yesterday's visit stood in sharp contrast to a trip the president made to Boston in January 2002. Bush, visiting historic Boston Latin School, was joined by Kerry and the state's senior senator, Edward M. Kennedy, who had played a key role in helping the president push the No Child Left Behind education bill through Congress.

Kennedy and Bush raised eyebrows within their own parties by teaming up on the bill and offered warm praise for each other. The senator lauded Bush for being there "every step of the way" as the bill wound through Congress, and the president returned the pleasantries. "Mr. Senator," Bush said, "not only are you a good senator, you're a good man."

The bipartisanship of those days died long ago. Kennedy appeared on NBC's `Meet the Press" Sunday and ripped into Bush. Far from praising the president's work in getting the education bill signed, he now leads Democratic criticism that the Bush administration has not fully funded its measures.

"It's no surprise that President Bush needs to raise so much money for his reelection campaign, since his campaign is in so much trouble on the issues," Kennedy said. "No wonder he's raising record amounts of money to help him run away from his record. Massachusetts knows this is John Kerry's year, and so does the rest of America."

Bush began his swing through New England yesterday with a stop at the New Hampshire Community Technical College in Nashua, where he used another of his conversations on the economy to highlight his tax-cutting policies.

Supporters were outnumbered by a spirited band of protesters outside the college. Protesters held up signs reading "Show Us The Jobs" and "3 Million Jobs Lost."

Steve Rosenthal, executive director of America Coming Together, a voter registration group seeking to oust Bush, joined in that criticism of the president's economic record. "The people of New Hampshire know firsthand George W. Bush's policies are taking this country in the wrong direction on jobs, health care, and the economy," Rosenthal said. "No number of misleading photo ops can change that."

But while Rosenthal and others were blasting Bush's trip to New Hampshire, a long line of people waited in the spring chill outside the college to hear the president speak.

Bush discussed his economic record after saying for the second time this week that, if his administration had known that planes would be used to launch a terrorist strike, he would have acted. He introduced Cheryl McGuinnes, whose husband Thomas was a copilot on American Airlines Flight 11, which was hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, after it left Logan Airport on its route to Los Angeles.

"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of this government to protect the American people," Bush said.

McGuinnes acknowledged the president's greeting but did not address the audience.