Bush, Giuliani go after Kerry in Farmington
Diné VP meets with Bush but Shirley can't?

President George Bush is joined on stage by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani during a campaign stop Thursday at Ricketts Field in Farmington, N.M. (Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent)

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON — Navajo Nation Vice President Frank Dayish Jr. partook in a little extracurricular political activity Thursday, meeting with U.S. President George Bush to the rest of the tribal government's surprise.

Before launching into his stump speech amid thousands of fans filling the bleachers and infield at Ricketts Field, the president mentioned meeting Dayish and his wife at the Farmington airport, where he arrived aboard Air Force One. The president did not mention what they spoke of, however.

Deana Jackson, spokesperson for the Navajo Nation president and vice president, said her office was caught by surprise by news of Dayish's visit with Bush and that it hadn't yet confirmed the report. Although Dayish's schedule for Thursday noted a trip to Farmington, Jackson said, where tribal business often takes him, it made no mention of a meeting with Bush.

Whatever encounter Dayish had with the president, Jackson said, was strictly in a "personal capacity."

"If he has an opportunity to meet with Bush," she added, "that's his decision and his prerogative."

Dayish was scheduled to travel to Phoenix Thursday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.

News of Dayish's meeting with Bush just miles from the reservation seems all the more odd given the many attempts Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley says he's made to schedule a personal audience with the president since his inauguration, all of them ignored.

Shirley, in fact, has been a vocal critic of the Bush administration, opposing the president's proposal to reduce funding to various programs serving American Indians including a $55 million cut in the BIA's budget for the 2006 fiscal year and accusing him of placing American Indian issues on the "back burner."

When Bush's Democratic rival for the White House rode through the region by train earlier this month, Shirley went so far as to offer Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry his personal endorsement before thousands at a Kerry rally in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Bush, however, with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in tow, was not so kind to Kerry in Farmington Thursday.

When the crowd wasn't interrupting the president with cries of "Viva Bush" and "Four more years," it booed at the mere mention of Kerry's name and erupted in laughter and cheers with each of Bush's practiced jabs.

Painting his rival as a flip-flopper, Bush recalled Kerry's claim to have voted for the $87 billion supplemental appropriations bill for defense and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq before voting against it.

"I want to thank him for clearing that up," Bush said. "However, there's still over 60 days for him to change his mind again."

Alternating between touting his own record and bashing Kerry, Bush went on to touch upon his tax cuts, education reform and plan for improving health care benefits and expanding coverage.

The war on terror played prominently in Bush's speech.

Against attacks on the Bush administration's case for invading Iraq, the president defended his decision.

"After Sept. 11, we had to look at the world differently," Bush said. "One of the clearest lessons of Sept. 11 is that we have to look at threats more seriously."

However accurate American intelligence may or may not have been on former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's weapons programs, the president said, his proven hostility and persistent deceptions were clear enough.

"So I had a choice to make," Bush said, between trusting Saddam's word and holding him accountable to inspections. "And given that choice, I will defend America every time."

And while weapons of mass destruction have yet to surface, Iraq did Bush insisted despite all evidence indicating Iraq had never reconstituted its weapons programs retain the capacity to produce those weapons.

Darla Gillette of Farmington liked what she heard.

"I liked the way he stands beside his positions," she said, "knowing today you say the same thing that you say tomorrow and four years from now."

"I thank God Bush was president when that (the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks) happened, and with him as president, he'll make sure that doesn't happen again," said Gillette, who's made up her mind about who she'll vote for come Nov. 2.

Wetzel Williams, of Farmington, also left the rally with his mind made up.

As a physician, he appreciates the president's pledge to fight the rising jury awards in medical malpractice cases driving up health care premiums and has faith in his ability to push tort reform legislation through Congress.

Another young lady at the rally, who declined to give her name, left less impressed. Although she enjoyed the president's speech and praised his tax cuts, she's waiting to hear more from his opponent before choosing between the two.

Bush's stop in Farmington was the second of three campaign rallies he held in New Mexico Thursday, following one in Las Cruces and preceding another in Albuquerque. His swing through the state was his second this month, following an Aug. 11 rally in Albuquerque.

After New Mexico's modest five electoral votes were decided by the slimmest margin of any state during the 2000 general election, Bush and Kerry are nevertheless working hard to swing the battleground state their way in what's shaping up to be another close election this November.