Bush Legacy Tour

PHOENIX & TUCSON, AZ-The thermostat on the bus indicated that is was 114 degrees outside when we rolled into Phoenix on Friday morning. It was a heat-wave even for Arizona.  The sweat poured from my brow and from the people gathered to see the bus outside of the IBEW hall in Phoenix. There were a couple dozen dedicated people that showed up and a number of people that were driving by.

We gave a very short press conference due to the heat. Rebekah Friend, the President of the Arizona AFL-CIO spoke about Senator McCain’s record in Arizona. To say the least, she is not a big fan of “the maverick.” McCain’s voting record in the Senate has supported the overwhelming majority of Bush’s policies which have hurt the members of that Rebekah serves and all working people for that matter.

Bill Engler Vice President of the Arizona Alliance For Retired Americans spoke about the impact Bush’s policies have had. Much like Americans United for Change, the Alliance For Retired Americans fought hard against Bush’s potentially disastrous 2005 plan to Privatize Social Security and won! Bill was disgusted by the recent comments by Senator McCain that Social Security is “a disgrace” and by his plans to privatize social security and take a guaranteed program and turn it into a guaranteed gamble.

I spoke briefly about Phoenix-area member of Congress, Representative John Shadegg. Shadegg has been a reliable vote for the conservative policies supported by President Bush and Senator McCain. His voting record for the year 2007 was 94% in support of the President's policy agenda. In fact, Shadegg's voting percentage in support of the President has steadilly increased during the time he has served, according to Congressional Quarterly. In 2001, Shadegg voted with the President's policies 84% of the time and has continually increased since them. This increase only shows that as the economy continues to tank, health care prices sky-rocket, and the Iraq war continues with no end; John Shadegg's support for these failed policies is stronger than ever. The crowd had little good to say about Representative Shadegg and are ready for a change.

We opened up the bus and for about ten minutes folks toured the museum. Then all of a sudden everything shut off and went dark.

 

Was it Ken Lay’s fault?

Did McCain send some of his people to take care of this pesky bus that exposes his not-so-maverick voting record? 

Maybe it was the CIA?

All amusing options but the generator actually blew due to the heat. Although we can certainly say that conservative policies have helped global warming along, we have no one to blame but Mother Nature.

The event was cut a little short because the bus cannot make it in the extreme heat. We carried on toTuscon. Tucson’s event was similar to Phoenix. Rebekah Friend President of the Arizona AFL-CIO headed down to Tucson to speak at the event. We were also joined by Kitty Kennedy from the Alliance for Retired Americans who spoke about the many ways the Bush Administration has short-changed seniors and working Americans.

Once again our generator’s life was short-lived. Whenever possible we plug in so that we do not need the generator. Unfortunately, this was not possible for either of our Arizona locations. The people in Tucson and Phoenix were incredibly nice about our generator issues and were so appreciative of us being there. It made up for the hellacious heat outside that the bus, and I, don’t function well in.