For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 17, 2002
Remarks by the President at Lamar Alexander for Senate Luncheon
Nashville Convention Center
Nashville, Tennessee
11:55 A.M. CDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. Thanks a lot. Thank you,
Senator. (Laughter and applause. There's no doubt in my mind Lamar
Alexander will make a great -- a lot of great contributions to our
nation, but one of the lasting contributions he will make is a
contribution he made before when he held office, and that is he brought
honor and dignity to the office to which he had been elected.
(Applause.)
I'm proud to be back in Tennessee. I want to thank you all for
having me here. I'm proud to come back and say as clearly as I can to
the citizens of Tennessee, Lamar Alexander should become the next
United States senator. (Applause.) And there's a lot of reasons why,
and one of them is because he married well. (Applause.) Like me, he
married a Texan. And like me, he married above himself. We appreciate
Honey, and she's a class act like Lamar is, and I'm proud to know them
both.
I wish my wife were here with me. You may remember, or maybe you
don't know, but when I married Laura she was a public school
librarian. She didn't care for politics, she didn't like politicians.
Now here she is, the First Lady of the United States. Thank goodness.
What a fabulous job she is doing. (Applause.) I bring her greetings
to Lamar and Honey and all of you all. She is doing great, by the
way. She's settled in. Public housing is all right there in
Washington. (Laughter.)
I do want to thank the members of the mighty Tennessee delegation
who are here, starting with Fred Thompson. There's only one man in
this state who can fill the shoes of Fred Thompson, and that's Lamar
Alexander. And, Fred, thank you for your service. (Applause.) I
appreciate his service to Tennessee and to America. Fortunately, he
isn't quitting early. He's still got some -- he's got a task ahead
there on the floor of the Senate, and that's to make sure I get a
homeland security department that is unfettered from government rules
and bureaucracies, a homeland security department that will allow this
President and future Presidents to move people to the right place at
the right time, in order to protect the homeland from an enemy which
still hates us. And Fred Thompson is leading that charge. And as he
succeeds, and when he succeeds, he will leave behind a fabulous legacy
for future administrations and senators. Fred, thank you. You've been
a great senator. (Applause.)
I appreciate Senator Bill Frist. He, too, is a fine senator. You
sent two good ones up there, and you're about to send another good one
in Lamar. But thank you for being here, Senator Frist. I appreciate
the next governor of the state of Tennessee, Van Hilleary, for joining
us today. (Applause.) I want to thank Ed Bryant and I want to thank
Zach Wamp, as well, for being here. I hope these Congressmen are here
to hear my speeches. I hope it's not just to get a free ride on Air
Force One heading back to Washington. Either way, you'll find the
speeches are probably too long and the accommodations on Air Force One
is just fine.
But these are fine members of the Congress. I'm proud to work with
them. I'm also traveling today, since we're going to a school here in
Nashville, I'm traveling with our Secretary of Education Rod Paige,
who's doing such a fantastic job on behalf of the children of America.
And, Rod, thank you for coming.
I want to thank all those who helped put on this event. I want to
thank Ted Welch. I want to thank Beth Harwell and Stephanie Chivers.
I want to thank my friend, David Kustoff. I want to thank all of you
all who are involved in grassroots politics.
One thing people like Lamar and I understand is that we can't win
without the folks who are willing to dial the telephones and put the
signs in the yards, and make sure the mailers go out on time, make sure
the voters go up to vote. I want to thank you for what you have done,
and I want to thank you for what you're going to do. It is really
important that you go back to your coffee shops, your houses of
worship, your community centers, and remind the good people of
Tennessee what a fine leader Lamar Alexander has been, is, and will be
on behalf of the people of Tennessee. (Applause.)
He should win this race just on what he has done. He was one of
the great governors of this state. He's one of the most imaginative
and reform-oriented Secretaries of Education. He'd been in higher
education. He loves his family, he loves his country, he's got
fabulous values. The thing I appreciate about him is that he does not
rest on his laurels, he's a forward-thinking man. He knows that we've
got to continue to work together to challenge the status quo when we
find our children trapped in mediocre schools. He understands that
mediocrity must be challenged. He challenged -- liked to challenge
what I call the soft bigotry of low expectations. It's going to be
good to have a man in the United States Senate who will stand by my
side to insist upon strong accountability, to make sure that no child
in America -- not one single child -- gets left behind in our public
education system. (Applause.)
As Lamar mentioned, we're going over to a school here in Nashville
to talk about the importance of teaching history and civics to our
nation's youth; that we want to make sure that when we talk about how
-- why we defend liberty, they understand the history of liberty, they
understand the great ideals of our country and the values that make
America the greatest nation on the face of the Earth.
I look forward to going with Lamar over to East Literature Magnet
School to talk about the promise of America and the hope for a better
world, not only here, but around the world. He understands the value
of education. He also understands the need to make sure our economy
grows.
In Washington, sometimes when you listen to the rhetoric of some of
them up there, they believe government creates jobs. See, the role of
government is not to create wealth, but an environment in which the
entrepreneur and small business can flourish, so people can find work.
And that's why it's going to be important to have somebody who
understands that when you let a person keep more of their own money,
that person is likely to demand a good or a service. And when they
demand a good or a service in this country, in this system, somebody is
likely to produce the good or a service. And when somebody produces
the good or a service, somebody is more likely to find work.
And the whole economic package of this administration is based upon
jobs. We will do everything in our power to make sure that jobs are
available for people who want to work. And that starts with letting
people keep more of their own money. The interesting thing is, we have
passed this tax relief plan, and yet because of a quirk in the law, a
quirk in the Senate rules, the law goes away after 10 years. That's
kind of a hard one to explain to the ranchers in Crawford, Texas.
We're going to cut your taxes, but we're really not cutting them. What
we've got make sure is, you send the United States senator from
Tennessee who will make the tax cuts permanent on behalf of the working
people of this state. (Applause.)
By the way, one of the things we did in our tax relief package,
besides laying the groundwork for economic growth, was we started
putting the death tax on its way to extinction. The death tax is bad
for Tennessee farmers. The death tax is bad for Tennessee ranchers.
The death tax is bad for Tennessee entrepreneurs. The death tax is
just plain bad. And you better send you a senator up there who will
get rid of the death tax once and for all. (Applause.)
The foundation for economic growth is strong here in America.
Inflation is down, interest rates are low, productivity of the American
worker is up. But one of the things that you need to be concerned
about is Congress overspending, is Congress not understanding the need
for fiscal responsibility, so that our economy continues to grow. If
Congress overspends, it will serve as a drag on economic vitality. You
see, some of them up there don't understand whose money we're
spending. We don't spend the government's money in Washington; we're
spending your money. And it's important to have United States senators
like Thompson and Frist who understand fiscal sanity is important in
Washington.
See, every program sounds great up there. Everybody's idea sounds
wonderful. The problem, in Washington terms, they've all got billions
of dollars worth of price tags attached to them. They can't even get a
budget out of the United States Senate. We need a budget. If you
don't have a budget, the likelihood that -- the likelihood is the
Senate is going to overspend. How can you set priorities without a
budget? And my priorities are defending the American people, making
sure the homeland is secure. And therefore, we need to have senators
in Washington, D.C. who are there to protect the taxpayer's money, to
be fiscally sound.
No, I've got a veto, and I intend to use it if they overspend. But
it would certainly be helpful to have senators up there that don't
cause me -- necessary to use it. (Applause.)
I appreciate the fact that I'll be able to work with Lamar on
making sure the good people who I nominate to our federal benches will
not only get a fair hearing, but a speedy hearing, and will get
approved. (Applause.) The country got to see what happens when the
Senate gets so politicized that they won't give people a fair hearing
when it comes to judicial nominees.
I named a fabulous woman out of Texas, named Priscilla Owen to the
5th Court. And they distorted her record. She had the highest ranking
from the ABA, and yet having listened to the rhetoric coming out of a
highly politicized and polarized committee, you never would have
realized how qualified she is. She was turned down for purely
political purposes. For the sake of a federal judiciary that is strong
and solid, we need United States senators like Lamar Alexander who will
be fair and reasonable and realistic, and will not play politics with
the President's judicial nominees. (Applause.)
And I look forward to having this good man in the United States
Senate to stand side by side with me to help fulfill the most important
role we have in Washington, and that's to protect the homeland. Our
most important job is to protect an enemy which still exists and still
hates from taking other lives.
People say, well, you know, are you sure they're still out there?
Yes, I'm sure, and I know they still hate. I want you to tell your
children who ask the question, why would America be under attack, to
look them square in the eye and tell them, it's because we love
freedom, is why we're under attack. We hold freedom dear. We love the
idea of worshiping freely in America, and we'll never let go of our
freedoms. And so long as we hold dear to our freedoms, the enemy will
hate us, because they hate freedom. These are people that do not value
human life. And here in America, we say, everybody matters, each life
is precious, everybody counts. These are people who hijacked a great
religion in order to justify their murder.
So our most important job is to do everything we can to make sure
our homeland is secure. And it starts with an issue that I talked to
you about that Fred's working on, and that is to combine the agencies
involved with homeland security in such a way that we can properly
enforce our borders, for example. We need to know who's coming into
America. We need to know what they're bringing into America. We need
to know if they're leaving America when they say they're going to leave
America.
And yet when you look down at our borders, north and south, there
are three different United States agencies involved with the security
of our border, Customs, INS and Border Patrol, all of them manned by
very fine men and women, all of them staffed by hardworking Americans.
But they've got different cultures, different strategies. It makes no
sense for the President not to be able to put the right people at the
right place at the right time to protect the homeland.
And the problem is, in the United States Senate, they're more
interested in Washington's special interests than they are in the
interests of protecting the American people. (Applause.) I hope they
get a good bill out of the Senate before they go home to campaign. But
I'm going to make good on my promise that if the flexibility is not in
the bill, the flexibility that Fred is so hard-working on, that I'm
going to use my veto power. I will not accept a lousy bill that makes
it impossible for the President -- this President or future Presidents
-- to do what the American people expect, and that's to protect the
homeland. (Applause.)
The best way to secure the homeland, the best way to make sure that
we protect our children and our children's future, the best way to
defend freedom and civilization itself, is to hunt the killers down,
one person at a time, and bring them to justice, which is exactly what
the United States of America is going to do. (Applause.)
We're in a different kind of war. But make no mistake about it,
it's still war. In the old days, you could count the enemy's tanks or
airplanes or ships, and say, well, look how much we demolished, or
their industrial capacity can't keep up with the war demands, and
therefore, they're diminished as an enemy. This is a different kind of
enemy. Remember, these are the kind of enemies that hide in caves.
They find the darkest cave they can find. They burrow in there. Then
they send some youngster to their suicidal death. These are people
that hate. These are people that take innocent life at the drop of a
hat. These people are resourceful and they're wily and they're
determined. But they are not as determined as the might United States
of America. There is no cave deep enough, there's no neighborhood dark
enough for them to hide in, as far as I'm concerned.
And thanks to a coalition of countries that love freedom as much as
we do, and thanks to a fantastic United States military, we're making
good progress on the war against these killers. Just read your
newspaper. The other day the fellow that thought he wanted to be 20th
hijacker is in custody, he's off the streets. He thought he could
hide. He thought he could run. He thought he could escape the justice
of the United States of America. No matter how long it takes, this
mighty nation will do everything is required to defend our freedom.
I bet we've hauled in over 2,500 of them so far. I say "we" --
it's not just the America military; it's our friends and allies.
Remember, the doctrine, either you're with us or you're with the enemy
-- and that doctrine still stands. (Applause.) And as a result, over
a couple thousand of them have been hauled in, and that number -- about
the same number met a different fate. They weren't as lucky.
And another doctrine still stands. It says, if you harbor a
terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, if you house a terrorist, you're
just as guilty as those who murdered thousands of innocent American
lives. And the Taliban found out what we want. I want you to remind
your children, with all -- in the midst of all this war talk, the midst
of the -- on the television screens seeing our troops, and all the
stuff going on -- remind them that this mighty nation went into a
country as we upheld that doctrine. Not to conquer anybody, but to
liberate a people from the clutches of one of the most barbaric regimes
in the history of mankind. Thanks to the United States and our friends
and allies, many young girls, for the first time, go to school.
No, this great, compassionate nation will not only defend our
nation, we will believe in freedom for everybody. See, we think
everybody matters, every life counts, every person has got worth,
whether they be American or anywhere else around the globe.
Speaking about barbaric regimes, we must deal with probably one of
the most -- not probably -- one of the most real threats we face, and
that is the idea of a barbaric regime teaming up with a terrorist
network and providing weapons of mass destruction, to hold the United
States and our allies and our friends blackmail.
I gave a speech at the United Nations; I said, for the sake of
peace, for the sake of security, after 11 years of not doing what he
said he would do, it is time for us to deal with the true threats, it's
time with us to deal with Saddam Hussein, it's time for us to secure
the peace. (Applause.)
The United Nations must act. It's a time for them to determine
whether or not they'll be the United Nations or the League of Nations.
It's time to determine whether or not they'll be a force for good and
peace, or an ineffective debating society. The United States will
remain strong in our conviction that we must not, and will not, allow
the world's worst leaders to hold the United States and our friends and
allies blackmail, or threaten us with the world's worst weapons.
I have asked Congress to support me in this war, and I must say the
bipartisan support has been strong, and I appreciate that. But
Congress has been lacking in one area. I requested the most -- the
largest increase in defense spending since Ronald Reagan was the
President, for two reasons. One, any time we send our troops into
harm's way, they deserve the best pay, the best training, and the best
possible equipment. (Applause.) And secondly, I wanted to send a
message to friend and foe alike that the United States is not going to
relent in our quest for freedom, that we're in this deal for the long
haul; that there's not a calendar on my desk that says by such and such
a date, we quit. That's not what you do when you face an enemy which
hates. That's not what you do when you know that history has called us
to defend our freedoms.
I say the Congress failed, because the House passed a defense bill
and the Senate passed a defense bill, but they haven't gotten together
to get me a defense bill yet. They need to act. The leadership in
Washington needs to move a defense bill to my desk as quickly as
possible. They not ought -- they ought not to play politics with the
defense appropriations bill in the midst of a war, a war that will
define civilization itself. (Applause.)
I don't know what got into the enemy when they hit us. They must
have thought the nation was so materialistic and so self-absorbed and
so selfish and so shallow that after September the 11th, 2001, all we
would do is file a lawsuit or two. They didn't understand America.
They don't know that when they struck us, they struck a mighty nation
that loves freedom. They didn't realize that out of the evil done to
this country can come incredible good. And I believe that. I believe
that by remaining tough and strong on terror, by working with nations
around the world and reminding them the stakes -- about the stakes, by
always adhering to the ideals that make our nation strong, that we can
achieve peace.
I want you to tell your kids, my dream is peace. I want the world
to be a peaceful world, not only for our children, but children
everywhere. I want there to be peace in the Middle East, and I believe
by remaining tough and strong, we can achieve peace in the Middle
East. I believe we can achieve peace in South Asia. I understand that
the hurdles are going to be great and there's going to be rough
moments. But the enemy has given us a chance to achieve some good out
of the evil, by realizing peace. And here at home, we have a chance to
foster a more compassionate society.
In the midst of our plenty, there are people who hurt in America,
there are people who are addicted, who are lonely. There are people
who wonder whether or not the so-called American Dream is meant for
them. I understand that government can hand out money, and we do a
pretty darn good job of it. But what government cannot do is put hope
into people's hearts, or a sense of purpose in people's lives. That is
done when a fellow American puts their arm around somebody who hurts,
and says, I love you, what can I do to help you.
There's a new spirit in America, thanks to what happened on
September the 11th. We still mourn for the loss of life, but there are
thousands of our fellow citizens who have asked the question, how can I
help? And they've heard the call, you can help fight evil by doing
good. You can fight evil by loving your neighbor just like you'd like
to be loved yourself.
No, in this country, there's a new sense of responsibility. People
are learning that being a patriot is more than just putting your hand
over your heart and saying the pledge allegiance. Being a patriot is
serving a cause greater than yourself.
The enemy hit us, but they didn't know who they were hitting.
They've -- they hit a country with a strong spirit, a strong sense of
purpose, a strong drive to make sure that every single citizen has a
chance. And so I remind my fellow Americans, it doesn't take much to
be a part of a change, to be a part of the gathering momentum of
millions of acts of kindness that will define the true face of our
country -- mentor a child, go to a shut-in's house and say, can I help
you. Be a part of the Boys and Girls Clubs.
I met a young man who -- today, who wants to run a -- is going to
run an after-school program in the Boys and Girls Club. He's a junior
in high school. He heard the call. Join the Peace Corps, if you're a
youngster. Be a member of the USA Freedom Corps. Serve a country by
serving a neighbor in need.
And that's what's taking place. You know, I first got into
politics because I believed our culture ought to change from one that
said, if it feels good, do it, and if you've got a problem, blame
somebody else -- to a culture which says, each of us are responsible
for the decisions we make in life. And if you're a mom or a dad,
you're responsible for loving your children with all your heart and all
your soul. If you're living in Nashville, Tennessee, you're
responsible for the quality of education in the neighborhoods, you're
responsible for the quality of life. If you're running a corporation
in America, you're responsible to your shareholders and your employees
to tell the truth and not lie about your books. If you're a
responsible America, it means you love your neighbor just like you'd
like to be loved yourself. And that's what's happening.
There's no question in my mind this great country is going to rise
to the challenges we face. There's no doubt in my mind that by
remaining strong and steadfast, we can win the war on terror and help
the world become more peaceful. And there's no doubt in my mind that
we can find those dark corners of hopelessness and help bring light, by
loving them -- by loving a neighbor in need.
You know why I say, no doubt in my mind? Because this is the
finest country on the face of the Earth, full of the most decent,
honorable people. I'm proud you came today. I'm proud to support
Lamar Alexander. May God bless you all, and may God bless America.
END 12:33 P.M. CDT
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