For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 21, 2004
Remarks by the President by Telephone to the South Boston St. Patrick's Day Breakfast
10:25 A.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Senator, this would be your President calling.
SENATOR HART: President Bush, President Bush is on the line. How
about a nice round of applause for President Bush? (Applause.) Happy
St. Patrick's Day. What an honor.
THE PRESIDENT: Same to you, Jack. Thanks for letting me call in.
I appreciate you taking my call.
SENATOR HART: Any time, Mr. President, we'll take your call any
time, for crying out loud.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm proud of that. Listen, I want to thank
Father Casey. I presume he's got quite a few souls to save there in
that crowd. (Laughter.)
SENATOR HART: There's quite a few Democratic souls to save in this
hall, Mr. President. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: I know you've got one -- you invited at least one
Republican, and that's my friend, the governor.
SENATOR HART: Yes, yes, he's here. Mitt Romney is here. We were
going to ask you, Mr. President, do you need a running mate?
(Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute.
SENATOR HART: We like Dick Cheney and all, but we'd like for you
to take the Governor to Washington, D.C. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Look, you're lucky to have the guy. Here's the way
I like to put it about Massachusetts: I know there's a lot of talk
about a Massachusetts politician who has his eye on the Presidency.
But tell Mitt it's not open until 2008. (Laughter.)
SENATOR HART: Oh, you're talking about -- you had me stumped for a
second. You're talking about Senator Kerry, of course.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, no, no.
SENATOR HART: Oh, my goodness.
THE PRESIDENT: You mean the -- well, never mind. (Laughter.) I
want to thank the Lieutenant Governor; I want to thank the Speaker and
the Senate President. I miss my days as being the Governor. I loved
dealing with our lieutenant governor and speaker and members of the
state house and the state senate. And I wish you all the very best. I
know you're struggling with some big issues. But these are good,
decent folks working for the people of Massachusetts to get some things
done, and I appreciate, Jack, the spirit of this lunch.
SENATOR HART: Well, thank you very much. We are certainly honored
that you called and we respect the job that you're doing. We pray for
you every day, Mr. President. You're a good man, and we just wanted to
wish you a very, very happy St. Patrick's Day. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Same to you, sir. And I wish everybody a happy
St. Patrick's Day, as well. God bless, everybody. God bless our
great nation. (Applause.)
END 10:30 A.M. EST
|