Read His Lips: No, No and No!
Despite a reelection war chest of $105 million, the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign is sounding the alarm, calling on loyal contributors to dig deep for $12 million more to help get " President Bush's compassionate conservative message past the Liberal media filter," it says in a mailing this month.
"Mr. Wilson, your support now is critical," writes Vice President Cheney. "Mr. Wilson . . . a group of wealthy liberals plans to accumulate $500 million to defeat President Bush and me."
But former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV is probably the last person in America the Bushies should try to hit up. He's the uranium-in-Africa debunker, Iraq war foe and fierce administration critic married to CIA operative Valerie Plame -- the leaking of whose name is the subject of a federal grand jury investigation. He is supporting Democrat John Kerry for president. Wilson, an admirer of President George H.W. Bush, had given $1,000 to his son's campaign in 1999, so he remains on the current president's thank-you list.
Wilson recently received a picture of George and Laura Bush and, he says, a personal call from the Republican National Committee. "The RNC called me at dinner like a telemarketer," Wilson says. "He started in with: 'I want to thank you for all you've done.'
"Do you know who I am?" Wilson asked the solicitor, who confessed ignorance.
"Just tell Ed Gillespie you called Joe Wilson," he said, referring to the RNC chairman. "And put me down for a no."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A674-2004Feb23.html