competing against Bu$h

Remember, we grassroots are the ones who chose to walk away from $19M in federal funding. We need to keep score:

In all, it was a fairly typical day on the money trail for President Bush. The two events brought in more than $2.5 million for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.

The day's take brought the campaign's total, publicly announced receipts to more than $100 million in less than five months — though in reality the campaign crossed the $100 million threshold weeks ago as it processed checks from contributors who gave through the mail and over the Internet as well as from those whose donations get them into receptions like the one here.

Any way the money is counted, Mr. Bush has now shattered his own record for money raised for a primary campaign, the $101 million he received in the 2000 campaign.

The fund-raising trips have become a routine for Mr. Bush, who gives the same speech to three or four groups of donors a week, insisting all the while that he is not yet engaging in electoral politics.


And the GOP machine is also ramping into overdrive - with The Hypocrite Tom Delay at the helm:

a 13-page document, complete with pictures of fireworks and a golf course, that invites potential donors to give as much as $500,000 to spend time with Tom DeLay during the Republican convention in New York City next summer — and to have part of the money go to help abused and neglected children.

Representative DeLay, who has both done work for troubled children and drawn criticism for his aggressive political fund-raising in his career in Congress, said through his staff that the entire effort was fundamentally intended to help children. But aides to Mr. DeLay, the House majority leader from Texas, acknowledged that part of the money would go to pay for late-night convention parties, a luxury suite during President Bush's speech at Madison Square Garden and yacht cruises.

And so campaign finance watchdogs say Mr. DeLay's effort can be seen as, above all, a creative maneuver around the recently enacted law meant to limit the ability of federal officials to raise large donations known as soft money.


Since we actually have honor, we don't exploit children to raise our funds. But we must answer the challenge. We had faith in ourselves to refuse federal funds - now we must follow through. But our numbers are still too few.

We need more Dean Minutemen who can commit to $50 a month from now until November. That's asking a lot, of course - so we also need Dean Riders, who can commit $20 a month. Even that amount is beyond many people's means in these tough times (another price of the Bush economy), so there is also the Dean Century level - a total of $100 donation, in whatever installments you can afford. Whatever level you can join Dean Nation at, please make the commitment now!

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