Bush visit to Alabama attracts fans and critics

By JAY REEVES
Associated Press Writer
November 03, 2003

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Reaction to President Bush's appearance in Alabama on Monday varied by how close people got to him.

In a maintenance shop-turned-auditorium at a crane rental company, Bush addressed hundreds of GOP faithful and fans who greeted him with cheers and applause. You had to have a ticket to get in.

"He's phenomenal," said Jeremy Sauder, standing only 10 yards from Bush.

Anybody was welcome in a shady downtown park where about 100 critics gathered in jeering protest. They didn't get any closer to seeing Bush than when Air Force One flew by on its way out of town.

Erin Godsey wore a "No more wars for oil" T-shirt to the demonstration, where she passed out fliers for Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark.

The way Godsey figures it, the U.S. invasion of Iraq was all about getting more oil for Bush's buddies at American oil companies. "We're not going to get anything out of it," she said.

The president spent a half-day in Birmingham, making a speech on the economy before going to a $2,000-per-person luncheon where he gave another talk and raised $1.85 million for his re-election campaign.

At CraneWorks, Bush held out co-owners and brothers David and Steve Upton as business people who have been helped by the administration's economic policies, including tax cuts that helped prompt spending.

With about 50 employees in Birmingham and Nashville, Tenn., Steve Upton said the company has purchased nine more cranes because of tax breaks and improving business conditions, allowing it to add 15 workers.

"We're up 70 percent this year," he said. "We're big fans."

With only four months on the job, Sauder said he is among the new hires mentioned by Upton and Bush. Bush's podium was set up beside Sauder's rig - a 110-foot boom and a 60-ton lifting capacity.

"You can't ask for a greater honor," Sauder said as Bush waved to the crowd just feet away.

The mood was very different at the protest, held a few blocks from the Bush fund-raiser.

Organized by the Alabama Sierra Club, the demonstration was mainly to call on Bush to protect the state's air and water and to criticize the Army's chemical weapons incinerator at Anniston, about 50 miles away.

But there were also people protesting the war in Iraq, excessive corporate profits, church involvement in government, and the Bush administration in general.

A minister told the crowd to stay organized against "Bush and his cronies."

"They will put on us what we will bear," said the Rev. Scott Douglas of Greater Birmingham Ministries.

As Air Force One soared away, a drama troupe acted out a play about the weapons incinerator in the park. A man in a white robe played a recorder as a woman portraying a witch pretended to kill a child using nerve gas.

An older man wearing a juror badge from the courthouse watched from the sidewalk, mouth agape. He walked away after a few moments, shaking his head and muttering.