evacuate... lol

Another GOP candidate skips Bush event By Ken Herman | Thursday, June 1, 2006, 07:35 AM When President Bush showed up at a Baltimore-Washington International Airport hotel Wednesday night for a fundraiser for the Maryland GOP he found that the party’s top-of-the-ticket candidate already had boarded a plane and left town. Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, the party’s U.S. Senate candidate, joined the list of Republicans who had to be somewhere else when Bush came to town to raise money for the GOP. Steele, instead, was at a fundraising event in Las Vegas. Nothing personal, Steele spokesman Doug Heye told the local Balitmore Sun. The candidate had a “long-standing previous commitment” to attend the Vegas event at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. The Baltimore event raised $1 million for the Maryland GOP, which will use the money for all of its candidates. Was Bush miffed by Steele’s no-show? Hard to gauge. But the president’s only mention of Steele came as an aside. “By the way, when you’re getting him in as governor,” Bush said of Gov. Bob Ehrlich’s re-election bid, “make sure you put Michael Steele into the United States Senate.” And, curiously, the White House transcript of Bush’s speech billed it as “Remarks by the president at Bob Ehrlich for governor reception.” The president’s official schedule for the week correctly noted that the event actually was a “Maryland Victory 2006 Reception” and not an Ehrlich-specific event. Earlier in May, two GOP House members found it impossible to be on hand when Bush came through town to raise money for them. In Virginia, Rep. Thelma Drake was tied up by a House vote when Bush came to Hampton Roads, Va. In Pennsylvania, Rep. Curt Weldon was absent when Bush went to Philadelphia to raise money for him. Weldon, in comments to The Wall Street Journal, cited Bush’s low ratings in Pennsylvania and said the president wouldn’t be much of a help.