Ehrlich, Steele Absent From President's Md. Visit

President Bush swooped into Southern Maryland yesterday to mark Labor Day with a call to reduce the United States' dependence on foreign oil and develop technologies to help American workers and businesses compete in the changing global marketplace.

Bush heralded the 4.7 percent national unemployment rate as a "good sign" for workers in a speech centered on the domestic economy. The president, speaking at the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education in Piney Point, also urged lawmakers to make his tax cuts permanent.

But on a day considered the launching point of the fall election season, Maryland's top two Republicans -- Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele -- did not appear with the president in the St. Mary's County town. Their absence quickly became political fodder for Democrats, who accused the Republican officeholders of dodging the unpopular president even as they allow him to raise money for Ehrlich's bid for reelection and Steele's campaign for the U.S. Senate.

"This Labor Day, Ehrlich and Steele are afraid to be seen with the most anti-working-class president since Herbert Hoover, even while they gleefully count his checks for their campaign," Maryland Democratic Party Executive Director Derek Walker said in a statement.

Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff, traveled with the president to Piney Point and said Ehrlich and Steele could not attend because "they had existing events of their own." The governor and lieutenant governor marched yesterday in a parade in Gaithersburg.

"The president comes into Maryland often, and we appreciate when he comes into Maryland," Ehrlich spokesman Greg Massoni said. But "we agreed to be in that parade, and it was the right decision."

Rick Abbruzzese, spokesman for Ehrlich's Democratic opponent, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, said, "One day off isn't going to fool anybody that Bob Ehrlich is George Bush's biggest supporter."

Steele spokeswoman Melissa Sellers said Steele would appear with Bush if he visits again. "The lieutenant governor is honored to have the support of the president, those in his own party and Democrats and independents alike," she said.

The absence of Ehrlich and Steele illuminates a balancing act the two men face: the need to appeal to their Republican base as they also try to win office in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1 and where 60 to 70 percent of voters do not approve of Bush's performance.

When Steele, in anonymous remarks traced to him last month, was asked whether he wanted the president campaigning for him, he responded, "To be honest . . . probably not."

Zach P. Messitte, a historian of Maryland politics and director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at St. Mary's College of Maryland, said he found it puzzling that Ehrlich and Steele would not want to appear with Bush in St. Mary's, a reliably red county in a blue state. Indeed, Rove pointed out to the White House press corps that the county was "one of the most rapidly growing Republican counties in Maryland."

But, Messitte reasoned, associating with Bush could have weakened Ehrlich and Steele's appeal among Democrats and swing voters.

"When the president comes to your home state, and he's of your party," Messitte said, "that you would not want to appear with him in public seems to me would be a calculated decision regarding media images."

Bush had planned to visit St. Mary's on Labor Day in 2005 but canceled after Hurricane Katrina.

In the 11-minute address, Bush said the country's reliance on foreign oil "jeopardizes our capacity to grow.

"I mean, the problem is, we get oil from some parts of the world, and they simply don't like us," he said. "And so the more dependent we are on that type of energy, the less likely it will be that we are able to compete."

Bush said the key to limiting dependence is innovation, and he said his administration has a plan to spend money on new technologies. The president also applauded the growing use of ethanol to fuel cars in the Midwest.

"One of these days, you're going to have . . . batteries in your automobile that will enable you to drive the first 40 miles without gasoline, and your car doesn't have to look like a golf cart," he said, eliciting laughter from the audience.