Bush Campaigning Amid GOP Woes

President Bush arrives at an airport in Stockton, Calif., Monday, Oct. 2, 2006 for a two-day visit to California. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma) (Paul Sakuma - AP)

During a stop in Stockton's three-year-old George W. Bush Elementary School, Bush made his first comments on the revelations that Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., had sexually explicit Internet messages to teenage boys he met through the congressional page program. Foley resigned Friday when ABC News obtained copies, and House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republican leaders are facing questions about why they didn't pursue the matter earlier.

Bush said he was "dismayed and shocked to learn about Congressman Foley's unacceptable behavior." Some, including the conservative Washington Times newspaper, have called for Hastert to resign, but Bush expressed confidence in the speaker's ability to resolve the matter.

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee said Bush would not return $2,000 that Foley's political action committee gave to the president's re-election campaign in June 2003. Some other Republicans were returning or donating money that Foley had donated to their campaigns, but RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said Bush's re-election campaign "has basically been shut down."

"That money is no longer available to return," she said.

As of June 30, the last date that the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign reported its finances, $315,000 was left. But campaign officials said that money has been committed for outstanding campaign expenses and charitable donations.

Bush's final fundraiser was scheduled for Tuesday evening at a mansion in Beverly Hills. The event, hosted by investor Elliott Broidy and his wife Robin, was expected to raise $1.3 million for the RNC and was closed to the media.

The president was to wrap up the fundraising tour Wednesday with stops in Arizona and Colorado before returning to Washington.

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The House interrogation resolution is HR 6166. The Senate bill is S 3930.

The House warrantless wiretapping bill is H.R. 5825; the Senate bill is S. 3931.

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