Bush Aims to Mobilize 'Values' Voters

President Bush speaks during a live taping of his weekly radio address at the Mile High Coffee House Saturday, Nov. 4, 2006, in Englewood, Colo. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) (Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP)

Colorado law already defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. A proposed amendment on Tuesday's ballot would add it to the state constitution. A separate referendum would guarantee many rights for same-sex partners.

The political debate resulted in personal charges against the Rev. Ted Haggard, who subsequently resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and was dismissed as head of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado. A Denver man, Mike Jones, said he was offended that Haggard publicly supported the constitutional amendment while repeatedly paying him for drug-fueled sex trysts. Haggard denies having sex with the man, but admits receiving a massage and buying methamphetamine.

Bush spokesman Tony Snow said the president would not take a position on the measures because they are strictly for Colorado voters to decide. But the president has promoted a federal ban on gay marriage.

Earlier, Bush delivered his weekly radio address live from Mile High Coffee in suburban Denver. Sitting with a mug of coffee, Bush said his tax-cutting policies have created jobs and fueled economic progress. He said if Democrats gain control of the Congress, they can raise taxes simply by not renewing the tax cuts.

Bush also used his appearance in Colorado to defend his policies in Iraq. Meanwhile, the White House dismissed two media reports that criticized his war leadership.

White House press secretary Tony Snow questioned the accuracy of the quotes in a report in the upcoming January issue of Vanity Fair that featured three former proponents of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq who are now critics of the war. "If the quotes are accurate, it means that they're at war with the advice that they gave some time ago," Snow said.

Snow said the president just shrugged off an editorial by the Military Times Media Group calling for Bush to fire Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. In an unusually lengthy rebuke of an editorial, he argued that the editorial is a "shabby piece of work" that quotes military leaders out of context. He also noted that although the group publishes the Army Times and other military-oriented periodicals, it is a subsidiary of the Gannett Co. and not a military publication.

Bush "understands what editorial writers sometimes do, and in this case, they're grandstanding," Snow said. "The notion that somehow, as the editorial says, that this is not intended to influence the elections _ you've got to be kidding me. I mean, if they didn't want it to influence the elections, they could have published it Wednesday."

Snow denied that Sunday's expected verdict against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was tied to the election. He said Iraq's judiciary is completely independent.

"Are you telling me that in Iraq, that they're sitting around _ I'm sorry, that the Iraqi judicial system is coming up with an October surprise?" Snow said, then he corrected his calendar reading. "A November surprise? Man, that's _ wow."