In a Raucous Political Year, a Little Low-Key Fundraising

P resident Bush ended his political fundraising season last week with a closed-door, $1 million event for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

It was a typical event for the unpopular president, who in better days was renowned for his ability to rally crowds -- and raise boatloads of money -- among the Republican faithful. Even in the fall of 2006, when his poll numbers were already sliding, Bush spent the last weeks of the campaign season barnstorming around the country on behalf of GOP candidates.

This year, Bush has remained almost invisible as the Republican figurehead, primarily attending smallish and closed fundraisers in safe GOP areas. His final tally for the year is just over $80 million raised for the Republican candidates, which is about 35 percent less than he raised in 2006. (The two-year-cycle numbers aren't much better: less than $150 million this time vs. about $190 million combined in 2005 and 2006.)

Bush did not host a single public rally for Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who hasn't been seen alongside Bush since a quickie handshake in May. The Arizona senator has also taken to sharply disparaging Bush in recent weeks as he attempts to catch up to Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

What a change from March, when Bush and McCain appeared at the White House to celebrate McCain's clinching of the Republican nomination.

"I hope that he will campaign for me as much as is keeping with his busy schedule," McCain said then. "I'll be pleased to have him with me both from raising money and the much needed finances for the campaign, and addressing the challenging issues that face this country."

Bush seemed to acknowledge that such an effort was unlikely, however. "If my showing up and endorsing him helps him, or if I'm against him and it helps him -- either way, I want him to win," Bush said to laughter from the press corps.

The White House hasn't talked much about the topic since and has tried to shrug off McCain's increasingly harsh criticism. (In what has to be a watershed moment in presidential politics, one McCain spokesman over the weekend tried to turn the tables by accusing Obama of being too close to Bush -- and not in a good way.)

The president has stood by McCain anyway, casting a mail-in Texas ballot for him on Friday. As for Bush's lighter fundraising schedule, the public line from the White House is that he's just been too busy.

"The president will do anything needed to help Republicans win up and down the ticket," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. "This fall, because of the hurricanes and the financial crisis we've had to cancel many of his political activities."

Criticism From Abroad

With Bush serving as everybody's punching bag in the United States, perhaps it's no surprise that he's facing blows from conservatives across the pond as well. Boris Johnson, the iconoclastic Tory mayor of London, penned an endorsement of Obama last week that included a withering assessment of Bush.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Johnson said the "catastrophic and unpopular" Iraq war had undermined the cause of democracy, while the global financial collapse "has done a great deal to discredit" free-market capitalism.