Bush promotes wetlands restoration in Everglades, raises money for Republicans

WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Bush, trying to offset attacks by John Kerry, is defending his environmental record in Florida while raising money for the Republican Party. <br><br>Bush has brought in a record

Friday, April 23rd 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Bush, trying to offset attacks by John Kerry, is defending his environmental record in Florida while raising money for the Republican Party.

Bush has brought in a record $180 million-plus for his re-election campaign, and he was returning to the money game Friday to help fill Republican Party coffers for get-out-the-vote drives.

First lady Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney also have helped by headlining fund-raising events of their own for the Republican National Committee's Victory 2004.

The trio has hauled in more than $10 million for the RNC at eight events in the past two months.

Bush's trip to Florida will be his 21st to the state that decided the 2000 election. He visited twice in March, for a campaign kickoff rally in Orlando and NASCAR's Daytona 500.

The latest trip takes him to Naples and the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve on the Gulf Coast near the western edge of the Everglades, and to Coral Gables for the fund-raiser.

For the second straight day, Bush was declaring his commitment to protecting the environment, a political issue that has brought steady criticism from Democrats and environmental groups for the past 3 1/2 years.

The president and his brother Jeb, Florida's governor, were headed to the Everglades region to perform some manual labor intended to help the wetlands flourish, Bush said Thursday at the White House.

``I'm going to make sure he pulls his weight, too,'' Bush said of his sibling.

Earlier Thursday, the anniversary of Earth Day, Bush toured a nature reserve in Maine with his mother and promised to restore or protect as much as 3 million acres of wetlands in the next five years.

Kerry marked the occasion in Houston, ending a three-day focus on the environment. He accused Bush of ``playing the smoke-and-mirrors game'' by talking about wetlands conservation.

In Florida, even critics of the administration's environmental record acknowledge that wetlands protection is a bipartisan effort in which the Bush brothers have played helpful roles.

``It's hard to find a politician in Florida who is not vocally supportive of the Everglades restoration effort,'' said Charles Lee of the Audubon Society. ``There has been a good deal of support from the administration'' in Washington.

Florida Democratic Party chairman Scott Maddox said Bush should debate Kerry in Florida, a state the president ``needs to come to a lot. He's basically in a dead heat here.''

On the environment, Maddox said, ``I think the president is going to have a difficult time presenting himself and Dick Cheney as environmentalists since they were both candidates brought to us by Halliburton and big oil.''