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Americans will remember Dems' defense votes 
Bush spokesman: Opposition to missile projects will play a role in November

President Bush's spokesman says voters will remember Democrats' repeated opposition to missile defense plans when they go to the polls in November.

In a midterm election clouded by North Korean claims it detonated a nuclear bomb, and disputes over sex-themed instant messages by a resigned congressman, Bush spokesman Tony Snow said people will remember the important issues when they actually vote.

"RNC research notes that during the Bush administration, Democrats have voted against missile defense nine times, while Chairman Mehlman notes, 'It is simply not credible that the same Democrats who've opposed missile defense for decades have in the month before the election discovered North Korea's long-range missile capability.' And my question: Does the president have any disagreement with these statements?" WND asked yesterday.

"Well, the president knows that all of these matters are going to play a role when people are debating who they want to vote for, whether they're voting for or against the president or for or against Republican candidates," Snow said.

The actual events still were being investigated. Scientists said they were trying to determine what caused the massive explosion from North Korea early this week, and whether it was a conventional bomb or a nuclear device.

Snow said it also was "not unusual and not new" for the North Koreans to be provocative, such as in their statement that they could launch a nuclear missile at the United States.

"We have seen the pattern of making statements that are designed to be provocative, presumably in order to get concessions," Snow said. But he noted the Chinese now have called for action against the North Koreans, which may mean that the North Korean strategy no longer will work.

He also said if, in fact, North Korea does have nuclear weapons, six-party talks on the issue involving South Korea, Japan and China have resulted in closer relations between the U.S. and those nations, and a distancing between those nations and North Korea.

"The people who have the greatest ability to influence behavior are now fully invested as equal partners in a process to deal with the government of North Korea," Snow said.

"If North Korea were to have a nuke, it certainly would have a lot more impact in the capitals – in Seoul and Beijing and Tokyo and even Moscow than it would here in Washington. Here's what the Chinese said just a little bit ago: said North Korea must face 'some punitive actions for testing a nuclear device,'" Snow said.

WND also asked for the president's reaction to the report that a George Soros-funded group is seeking government information about Christian leaders who visited the White House.

"You will (be) deeply disappointed to know, … that he is not following that," Snow said.

As WND reported earlier, a Washington organization funded by billionaire George Soros has filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the U.S. Secret Service demanding information about the visits by Christians to the White House.

The Christians had the same response as Snow.

"If you go fishing in a pond, and there's no fish in the pond, you won't catch anything," American Family Association founder Donald Wildmon told WND.

Wildmon was just one of nine Christian conservative leaders who were named in the FOIA demand by Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington.

Others were James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; Gary L. Bauer, president of Our America Values; Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America; Louis P. Sheldon, of Traditional Values Coalition; Sheldon's daughter Andrea Lafferty; Paul Weyrich, of the Free Congress Foundation; Tony Perkins, of Family Research Council; and Jerry Falwell, of Jerry Falwell Ministries.

Tom Minnery, a spokesman for Focus on the Family, said his organization wasn't concerned, either, calling it just another attempt by "left-wing bullies" to intimidate conservatives.

WND also asked Snow if he left television because he was interested in becoming a radio star, and Snow said he was interested in being a star in all the media, but has discovered something better.

Some analysts are saying Democrats will make advances in both the U.S. House and Senate because of explicit IMs that former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., sent to a teen-age House page.

Among the issues being used in the closing weeks of the political campaign season is who knew what information about Foley, and when was that known.