AP
President Bush appeared in Denver Friday with Gov. Bill Owens (left) and congressional candidate Bob Beauprez (right).
Bush was blunt in stating his plans to Colorado Republicans at a fundraising lunch.

"There's no negotiation with Sadaam Hussein. There's nothing to discuss. The U.N. can either act, or the U.S. will lead a coalition to disarm this man," Bush proclaimed.

The President spoke to about 1,000 Republican supporters who paid $1,000 each at a fundraiser for Republican 7th Congressional District candidate Bob Beauprez at the Adam's Mark Hotel. Bush urged Colorado voters to support Beauprez, running in a new district, and U.S. Senator Wayne Allard, who is locked in a tight re-election bid.

Bush flew into Aurora's Buckley Air Force base at 10 a.m. and greeted military personnel at the base before making his way in a motorcade to downtown Denver. He spoke at the luncheon and headed out slightly after noon.


9News video: Speech and congressional race; Protestors

More than 2,000 protestors gathered in front of the City and County Building and marched down 16th Street to the Adam's Mark to protest a possible U.S. attack on Iraq.

"There is a lot of anger and a lot of frustration about the way we're being carried toward war," said Mark Sweitzer, of the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace.

The group organized the protest to coincide with Bush's visit to Denver and chanted "No War for Votes" outside the hotel where the President spoke. Organizers said they were stunned by the size of the turnout.

"We don't buy $1,000 a plate lunches at the Adam's Mark," said Howard Greenebaum, 72, of Sedalia. "We are Americans and we vote."

When the group arrived at the Adam's Mark, they encountered a small group of Bush supporters. "We thought we were the majority, until this army showed up," said Bush supporter Kevin Keeling, 19, of Boulder, who studies political science at the University of Colorado.

A woman who said she thinks Bush's policies are Nazi-like was holding a sign with a swastika and a Republican elephant. She attracted a lot of angry remarks from Bush supporters. "A couple of Republicans told me they were going to report me to child services and take my baby away," said Denise Spencer, 35, of Denver, who held her one-year-old daughter Kayla along with the sign.


In his Denver remarks, Bush also said the Senate is bogged down in the work rules governing how the new Department of Homeland Security should be run, threatening to tie his hands with labor rules.

"I don't need a thick book of regulations trying to micromanage the Department of Homeland Security. We need flexibility," he said.

Bush cited examples, including union objections to decisions that customs inspectors checking border shipments be required to wear radiation detectors to spot illicit shipments of nuclear material.

Bush said it would take a year to resolve such a dispute and said: "We don't have a year to resolve issues like that." "I'm for workers' rights, but in the name of national security this administration and future administrations need flexibility to move people at the right time and place to protect us from the people who want to hurt us," Bush said.

Bush had a dual mission - to help fellow Republicans fill their campaign coffers and to build public support for his version of legislation creating a Department of Homeland Security. Bush wants a bill without "a lot of rules and regulations." Following his visit to Colorado, Bush was due for a second round of political events in Arizona with appearances in both Flagstaff and Phoenix. There, he was to rally GOP donors and voters in support of Matt Salmon, the party's choice for governor, and Rick Renzi, a GOP congressional contender.

Republican officials said the party and Salmon likely would take in more than $1 million.

Today's event in Colorado was to raise $1.7 million, with $1.2 million going to the state party. The fund-raising appearances in Arizona were to bring in a total of $2.1 million, with $1.2 million of that going to the state party, $700,000 to Salmon and $200,000 to Renzi.

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said that in both Colorado and Arizona the president would underscore his efforts to improve the lagging economy and to create the homeland security agency to coordinate efforts to fight terrorism at home.

In Houston earlier, where he helped the Senate campaign of GOP candidate John Cornyn, Bush continued to criticize the Democratic-controlled Senate for insisting that the legislation creating the new department also protect the rights of the 170,000 federal workers expected to run its agencies and programs.

"Thy want there to be a lot of rules and regulations and I'm not going to accept that," Bush said. "The enemy doesn't care about these rules." The fund-raiser was held not far from the Houston headquarters of Enron Corp., a symbol of the recent corporate scandals. At the dinner, Bush told business executives they should operate their companies with honesty and integrity.

The elections will decide control of Congress for the remainder of Bush's term as well as many state houses and could help his own cause as he positions himself for an re-election campaign in 2004.

Bush is taking Saturday and Sunday off and staying close to the ranch. That keeps him out of the capital at a time when thousands of demonstrators are expected to protest the weekend meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund just blocks from the White House.