WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush, apparently unaware he was speaking
on an open microphone,
offered some unguarded comments Wednesday about Republican opposition
to his plan for allowing
parents to take their children out of failing schools.
``It's a battle. It's a problem politically,'' Bush said. ``There
are a lot of Republicans who don't like
vouchers. They come from wealthy suburban districts who are scared
to death of irritating
the public school movement, and their schools are good.''
Bush made the comment before meeting with a group of Roman Catholic
charity leaders to discuss his
proposal to expand the taxpayers' deduction for charitable giving could
increase philanthropic
contributions by 11 percent.
But before journalists were escorted in, someone activated an audio
feed from Bush's microphone to the
White House press briefing room.
One participant introduced himself as a Floridian. Bush's brother Jeb
is the Florida governor and was at
the center of the five-week dispute over that state's punch-card ballots
and their chads.
``I'm about to name my brother the ambassador to Chad,'' Bush joked.
Apparently unaware his remarks were being heard, Bush cast himself to
the bishops, priests and nuns as
staring down fierce opposition to his plan to provide government grants
to help parents take their children
out of failing schools.
Bush said the controversy ``is like the abortion issue. I mean, there
is a kind of a built-in prejudice against
a particular position on both sides on both issues.''
Returning to the voucher question, Bush said: ``There's serious,
serious heat on Capitol Hill, and it's not
only from the Democrats. The Republicans won't yell it, but they'll
whisper it. The Democrats will yell it.''
During the election campaign, Bush had another unguarded moment with
an open microphone when he
turned to running mate Dick Cheney and used an obscenity to describe
a New York Times reporter.