Bush bashing bus rolls into Basin

A different kind of presidential museum rolled into town Friday. And it's probably one President George W. Bush will want to skip.

The Bush Legacy Tour, featuring a 45-foot-long "museum on wheels," parked in front of Ector County Courthouse for a couple hours Friday.

Julie Blust, the tour's press secretary, said the bus aims to link legislators like Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn with the outgoing president. Both are Republican senators from Texas.

"These conservative folks want to run away from him," Blust said. "But he's so unpopular in so much of the country right now that we want to make sure he's held accountable."

The biodiesel-fueled bus tour was funded by Americans United for Change, a group founded in 2005 to fight the privatization of Social Security. It was also sponsored by labor unions as well as groups like MoveOn.org Political Action, VoteVets.org and Healthcare for America Now.

Exhibits on the bus included "The Road to Global Meltdown" which gave information on Bush's environmental policies, as well as videos on the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina, complete with Bush telling former Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown he's "doing a heck of a job."

In the middle of the bus is a gas pump belonging to the "Grand Oil Party."

Grady Henry of Odessa said he liked the information the exhibit provided on the war and the economy. He agreed with its conclusions on Bush.

"I think our government's become too secretive," he said. "Our founding fathers gave us an open government, and we need to get back to that."

Blust said the Odessa visit was added late because the group was on its way to New Mexico and wanted to make a stop in the president's native area. Any anger over the bus seemed to have more to do with its blocking one lane of Grant Avenue than its political message.

Although he said he wasn't familiar with the bus tour, U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Midland, said Friday he took issue with its description of Bush harming national security, ruining the economy and threatening Social Security.

"I disagree with that laundry list," he said. "I think it's wrongheaded and not based in fact."

Conaway said it's more important to focus on issues facing the country in the future like energy independence and controlling government spending.

"Bush is not running for re-election," he said. "We'll let history take care of evaluating the Bush presidency."

But Blust said it doesn't matter that Bush won't be president past January.

Missed the Bus?
Here's its next five stops:
>> Saturday: Alamogordo, N.M.
>> Monday: Albuquerque, N.M.
>> Tuesday: Farmington, N.M.
>> Wednesday: Window Rock, Ariz.
>> Thursday: Flagstaff, Ariz.

"That's a question I get a lot," she said. "Essentially what we're trying to do is cement his legacy while he's still in office."

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ON THE NET
>> Bush Legacy Tour: www.bushlegacytour.com