Bush heads to Steel City

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pittsburgh, the Steel City, is hosting an anticipated $1 million fund-raiser Tuesday for President Bush, close on the heels of Sunday's declaration from administration and industry sources that he'll yield to the World Trade Organization to repeal most steel import tariffs.
"It's a very big decision for the president from the political standpoint," said William Green, a Pittsburgh-based Republican political consultant. "I understand the [WTO] pressure. But it's at least 60 electoral votes involved. That has to weigh heavily on this president."
The tariffs endeared the GOP president to traditionally Democratic steel workers in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. But in a slumping economy, the tariffs have since angered owners and employees of small manufacturing companies that make up part of his GOP base in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Those states account for almost one-third of the 270 electoral votes Bush needs to win re-election.
President's itinerary
Today, Bush will host a fund-raiser in Dearborn, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, where auto parts manufacturers say the tariffs have boosted steel prices. Bush is also expected to talk about the economy at steel-consuming Dynamic Metal Treating in Canton, Mich.
If the tariffs remain in place, steel consumers are likely to face a supply shortage, said Lew Leibowitz, attorney for the Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition. CITAC opposes the tariffs.
The president is not expected to release his decision publicly until after Tuesday's fund-raiser at the Westin Convention Center in Pittsburgh, co-hosted by U.S. Steel Chairman and CEO Thomas J. Usher. The noon luncheon has already surpassed the $750,000 fund-raising goal, Green said, and is expected to eclipse the $1 million mark.
"It's been one of the easiest raises I've ever done," said Republican National Committeewoman Christine Toretti, luncheon co-host.
Lifting the tariffs now, said U.S. Steel senior vice president Terrence Straub, could cost Bush a winning margin in Pennsylvania -- a state he narrowly lost in 2000 and will have visited 23 times Tuesday since taking office.
"They don't need but a handful of votes," Straub said. "If he lifts the relief, he forsakes that; he's walked away; he's squandered that opportunity. This would be, in our view, a broken promise by the White House."