McCollum praises, chides president

The Senate candidate tells Stetson law students the GOP must strive for growth - and restraint.

GULFPORT - Bill McCollum, candidate for the U.S. Senate, implored a group of law school students to re-elect President Bush this fall and get more Republicans in the Senate, including himself.

At the same time, he joined a growing group of Republicans who have criticized Bush for not taking a strong enough stance to curb spending.

"We need to spur greater growth and combine that with fiscal restraint," McCollum told a gathering of three dozen students at Stetson University College of Law over pizza and soda. "If I had any criticism of President Bush, it's that he hasn't vetoed a single spending bill."

White House officials have said in recent weeks that Bush is not to blame for the hefty additions to the nation's deficit.

"President Bush has been the lever of spending restraint in Washington for his entire first term," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said a week ago. "We welcome the Congress' interest in holding the line on spending."

McCollum told the law students that today's world of terrorist threats makes him the best candidate because he doesn't need "on-the-job-training, especially in areas of terrorism and national security."

McCollum, 59, a lawyer who lives in Longwood, served in the House for 20 years, founding the task force on terrorism and serving on the Select Committee on Intelligence. He lost the 2000 U.S. Senate race to Bill Nelson. Now he's seeking the seat being vacated by Democrat Bob Graham.

McCollum recalled speaking to former President Richard Nixon after a speech by Nixon in March 1990, in which Nixon warned him that he needed to raise the standard of living for the Third World. Nixon also told him to be wary of Muslim radical fundamentalists.

"We're safer today than we were before Sept. 11," McCollum said. "We're not safe, but we're safer."

McCollum led a crowded field of Republican candidates in a recent St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald poll with 19 percent. His closest competitor for the GOP Senate nomination, according to the poll, was Mel Martinez, the former U.S. housing secretary from Orlando, who had 18 percent. The primary is Aug. 31.

- Information from Times wires was used in this report.

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