An adviser to President Bush says the protesters distort what she has said about abortion.
By JOSH ZIMMER
Published May 4, 2004
CARROLLWOOD - As the country enters the thick of the election season, Americans are more polarized than ever, says presidential confidant Karen Hughes.
It was easy to find the divide Monday night. Arriving at a Tampa area Barnes & Noble for the latest stop in a 16-city promotional tour of her best-selling book Ten Minutes From Normal, Hughes passed a gauntlet of angry abortion rights activists.
The abortion rights supporters said Hughes insulted them recently by linking antiabortion policies with fighting terrorism. Hughes countered that the activists were distorting what she said, although she does support efforts to reduce the number of abortions.
Things were much friendlier inside the bookstore on N Dale Mabry Highway. After a delayed departure from Miami, which turned a 7 p.m. scheduled arrival into 8 p.m., the fast-talking Hughes sat down before 200 supporters. Many clutched copies of her book she would later sign.
"I came to see the lady," said Hector Vila of Forrest Hills. "When she speaks, she speaks from the heart. She's an inspiration."
As for the 50 or so protesters outside, they were misguided, not Hughes, he said.
"Every day and every minute, we have women being aborted, so I don't understand their slogan(s)," Vila said.
Hughes, 47, is a longtime adviser to President Bush. A former television news reporter, she helped run his gubernatorial campaigns and stayed on as his communications director when he was governor of Texas. When Bush zeroed in on the White House, Hughes played a similar role in helping him get his message out.
But the relationship cuts deeper, experts say. Before leaving the position of presidential adviser to return to Texas and spend more time with her family, she routinely participated in the highest-level discussions of Bush's presidency. One national newspaper called her "the most powerful woman ever to serve in the White House."
Hughes felt burned out in Washington, where she found life in the political arena to be an increasingly unsatisfying rat race. In Ten Minutes From Normal, she writes about balancing family and career.
Tall and energetic, Hughes told the standing-room-only crowd at Barnes & Noble that she had wondered if she could even write the book. Her life is so closely intertwined with Bush's that she feared her personality wouldn't come out.
But she found her theme.
"I wanted to write a personal book ... about how we set our priorities in life," she said during a press conference before the book signing. "It's something we all deal with, those of us who have children."
Her solution is this, in a nutshell: She shops for groceries and attends her son's Little League games, while also staying in close touch with Bush.
In a couple of months, Hughes will return to Washington to work full-time on Bush's re-election campaign. Her main regret, she said, will be having to toil while her son applies to colleges.
Two weeks ago, Hughes sparked some controversy during a massive march of abortion rights advocates in Washington. She appeared on CNN and said the activists were moving against what she said was popular momentum in favor of antiabortion policies.
"I think that after Sept. 11, the American people are valuing life more, and we need policies to value the dignity and worth of every life," she said then.
That's the comment that sparked Monday's protest in Carrollwood.
The protest, which attracted about 50 abortion rights advocates from as far away as Gainesville and Bradenton, was organized by the area chapter of Planned Parenthood. Amid the group were some obvious supporters of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.
"This is close enough, and it's important enough for me to come," said Helen Strain of Gainesville. "I was just outraged at what she said. Reproductive freedom and terrorism in the same breath?"
The protesters wanted an apology. In a rare confrontational moment inside the bookstore, a woman who cried, "Why won't you apologize to women?" was taken away by Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies.
No apology ever came.
By the time Hughes started schmoozing, the protesters had ceded their ground along N Dale Mabry to a lone woman clutching a sign in the dark. It said, "Thank You President Bush For Being Pro Life."
