Senator compares Bush skull, granite

HAVRE, Mont. – President Bush is stubborn and has a skull of “solid granite,” Republican Sen. Conrad Burns said in criticizing Bush’s continued support for placing some U.S. port operations under a company based in the United Arab Emirates.

A day after Burns made the remark at the Hill County Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner, spokesman Matt Mackowiak said the reference to granite was not meant as an insult. “He says the same thing about his son,” Mackowiak said. “It’s a little joke he likes to use.”

Mackowiak said Burns believes the White House should have been more forthcoming with details of a deal to allow a state-owned company in the United Arab Emirates to assume control of operations at six major U.S. seaports. But the spokesman said Burns “gets along very well with the president” and “thinks the president has done an excellent job on national security.”

At another meeting Sunday with Havre community members, Burns asked the school superintendent, Kirk Miller, about the impact of Montana Meth Project advertisements that discourage teens from trying methamphetamine.

In an off-the-cuff remark, Burns said penalties against people who make and distribute the addictive drug should be stiffer. “We need to go back to old vigilante law – public hangings,” he said.

“He was kidding about vigilante justice,” Mackowiak said, “but it shows a frustration he has with this drug.”

Burns has introduced legislation to provide $25 million in federal funding for local and state governments that wish to create advertising initiatives similar to the Montana Meth Project.

The senator has drawn attention previously for his choice of words.

In 1997 he referred to Yellowstone National Park’s superintendent at the time, Mike Finley, as a “jughead” because of the park’s bison management. Burns also has ridden out criticism for derogatory descriptions of Arabs in 1999 and for asking a woman with a nose ring which tribe she belonged to.