Democratic Insider

Bush will be joining John McCain on the campaign trail next week, but he’s so unpopular they don’t want anybody but big donors to know about it. The events will be closed to the public, and will not be allowed anywhere inside the fundraisers.

From the Associated Press:

President Bush starts raising money for John McCain’s campaign next week, but the three fundraisers are closed, so there will be no news media cameras photographing the outgoing and incoming Republican party leaders together nor reporters observing their joint appearances.

The White House announced Friday that Bush will be the main attraction at three McCain events next week — in Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah.

There’s also this bit of accounting involved, for those of you wondering whether taxpayers are funding the travel for these events:

During Bush’s three-day trip, he is also holding official presidential events at a Mesa, Ariz., cable company on Tuesday and at the U.S. Air Force Academy commencement on Wednesday. Under the complicated formula by which the cost of presidential travel is allocated when he is doing party events, the presence of official events on his schedule dramatically reduces the cost to McCain’s campaign for Bush’s campaign appearances.

The Associated Press reports that military leaders told Bush yesterday they’re concerned about the strain that the Iraq war is having on the troops. The Joint Chiefs are also worried, the article states, about Afghanistan “and an increasingly active Taliban insurgency.”

More, from the AP:

The Joint Chiefs of Staff did say senior commanders in Iraq should make more frequent assessments of security conditions, an idea that appeared aimed at increasing pressure for more rapid troop reductions.

The chiefs’ concern is that U.S. forces are being worn thin, compromising the Pentagon’s ability to handle crises elsewhere in the world.

Gates and other “top military officers” have previously said they wanted withdrawals to continue through the rest of the year, but it appears that Bush/McCain are going to push for us to “stay the course.”