Bush meets rescued miners, signs bill for fetus rights

PITTSBURGH -- President Bush on Monday rejoiced in the against-all-hope rescue of nine miners, telling the men and their saviors their tenacity "really represents the best of our country."

"Today we're here to celebrate life, the value of life and most importantly the spirit of America," the president said from the Green Tree firehouse, emergency gear arrayed behind him, after a 20-minute private huddle with the miners and their families.

En route to Washington from a long weekend stay at his family's coastal Maine getaway, Bush briefly visited western Pennsylvania to perform an array of modern-day presidential functions.

Sandwiched between the event with the miners and a 20-minute ceremony to sign a bill ensuring certain federal rights to a fetus born alive during an abortion, Bush collected $1 million for the underdog gubernatorial bid of Pennsylvania's Republican attorney general, Mike Fisher.

Speaking to 280 people packed in the small firehouse, Bush thanked those who performed the middle-of-the-night rescue of nine miners trapped for over three days in a flooded coal mine. Some of the rescuers were in the audience along with the miners.

"What took place here in Pennsylvania really represents the best of our country," Bush said. "There are nine lives here who can testify that we're some of the best at rescuing our fellow citizens."

While in the Quecreek Mine near Somerset, Pa., the miners broke through a wall to an abandoned mine filled with decades of storm-water runoff, pinning them 240 feet underground. The rescue just over a week ago used water pumps to stem the flooding, while a small air shaft and larger escape shaft were drilled.

The miners survived by finding higher ground, then huddling together to keep warm and sharing a paltry food supply.

Bush saluted their courage -- and linked it to a vein of strength running through all of America that he said will ensure victory in the nation's anti-terror war.

The miners, some in T-shirts and ball caps, sat awkwardly on a separate stage to Bush's right.

White House employees kept the men far from reporters, saying that a TV movie and book deal quickly snapped up by The Walt Disney Co. for $150,000 each forbids them to speak with the news media.

Change in definitions

Bush moved to another ballroom section next door to sign legislation sponsored by Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum that amends the legal definitions of "person," "human being," "child" and "individual" to include a live birth that has occurred as part of an abortion procedure.

The brief signing ceremony allowed Bush to burnish his anti-abortion credentials with his allies in the community of activists on the issue, who see the legislation as a victory and were invited to include representatives in the small audience.

Some Democrats and abortion-rights supporters initially resisted the measure, saying it injected Congress into private medical decisions and inappropriately assigned legal rights to the fetus no matter its stage of development or viability. However, the bill passed by unanimous consent even in the Democratic-controlled Senate.