Bush bids farewell

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From the Lowell Sun 
 
WASHINGTON -- A week before leaving Congress, Marty Meehan put aside his differences with President Bush yesterday in a visit to the Oval Office featuring warm goodbyes and even a little candy.

Bush autographed two baseballs for Meehan's sons, Bobby, 7, and Daniel, 4, and offered them presidential M&Ms during the 20-minute meeting. Meehan was invited by Bush in March.

Meehan, the incoming chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, said the president told him, "That's a great thing you're going into, higher education. Many people leave to make money."

"It was a nice meeting," added Meehan, whose wife, Ellen, also attended.

Next Friday marks Meehan's last day in Congress. As it nears, he's been calling on colleagues of all stripes to say goodbye.

The Lowell Democrat met recently with Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio and Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri.

Yesterday, Meehan visited Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, both Massachusetts Democrats, and Sen. Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat and partner in campaign-finance reform.

"The dogs were barking. The boys were running and playing," Meehan recalled fondly of his visit to Kennedy's office. "It was bedlam."

He noted that the senior senator from Massachusetts, often accompanied by his Portuguese water dogs, Sunny and Splash, prefers it that way.

Some of Meehan's goodbyes draw distinctions between his public comments on policy and his private interactions with Republican officials.

In February, Meehan accused Bush on the House floor of being "desperate to divert attention away from the missteps (in Iraq) ... and to just hold on to Iraq as long as he can and let the next administration deal with it."

But both Bush and Meehan seem able to stow their differences in private exchanges.

The pair posed for pictures. Meehan said Bush joked that Meehan could hang it in his university office.

"If I hung this on the wall, I'd get a no-confidence vote my first week there," Meehan said he told the president. "He has a good sense of humor."

Meehan's wife, a campaign adviser for Niki Tsongas, who hopes to succeed Meehan, also had her picture taken with Bush, as did their children.