politics

CINCINNATI - President Bush reminded Americans Monday that his eight years of appointing conservative judges will affect the nation for decades, hoping to secure his legacy but also to help fire up Republicans in must-win Ohio a month before the presidential election.

Bush said that he has appointed more than one-third of all sitting federal judges and that "few issues are more hotly debated or have a more lasting impact on our country."

With his historically low poll ratings, Bush isn't exactly welcome at campaign rallies, appearing alongside candidates. So indirect help -- like this speech in Cincinnati and fundraising efforts that landed the GOP $2.5 million over the last four days -- is his strongest campaign tool. All of the fundraisers were held out of the view of the press and the public.

Bush spoke before about 700 conservative legal scholars, judges, students and activists. Speaking to applause and even some "amens," Bush said the definition of a good judge is one who does not use the court to "invent laws or dictate social policy" and who believes that the Constitution "means what it says."

This code for the conservative approach to the role of a judge compares with the more liberal view that judges must have latitude to view the Constitution as a "living document."

Bush did not mention presidential rivals Barack Obama and John McCain, but he singled out the two Supreme Court justices he nominated -- John Roberts and Samuel Alito -- as "outstanding judges." Obama voted against both of them.

Bush touted the changes in narrow Supreme Court decisions since Roberts and Alito joined the court, citing, for example, recent 5-4 decisions that upheld citizens' Second Amendment rights and a ban on a late-term abortion procedure.

"Our founders gave the judicial branch enormous power," Bush said. "It is the only branch of government whose officers are unelected. That means judges on the federal bench must exercise their power prudently -- cautiously -- you might even say, conservatively. And that means that the selection and confirmation of good judges should be a high priority for every American."

He spoke on the first Monday in October, the legally mandated beginning of the Supreme Court's new term.

ASSOCIATED PRESS