Jessica Simpson show she learned well her lessons dealing with the
sharks in the music and movie business. Republican campaign officials
apparently think Simpson is a dummy, based on her public persona. She
is anything but, and she has no need to damage her career hopping on
the Bush bandwagon.

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Jessica Simpson snubs Bush
Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:50 PM ET

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Concerned about politicizing her favorite
charity, singer-actress Jessica Simpson on Wednesday turned down a
invitation to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush, a snub that left
Republicans dismayed.

The apparent final word that Simpson would be a no-show at a major
Republican fund-raiser with Bush and congressional leaders on Thursday
night came after a day of conflicting reports from her camp and
organizers of the event.

The blond star of the film "The Dukes of Hazzard" still plans to visit
Washington on Thursday to lobby members of Congress on behalf of
Operation Smile, a non-profit venture offering free plastic surgery for
disadvantaged children overseas with facial deformities.

People close to Simpson said she declined a request to appear that same
evening at the gala fund-raiser of the National Republican
Congressional Committee -- even after she was offered some private face
time with Bush -- because Operation Smile is a non-partisan group.

"It just feels wrong," one Simpson insider told Reuters on Wednesday,
adding that the actress keeps her political views private. "She would
love to meet the president and talk about Operation Smile ... but she
can't do it at a fund-raiser for the Republican Party."

NRCC spokesman Carl Forti said he was surprised at Simpson's position.

"It's never been a problem for Bono," he said, referring to the U2 rock
star who has met regularly with political leaders of all stripes to
promote various causes, including Third World debt relief. "I find it
hard to believe she would pass up an opportunity to lobby the president
on behalf of Operation Smile."

Although Simpson's publicists insisted she never had planned to attend
the fund-raiser, Forti said the actress initially accepted the NRCC
invitation when it was extended on Tuesday night, only to change her
mind the next evening.

Forti said the Republican group had even arranged for Simpson to dine
at one of the head tables with U.S. House of Representatives Majority
Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican. The NRCC hopes the
$2,500-per-plate dinner event will raise $7.5 million for Republican
candidates in the congressional midterm elections in November.

Simpson, 25, a Texas native who started out singing in her church
choir, became a star on the Christian music circuit as a teenager and
crossed over to the pop mainstream with her major-label debut album
"Sweet Kisses" in 1999.

She became an overnight MTV sensation in 2003 as co-star of a reality
show chronicling her first year of wedlock with fellow pop vocalist
Nick Lachey, but she filed for divorce in December after three stormy
years of marriage. Simpson is currently featured wearing cowboy boots
and hot pants in a TV pizza ad.

Reuters