Kennebunkport, Maine ? Both Presidents Bush, current and former, teamed for a daybreak round of golf on Saturday, then set out to sea in search of Republican campaign cash.

At the start of his August getaway from Washington, the president also leveled a veto threat against Senate Democrats tinkering with his proposal for a Department of Homeland Security, and he issued Congress a long to-do list for when they, too, resume work in September.

President Bush leaps over the side of his father's speedboat, Fidelity II, as they arrive in Scarborough, Maine, to campaign for Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. The president made the half-hour trip by sea Saturday from his family's home at Kennebunkport, where he is visiting before starting vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Tex.

Democrats, in turn, promised a fall fight over prescription drug legislation.

Much of the talk of policy and politics came in dueling morning radio broadcasts that seemed the static of a distant land in this serene, seaside vacation haven that’s been summer home to Bushes for more than a century.

But the president also closed a lazy day golf, fishing, a nap with a feisty fund-raising speech. In it, he delivered a message previously left to underlings: He will veto any homeland security department bill that does not give him broad power to hire and fire and change job assignments within the new Cabinet agency.

“I will not accept a bill that doesn’t allow me to adequately manage people and resources to better protect the homeland. The Senate must not work to protect its own turf; they must work to protect the American people,” Bush said.

Democrats and their allies in labor call Bush’s proposal an assault on union collective bargaining protections and the civil service system, which was designed to prevent political influence in government jobs.

The president arrived at Prouts Neck, 31 miles up the coast, chauffeured by dad in his Fidelity II speedboat. “Great way to travel,” the president enthused. For the return ride, he stripped down to his v-necked undershirt.

Security was tight for the “boat-cade,” which included a Coast Guard patrol boat to ferry staff and Secret Service vehicles crisscrossing the Bushes’ wake. Sharing the stage with Maine’s Republican Sen. Susan Collins, the father-son duo scooped up more than $300,000 for her re-election campaign and the state Republican Party.

Bush was not shy and not entirely sure, either about acknowledging that he and Collins don’t always see eye-to-eye on issues. Collins is an abortion-rights supporter who last year endorsed canceling Bush’s tax cuts if they worsened the national debt.

“She’s kind of an independent thinker, heh-heh,” Bush said.

The president rose before the sun for a 6 a.m. tee time with his father, 78.

Former President Bush showed up with bright red sores on his face, which, according to a Mayo Clinic statement that White House aides distributed, were the result of treatment for non-cancerous, sun-induced lesions.