Gov. Bob Riley said his recent visit to the White House for the National Governors Association meeting inspired a “sense of awe.”

“It’s hard to understand you’re sitting where, walking where Abraham Lincoln, John Adams, Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy were in the same rooms, sitting in the same chairs,” Riley said.

Riley traveled to Washington, D.C., Feb. 25 and stayed through Feb. 28. He and his wife, Patsy, spent two nights in the White House, a privilege extended to only seven of the governors. The governor said his discussions with President Bush on issues including national security and Medicaid left him “truly amazed at how many things he has to deal with.”

One issue Bush addressed with the governors was the controversy over a deal with Dubai Ports World, a company owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates, to administer certain aspects of U.S. ports. Riley said while he had some “real reservations” about the deal, Bush’s remarks left him confident in the president’s efforts to keep the country safe.

“When you hear the president of the United States say, ‘I get up every morning and the first thing that I think about is how do I protect this country. You don’t go through 9-11 without making a vow to yourself that I will do everything humanly possible to make sure that doesn’t happen again.’ … He said, ‘You don’t go through all of this and do anything that you ever think will jeopardize the security of the American people.’ I don’t think there’s ever been a president who’s worked as hard or tried as hard to secure this country, and he’s been relatively effective.”

Alabama Democrats have raised questions about Riley’s use of a state plane to travel to Washington, since he held spent several of his last hours in Washington raising funds for his re-election campaign.

“This is always an issue and we do everything we can to guard against it,” Riley said. “Out of four days, … we took two hours and had a fundraiser. Now, if that disqualifies the other three-and-a-half days we used a state plane to go up there, and a state plane is always in use to go to a national governors conference, I can’t not do it.”

During his stay, Riley was struck by the contrasts of life in the at the White House.

“Once you’re … where the residence is, it’s like home,” he said. “I got there Sunday afternoon, and you’re walking down the hall and the president comes down through there and he’s got on tennis shoes and a baseball cap and there’s two little black dogs and they’re laying on the sofa. They have done a great job making it feel like a home.”

On the other hand, he added that he had never experienced the level of formality found in the White House.

“I’m not used to having somebody serve me breakfast with a tuxedo on,” Riley said.