By Gordon Fraser

SALEM — She may be running for the U.S. Senate, but some who met former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen at Maddie's Bagel and Eatery yesterday thought she should run for president.

Rosemarie Lefebvre, 80, was eating brunch with her friend Doris Flaherty, 93, when Shaheen stopped by to kick off her Middle Class Matters tour. Both Salem women were effusive in their praise for the three-term former New Hampshire governor, and Flaherty immediately told Shaheen she should run for president.

While Shaheen laughed and told the women she would take her political career one step at a time, Lefebvre quickly endorsed the idea.

"We need women in all the big (positions) — president, senators," Lefebvre said afterward. "They make so much more sense than the guys."

Shaheen, a Democrat, is running to unseat first-term Sen. John Sununu, a Republican. She lost narrowly to Sununu in 2002.

Although Shaheen came prepared with a laundry list of proposals — from ending President Bush's tax cuts for those who make more than $250,000 a year to increasing Pell grants for college students — much of her time was spent listening.

She walked quietly from table to table for more than an hour, listening to patrons' stories about struggling with health care providers or their worries about the war in Iraq.

Maddie's Bagel and Eatery is a small restaurant on Route 28 that Hale and Erica Cole-Tucker, husband and wife, opened June 25.

The new restaurant owners, both 28, said they were excited to have their first political figure stop by. The Cole-Tuckers had hoped to get presidential candidates into the diner before the New Hampshire primary, but didn't have any luck.

Still, both said, they're agnostic when it comes to endorsing any particular politician.

"We have an open mind," Hale Cole-Tucker said. "We're just here to listen to what Shaheen has to say and hopefully serve her some breakfast."

The pair extended an invitation to Sununu as well, saying he would be welcome to come by if he would like.

But the first-term senator might not have had too much support from fellow diners if he had come for a late breakfast yesterday.

"He's a rubber stamp for Bush," said Ted Dyer, a 47-year-old Windham resident, who was eating at the counter.

John Boniface, 60, of Derry wasn't very enthusiastic about the senator, either.

"I contacted John Sununu's office a couple of times and it took forever to get a response," Boniface said. "He's not listening to the people."

While both men acknowledged they typically vote for Democrats, the latest polling shows Sununu doesn't have nearly the support he once did.

A poll in January by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center showed Shaheen beating Sununu 54 percent to 37 percent. Seven percent were undecided.

But Sununu and the Republican Party are firing back at Shaheen's proposals to "restore the middle class and make the economy work for New Hampshire families again."

The National Republican Senatorial Committee released a Web video yesterday, claiming Shaheen supported President Bush's tax cuts when she was running for the Senate in 2002. She now proposes rolling the tax cuts back for those who make more than $250,000.

The Republican committee cited a Nov. 8, 2002, Hartford Courant article, which said: "Gov. Jeanne Shaheen ... praised the Bush tax cuts."

But the Shaheen campaign said that article takes the governor out of context.

"She's always supported making permanent tax cuts for the middle class. That's what she said in 2002 and that's what she's saying now," said Kate Bedingfield, a Shaheen spokeswoman.

What Shaheen doesn't support, Bedingfield said, is keeping tax cuts permanent for those who make more than $250,000 a year.

Meanwhile, in a prepared statement, Sununu's campaign said the senator has been working to improve the lives of New Hampshire residents throughout his term — by supporting housing policy reform and renewable energy tax credits, among other things.

Shaheen will continue her Middle Class Matters tour today at the Early Bird Cafe in Plaistow at noon. Tomorrow, she will be at MaryAnn's Diner in Derry at noon.