Tweed Roosevelt, a great-grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt, will be in town Saturday to promote the German toy company that began calling its stuffed bears "teddy" bears because of the 26th president of the United States. But it's likely that along with bears, Roosevelt will be talking about what his great-grandfather or distant cousin, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, would have to say about the current presidential election crisis. "It's pretty obvious what they would think," Roosevelt, 58, said Thursday from his Boston home. "This is not a period we ought to be particularly proud about in presidential politics." Roosevelt, registered as an independent voter and president of an investment advisory firm, said the behavior of both Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore is "really pretty embarrassing." "All this pontificating from Gore trying to tell me he really cares about every vote. Why doesn't he just say, "I want to win. I want to win'?" Roosevelt said, adding that Bush would probably be acting the same way if he were in Gore's shoes. Roosevelt, the family historian, will share political and personal stories of his great-grandfather's life at 11 a.m. Saturday at Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa in Belleair. Admission is free, but there will be a $25 charge for those who stay for lunch. Although he never knew his great-grandfather, Roosevelt did spend considerable time with his great-grandmother, Edith Roosevelt. He said he learned a lot about his great-grandfather from her and from his grandfather, Archibald, Theodore Roosevelt's third son. Roosevelt will appear at the hotel as a guest of Charlotte Doster, owner of The Hen Nest, a collectibles and antique store in Seminole that carries specialty bears by Steiff, a 120-year-old German company that makes handmade plush animals, especially stuffed bears. Roosevelt is a spokesman for the company, which is based in Glengen-on-the-Brenz. "I think it's exciting," Doster said of Roosevelt's visit. "We don't have the opportunity to hear someone speak so familiarly of one of our former presidents." Margarete Steiff, a victim of polio, founded the company in 1880 when she gave handmade elephant pin cushions to relatives and friends. Eight of those felt pin cushions were sold, giving birth to the business. The cushions soon became stuffed animals and were joined by other felt animals, many with movable joints. The company brought its plush bears to the United States in 1902, about the same time Theodore Roosevelt, who took over the nation's highest political office after the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley, went on a bear-hunting trip in Mississippi. "They couldn't find a bear anywhere, and of course, everyone wants to please the president," Paul Johnson, president of Steiff's North American operation, said Thursday from his New York office. So hunt organizers finally found a cub and tied him to a tree so the president could shoot it. He turned down the offer. A political writer and illustrator for the Washington Post heard about the incident. He drew a cartoon of Roosevelt wearing a hunting outfit and holding his hand up to a man clutching a rope tied to a bear. "The cartoon spawned the idea of the beloved president who was thought of as a teddy bear," Johnson said. At the time of the cartoon, cuddly bears were not the popular toys they are today. One of Steiff's distributors heard about the nickname and decided to call the 3,000 plush bears he was selling "teddy" bears, Tweed Roosevelt said. The technique worked, and the teddy bear was born.