Dick Cheney Takes to the Stump

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The meat of his message, thought reprises his attack-dog role from the 2004 campaign. The President tends to avoid singling out particular legislators from the opposition, while Cheney names names, especially when he's talking about the likely committee chairs if Democrats were to retake the House or Senate. In Topeka, where the Vice President warned against "any strategy of resignation and defeatism," the audience responded with scattered boos when he reeled off the names of Democrats who could head committees if the G.O.P. lost control of the House or Senate.

"I notice that now, with only weeks to go before Election Day, the leader of the House Democrats, Nancy Pelosi, claims Democrats 'love tax cuts,'" he told the Topeka crowd. "That only invites another look at her party's record on taxes. The last time they had control of Congress, back in 1993, they passed a massive tax increase. They'll do it again if they can." Pelosi's office said in a statement after Bush made a similar remark during his Rose Garden news conference on Wednesday that Democrats' plans for middle-income tax cuts stand "in stark contrast to the Republican tax breaks for the super-rich."

Cheney is also reprising some of his more apocalyptic rhetoric from the last campaign, including his warning that there is no guarantee that the nation will avoid "another 9/11." But he says it's "no accident" that hasn't happened yet, and points to administration-backed anti-terrorism tools that have drawn criticism from Democrats who argue that Bush has overreached. He wraps up by asserting it is "no surprise that such a party would turn its back on a man like Senator Joe Lieberman," the Connecticut Democrat (and Cheney counterpart on Al Gore's ticket in 2000) who lost his primary over his support for the Iraq war, and is now running as an independent. "It's a reminder that the elections on November 7th will have enormous consequences for this nation, one way or the other," he says. It's a message he seems to deliver with relish. And in these crowds, the audience returns the favor.