Savvy, Gravitas And a Good Resume
The President could choose no more experienced man-in-waiting than Dick Cheney. Consider his resume: Secretary of Defense; former White House chief of staff; former Republican whip in the House of Representatives; co-author with wife Lynne, who heads the National Endowment for the Humanities, of a lively book about past leaders of the House. Cheney is a pragmatic conservative who earned the respect of liberal Democrats with his good humor and willingness to hear -- if not heed -- opposing arguments.
At 50, Cheney is a political generation younger than Bush. Yet he conveys a sense of assurance and gravitas -- what the British call bottom -- that the callow Quayle may never attain.
The son of a former Department of Agriculture employee, Cheney was born in Nebraska but grew up in Caspar, Wyo. He won a scholarship to Yale but dropped out after three semesters. "I wasn't a serious student," Cheney told the Washington Post. After bumming around the West for a couple of years, he enrolled at the University of Wyoming and graduated in 1965 with a B.A. in political science.
While working toward a doctorate in that subject at the University of Wisconsin, Cheney plunged into politics and hardly ever looked back. He went to Washington in 1968 as a staffer to a Republican Congressman, who soon loaned him to Donald Rumsfeld, head of the Office of Economic Opportunity. When Rumsfeld moved to Nixon's White House as counsellor, Cheney went along as his deputy. He escaped the Watergate tarnish by resigning in 1973 to work for a firm of Washington lobbyists.
A year later, Rumsfeld and Cheney were back in the White House as part of Gerald Ford's transition team. Cheney succeeded his old pal as chief of staff, gaining a reputation as a cool, self-effacing, politically shrewd manager. After Ford's loss to Jimmy Carter, Cheney ran for Wyoming's one seat in the House. He won, although during the G.O.P. primary he suffered the first of his three heart attacks, at the age of 37.
In his six terms in Congress Cheney built a rock-solid conservative record, supporting such favorite Reagan programs as Star Wars and military aid to Nicaragua's contras. Despite his lack of military expertise, the Senate easily confirmed him as Secretary of Defense after rejecting Bush's first choice, John Tower. Cheney quickly showed his mettle by publicly censuring the Air Force chief of staff for appearing to negotiate strategic missile-deployment options with Congress without authorization. In joint TV appearances with General Colin Powell during the gulf war, Cheney impressed Bush -- not to mention millions of other Americans -- as a captain in command.
Cheney's record and his proven skills at stroking Congress would be solid pluses for the Defense Secretary as a running mate for Bush. Some Washington insiders believe he would take the job if offered it. He is very low key as a campaign orator, however, and three years ago he underwent a heart bypass ) operation. His doctor says he's fine. But Democrats could, not unfairly, ask whether the men on a Bush-Cheney team had a good ticker between the two of them.
First in War, Second in Peace?