Cheney to speak at convention opener

Vice President Dick Cheney, a conservative favorite but a divisive national figure, will join President Bush in addressing delegates on the opening night of the Republican National Convention, the White House said Friday.

There had been doubts about whether Cheney would speak or even attend. When asked this week about the vice president’s plans to go to the convention, spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said his September schedule had not been set.

Cheney plans to speak on Labor Day, the same night that Bush will address delegates, Mitchell said Friday. The convention is scheduled for Sept. 1-4 in St. Paul, Minn., culminating in Arizona Sen. John McCain’s nomination.

The White House statement said, “The vice president looks forward to participating in the Republican National Convention and continuing to work for the election of Sen. McCain and other Republican candidates in the coming months.”

The presumed Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, has tried to link McCain to Cheney as well as Bush in an effort to portray a McCain administration as a continuation of the current one.

The vice president is popular with many Republican faithful but not with most Americans in general, according to recent polls. In June, an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll showed Cheney viewed positively by 23% of those surveyed.

The convention provides Bush and Cheney an opportunity for a valedictory speech to the GOP faithful.

In recent history, no sitting vice president has skipped his party’s nominating convention. Even the vice presidents who were not part of the GOP national ticket -- in 1976 Nelson Rockefeller and in 1952 Alben W. Barkley -- addressed delegates.

There will be convention no-shows among prominent Republicans.

Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, who has been indicted on felony charges of concealing gifts and services, has said he won’t attend.

Neither will Sens. Gordon Smith of Oregon, Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina or Susan Collins of Maine, all of whom face tight races for reelection.

Two other senators, Wayne Allard of Colorado and Larry Craig of Idaho, are retiring.

Craig pleaded guilty last year to a misdemeanor charge stemming from a sex sting in the bathroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Arguments before an appeals court, part of Craig’s attempt to withdraw the guilty plea, are scheduled for Sept. 10 in Minneapolis, the week after the convention in neighboring St. Paul.