Rep. Dick Cheney Picked by Bush as Defense Secretary

Moving swiftly to fill a large and painful vacancy in his Cabinet, President Bush on Friday nominated six-term Republican Rep. Dick Cheney of Wyoming to be his new defense secretary.

Cheney, a respected, low-key former White House chief of staff under President Gerald R. Ford, said at a White House press briefing that he “agonized” over accepting the difficult post but then quickly agreed to his old friend’s urgent request.

The Wyoming congressman is expected to win rapid confirmation from the Senate, which rejected John Tower, Bush’s first choice for the Pentagon job, just 24 hours earlier after a savage confirmation fight centering on Tower’s drinking habits and his lucrative defense consulting deals.

‘Man of Honor, Integrity’

Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), who as chairman of the Armed Services Committee engineered Tower’s defeat, said of Cheney: “I know of no impediment to the nomination. He’s a man of honor and integrity.”

He said that he would schedule confirmation hearings for next week and promised that his committee would complete its examination of Cheney “as expeditiously as possible.”

Tower, by contrast, suffered three months of humiliating public scrutiny before the full Senate voted him down, 53 to 47, on Thursday.

Cheney, 48, was first elected to Congress in 1978 and currently holds the No. 2 spot, minority whip, in the House Republican hierarchy. Although his voting record is staunchly conservative, he has a reputation as a conciliator and, unlike Tower, has many friends across the political spectrum.

Bush Has High Praise

Bush described the Wyoming politician as “a thoughtful, a quiet man, a strong man” and called him a “trusted friend and adviser.”

Insisting that he is not bitter over Tower’s rejection, the President said that he moved quickly to fill the Pentagon job because “too much time has been wasted. . . . It’s very important . . . so we’ll move very, very fast.

“I fought hard for John Tower because I believed in him,” Bush said. “And I told you I didn’t think a lot of it was fair. But that’s over. That’s history. And now we are going to go forward.”

Bush said that the FBI already had begun a preliminary inquiry into Cheney’s background and suggested that he would order additional FBI agents off other investigations to complete the required background check rapidly.

Cheney is expected to fit easily into the Administration’s national security team.

Served With Scowcroft

He became White House chief of staff on the same day in 1975 that Brent Scowcroft, Bush’s national security adviser, was named to that same job by Ford. As a member of Congress, he has gone horseback riding with Secretary of State James A. Baker III, and when Baker recently bought a ranch in Wyoming, Cheney presented him with a book of riding tips.

“We will have a non-acrimonious team, and that’s pretty rare in national security,” Scowcroft said Friday. Cheney, he said, “has got the kind of personality that fits with the national security group we have here.”

The uniformly positive reaction in Congress to the Cheney appointment reflected Senate Democrats’ desire to deflect charges of partisanship stemming from the bitter Tower fight and Republicans’ pleasure at seeing an ideological conservative named to the key defense post.

Cheney was described by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and in both houses of Congress as “tough” and “smart.”

“I think it’s probably a very good nomination. I presume, unless something unexpected comes up, his nomination will go through rather quickly,” said Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.).

Cranston said that the favorable reaction “puts the lie to the charge that the Democrats are trying to deny the President a secretary of defense. We are eager to give him someone who can do the job.”

Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas quickly hailed the appointment in a barbed comment that reflected the bitterness lingering from the Tower battle.

“He’s tough,” he said of Cheney. “That’s what we wanted. A tough, tough, tough guy. This time it will be a confirmation, not an execution.”

Dole implied that he relished the Cheney nomination because it will give the Bush Administration a strong figure to challenge Nunn, whom Dole and other Republicans have said they believe tried to grab power that properly belongs to the President. And Democrats acknowledged that Cheney will be a formidable Pentagon leader.

“Few people in Washington understand the executive and legislative branches of government as well as Dick Cheney,” said Rep. Tony Coelho (D-Merced), the majority whip who ranks third in the House leadership. “This is a smart move on the part of the President but a great move on behalf of the country.”

Although Democrats seem eager to approve a new defense secretary, some possible problems loom for the nominee. If Nunn is seen as rushing Cheney through the Armed Services Committee with only cursory examination, his treatment of Tower will look by comparison like vindictive persecution.

Cheney’s health, too, may pose difficulties. The nominee underwent heart bypass surgery last summer and spent three weeks recuperating. He said Friday at the press conference, however, that his cardiologist had told him earlier in the day that “there’s absolutely no medical reason why I cannot undertake this assignment.”

Cheney noted that he had spent the last Christmas vacation skiing in the Colorado Rockies and has “no restrictions” on his activities.

His hard-right politics may also slow confirmation, although his views are softened by a likable manner and easy smile. Senate Democrats will want to quiz him on his views on defense spending--he has long been a proponent of increased funds for the military--on his firm support for Nicaragua’s Contras and on his views on reform of the scandal-ridden weapons-buying system.

‘Sophisticated Choice’

Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.), who learned that Cheney was being named just before Bush announced it, called the selection “a rather amazingly politically sophisticated choice.”

Wallop described Cheney as “an able administrator and a very tough guy who prepares himself well. What I admire about him most is that he has well-formed ideas, but is willing to listen to others’ ideas.”

Sen. Timothy E. Wirth (D-Colo.), a firm Tower opponent who serves on the Armed Services Committee, said that he was completely surprised by the choice but said of Cheney: “He’s one of the smartest people in Congress, one of the toughest people in Congress. He could lead (the military) by example.”

Cheney serves on the Select Committee on Intelligence, where he is the ranking Republican on the key budget subcommittee, giving him access to a wealth of highly classified data on the nation’s espionage activities and advanced weaponry. He also served on the panel that investigated the Iran-Contra scandal in 1987.

CIA Director William H. Webster, who has known Cheney for years, called him an “absolutely super” nominee for defense secretary who “will hit the ground with a clear understanding of most of the needs and requirements of the department.”

“He’s a very solid student of national security issues and has a good mind and absolute integrity,” Webster said. “I think he’ll approach national security issues in a totally nonpartisan way. He’s reasonable in discussions but firm in conviction. I know him as a friend and consider him a class act.”

At the Pentagon, where Cheney is not widely known, the announcement of his nomination was greeted with surprise.

“I don’t know anything about him,” said one senior military officer.

But the officer added that his lack of experience in the defense field may be an advantage. “He has a clean slate,” he said. “He can probably listen to all sides of an issue and come to an independent decision.”

Richard L. Armitage, the Ronald Reagan Administration’s outgoing assistant defense secretary for international affairs, called Bush’s choice “absolutely wonderful.”

Armitage, who worked closely with Cheney on intelligence matters and issues such as Contra funding, defended Cheney’s lack of expertise in arcane defense matters. He called Cheney “a national security expert, and that’s what you have to be. He’ll quickly give direction and force to the building.”

Staff writers Jack Nelson, Melissa Healy, William Eaton and Robert Shogan contributed to this story.