Cheney Takes Aim at Clinton, Gore; Bush Nominated

Republicans put some bite into their feel-good convention Wednesday night, as Dick Cheney accepted the vice presidential nomination with a scathing attack on the Clinton administration and a promise of “a better way and a stiff dose of truth.”

With blunt rhetoric that belied his mild manner, George W. Bush’s newly installed running mate said Democrat Al Gore would carry on a pattern of “lectures, legalisms and carefully worded denials” that characterized the last eight years. “We can restore the ideals of honesty and honor that must be part of our national life,” Cheney said. “These have been years of prosperity in our land but little purpose in the White House.”

On the night Bush was formally nominated as the Republican standard-bearer--and a day shadowed by the hospitalization of former President Ford--Cheney and other speakers appealed to the economic heart and political soul of the Republican Party. They rallied the faithful with calls to reduce taxes, pare back government and partially privatize the Social Security system.

And after two nights of mostly toothless attacks, the rhetoric grew notably harsher as Republicans made a more explicit and aggressive case for change. While Cheney chided President Clinton’s record on issues such as education, defense and tax reform, the overriding argument was a moral one. “On the first hour of the first day,” Cheney said of Bush, “he will restore decency and integrity to the Oval Office.”

Despite his flat, matter-of-fact tone--more suited to a boardroom than a convention hall--Cheney drew a foot-stomping, rafter-rattling response. By turning some of the Democrats’ very own words against them, he loosed a torrent of pent-up partisanship that had built inside the convention hall over two days of mostly happy talk.

He drew one of his longest and loudest ovations when he said of the Democrats: “The wheel has turned. . . . It is time for them to go.”

The line, used repeatedly, was a bit of political payback--it was the same one then-vice presidential nominee Gore employed against Bush’s father in the 1992 campaign--and it drew knowing cheers inside the convention hall.

As one exemplar of the probity he promised, Cheney cited Ford, who helped navigate the country through the difficult period following the Watergate scandal. It was a poignant moment; hours earlier, Ford checked himself into a Philadelphia hospital after suffering one and possibly two small strokes.

Full Recovery Seen for Ford

Throughout the day, medical bulletins vied with political developments as physicians monitored the condition of the 87-year-old ex-president, who was honored at Tuesday night’s session. By Wednesday night, doctors predicted a full recovery, although Ford was expected to remain under care for several days.

The news of his sudden hospitalization was the only damper for Republicans on yet another day brimming with carefully scripted conviviality. After a five-day journey through several key states, Bush arrived in Philadelphia to a mariachi-tinged rally that included a surprise walk-on by his erstwhile foe, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Bush embraced McCain and called the former Vietnam POW “a living example of duty, honor and country. And, Senator, I can’t wait to campaign with you all across our country.”

Around the city, which dripped under a blanket of humidity, tensions eased considerably after Tuesday’s violent protests in downtown Philadelphia, roughly four miles from the convention hall. Fifty people were arrested in a day of sporadic demonstrations, but for the most part the streets were calm.

Inside the convention hall, the serious business of formalizing the GOP ticket was mixed with a meringue of entertainment and celebrities.

Steve Young, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, provided the invocation and a special prayer for Ford’s recovery; Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes, in pink-sequined bow ties, performed. The program was liberally sprinkled with appearances by “ordinary people,” from a fifth-generation Oklahoma farmer to a single mom from Beaver Dam, Wis., offering testimonials and their life stories.

Hector Barreto, owner of a Los Angeles financial services firm, plugged elimination of the inheritance tax, one of several GOP tax-relief bills that Clinton has vowed to veto. Barreto said Bush’s election would “break the iron grip of litigation, taxation and regulation to help mom-and-pop stores, manufacturers, high-tech start-ups and family farms.”

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan addressed the convention by satellite from the city’s Museum of Tolerance. But his speech calling for “a revolution” in public education was largely ignored by delegates on the floor, where a loud hum of chatter nearly drowned out the mayor.

A more attentive reception was given Rep. John R. Kasich of Ohio, who praised Bush for showing “real courage and real leadership” in proposing reforms that would allow Americans to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in stocks or other private investments.

“You and I know that through voluntary personal retirement accounts we can create wealth and personal security for ourselves and our families in our most important years,” said Kasich, who briefly challenged the Texas governor in the GOP primaries.

There was no suspense as the convention’s “rolling roll call,” which began Monday night, officially crowned Bush as the party’s nominee. But there was a prearranged surprise as the delegations sounded off: Wyoming, Cheney’s home state, put Bush over the top instead of Texas.

After a brief celebration, attention turned to Cheney, the 59-year-old former congressman, White House chief of staff for Ford and Defense secretary under President Bush, the nominee’s father. After receiving the vice presidential nod by acclamation, he was introduced by his wife, Lynne, a conservative activist in her own right. She praised her husband’s “spiffy resume,” “very interesting mind” and role as “a fabulous father” to their two daughters.

“I would say one of the keys to understanding Dick Cheney is understanding fly-fishing,” she said. “It is not a sport for the impatient. And most of all it is not a sport for chatterboxes.”

With that, the taciturn Cheney accepted the nomination and fell easily into the traditional subsidiary role of cheerleader in chief. He extolled Bush as a man “of courage . . . vision and the goodness to be a great president.”

And, notwithstanding his mild mien, he seemed to take just as quickly to the other role usually reserved for the No. 2 on the ticket: campaign attack dog.

Despite the nation’s record economic prosperity, Cheney painted a relentlessly downbeat portrait of the last eight years under Clinton and his chosen heir, Gore: a depleted military, failing public schools, a Social Security system heading toward insolvency. “Does anyone, Republican or Democrat, seriously believe that under Mr. Gore the next four years would be any different from the last eight?” Cheney demanded.

The former Wyoming lawmaker, who spent 10 years in Congress, made no effort to explain or defend a series of controversial votes that have come under attack from the Democrats in recent days. Instead, he accused the Democrats of fomenting a culture of blind partisanship in Washington, a nastiness that has carried over to the Gore campaign.

Cheney quoted the vice president’s rival for the Democratic nomination, former Sen. Bill Bradley, who blasted Gore during their contentious duel for waging a “campaign of a thousand promises, a thousand attacks.”

“This is what Bill Bradley was up against and others before him,” Cheney said. “We are all a little weary of the Clinton-Gore routine.” Cheney echoed Bush’s oft-stated promise to embark upon a new age of bipartisan cooperation in Washington and to demonstrate that spirit by waging a more positive and issue-oriented campaign.

“They will make accusations. We will make proposals,” Cheney vowed. “They will feed fear. We will appeal to hope. They will offer more lectures and legalisms and carefully worded denials. We will offer another way. A better way. And a stiff dose of the truth.”

Cheney’s speech previewed Bush’s own convention address tonight, the week’s highlight, the convention’s finale and unquestionably the most important speech of the Texan’s political career.

Welcome Starts With Ring of Liberty Bell

After his journey through politically contested territory, Bush finally arrived in the convention city for a rolling, four-hour welcome that started with a ring of the Liberty Bell--or at least a replica--and ended with his own swipe at the Clinton administration.

He listened to “America the Beautiful” in Spanglish, heard a more traditional instrumental version and traded compliments with his photogenic nephew George P. Bush, who likened his uncle to Cesar Chavez, the late Chicano activist and committed Democrat.

Joining Bush for the rally at the Philadelphia Museum of Art--made famous when actor Sylvester Stallone surged up the steps in the first “Rocky” film--was McCain. The senator, who lavished praise on Bush in a convention speech Tuesday, had planned to leave town before tonight’s wrap-up. His appearance with Bush was hastily arranged to provide television footage of the two former rivals smiling and standing together in the traditional convention unity pose.

But McCain didn’t stick around long. The senator, who made campaign finance reform the centerpiece of his insurgent campaign, boycotted a subsequent fund-raising lunch, which netted a record $10.1 million for the Republican Party--much of it in chunks of loosely regulated “soft money.”

Addressing a crowd of 3,000 donors at the lunch, Bush said: “I’m feeling America is ready for change. They’re interested in something different. They don’t want four more years of Clinton-Gore. They want somebody to appeal to our better angels, not our darker impulses.”

Undeterred, the Democrats continued their convention week counteroffensive. The party released its sixth new attack ad, this one focusing on the environment--a topic, they said, “conveniently” omitted from the GOP’s prime-time programming. The 30-second spot, which features belching smokestacks and a grainy panorama of the Houston skyline, accuses Bush of making state air pollution rules voluntary, “even for plants near schools.”

“The Bush plan protects polluters instead of our families,” intones the narrator in the ad, which is aimed at 17 competitive states across the country.

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Times staff writers Michael Finnegan, Megan Garvey, Bonnie Harris, Janet Hook, Maria L. La Ganga and T. Christian Miller contributed to this story.

Continuing coverage of the Republican convention is available throughout the day on The Times’ Web site, including a daily round-table discussion with Times political writers Web-cast live at 11 a.m. PDT, regular updates from Times reporters, a delegate’s video journal, photo galleries and more. Go to:

https://www.latimes.com/gopconvention