Cheney Keeps Open Lines of Attack

Republican vice presidential nominee Dick Cheney charged Sunday that Washington has grown increasingly dysfunctional in recent years because of “weak leadership” from a White House that is preoccupied with politics instead of policy.

In an interview with The Times, Cheney cited Social Security as one of the problems that should have been resolved in the last seven years. “We haven’t even seen a serious proposal from them,” he said.

“I think we’ve had weak leadership out of the White House [and] a president who is more interested in posturing, trying to create issues than he was solving problems,” said the former congressman from Wyoming. “I have oftentimes had the feeling that what Bill Clinton was really all about was trying to create issues for campaigns rather than deal substantively with problems.”

The sharp attack underscored Cheney’s plan to press forward with what he called the “indictment” of the administration of President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. He introduced the sharp tone in his speech at last week’s Republican convention.

“I thought it was a fairly serious indictment, but that’s how it was intended,” he said in an interview aboard the campaign’s Victory 2000 Express, a train on which Cheney rode through Illinois on Sunday with GOP nominee George W. Bush. “I tried not to get personal, but I do think it taps into a sentiment that a lot of people feel around the country--that in fact they’ve had their time and it really is time for them to go.”

Gore aides responded to Cheney’s attack Sunday as if they are eager to debate their leadership of the nation.

“I don’t know what planet he’s been on for the past eight years, but this administration helped lay the foundation for our current prosperity,” said Douglas Hattaway, a spokesman for Gore’s presidential campaign.

Hattaway also fired back, charging that Cheney, a former Defense secretary, “was part of the Bush-Quayle administration that brought us record deficits and recession.”

Despite Cheney’s blasts at the Gore campaign, he insisted in the interview that he will not play the traditional “attack dog” role of a vice presidential nominee. “That’s not what I do,” he said.

Many political analysts view the Cheney selection as having more impact on a future Bush White House than it does on the current campaign. Cheney hasn’t run for office in 12 years and his campaign style is more avuncular than inspiring.

But Karl Rove, Bush’s chief strategist, says Cheney’s role will be different than that of most vice presidential nominees, who are relegated to minor media markets and gatherings of true believers.

“Bush and Cheney will be going to the same groups of states, going to the same kinds of markets, just at different times,” Rove says. “It’s far more powerful to us to have him go to the battleground states. It’s far more powerful to have him focused on the same mission as George W. Bush--that is, laying out a positive and optimistic agenda.”

In the interview with The Times, Cheney also looked ahead at the three months remaining until the election, describing his plans to relocate from his current residence in Texas to his native Wyoming, divesting himself from prominent corporate roles and hiring his daughter Mary as a top aide-de-camp.

Cheney declined, however, to discuss reports that his daughter is a lesbian and he would not respond to questions about anti-gay planks in the party platform.

“I’m not going to get into that,” he said. “Mary’s private life is her own business and nobody else’s. And it’s not a subject I’m going to talk about.”

Cheney did say, however, that the Republican Party needs to reach out to broaden its base.

“I think inclusiveness is a good thing,” he said. “I think if we’re going to have a viable party, it’s got to be able to appeal to everybody. And we want to encourage folks of every background, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender to participate in the party.”

Mary Cheney, who until a few months ago handled outreach to the gay and lesbian community for Coors Brewing Co., sat across from her father during the interview in the train’s glass-topped observation car but stayed silent.

The platform approved at the GOP convention in Philadelphia opposes legislation to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and says homosexuality is incompatible with military service. It also opposes same-sex marriages.

Cheney, who is retiring as chief executive officer of Halliburton Co. to run on the GOP ticket, planned to spend today at the company’s Dallas headquarters to wind down his business at the oil-services giant. By Wednesday, he said, he and his wife, Lynne, will pack their belongings and move to their second home in Jackson Hole, Wyo., before setting out on another campaign swing through the Midwest, his first without Bush.

Cheney is also breaking ties with corporations on whose boards he serves. He said he resigned as a director of EDS, a Texas technology company, because it does business with the Pentagon. He also said he will take a leave of absence from two other boards, Union Pacific Railroad and Procter & Gamble.

“My leave of absence is until after the election, and assuming we’re successful, obviously I’ll have to resign from them too,” he said.

On Sunday, Bush and Cheney ended their first extended campaign swing together in Springfield, Ill., after chugging through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.

Bush struck familiar themes of tax cuts and education, a strengthened military and Social Security, and reached out for help in the months ahead.

“I want to thank you all for making the signs,” he said. “The only one that makes me a little worried is the ‘Thanks for Sosa’ sign,” joked Bush, who was managing general partner of the Texas Rangers when the baseball team traded slugger Sammy Sosa to the Chicago Cubs. “If there’s any good reason for the good folks of Chicago to vote for me, it’s because of the Sosa trade.”

*

DOWN TO THE WIRE

Al Gore met with his closest advisors as he neared a decision on his running mate. A16