Cheney Hits Right Notes for Nixon Library Audience

Call it the Back to Business Tour.

As part of Vice President Dick Cheney’s return this week to the more traditional role of partisan cheerleader and fund-raiser, he stopped in Yorba Linda on Tuesday to raise money for the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace.

There--where he and his wife, Lynne, were honored for promoting peace--Cheney was welcomed enthusiastically by Orange County Republicans, who haven’t celebrated a friendly administration official gracing the red carpet in nearly a decade.

“The United States today is safer than any other country,” Cheney said during a question-and-answer session that followed his remarks on the country’s resolve to root out terrorism with the help of a reinvigorated military.

“We are passing through a dangerous period for us and for the civilized world,” he said. “As in the great conflicts of the century just passed, the United States must accept the place of leadership given to us by history.”

If there was scant solace in some of his remarks--”Even if we’re 99% successful in defending against another [terrorist] attack, that 1% can kill you”--there was at least the sense of sacrifice for a noble cause.

The audience of 175 people, who paid $2,500 each to attend, leaped to their feet several times with appreciative applause.

“He’s so reassuring,” said Lois Lundberg, chairwoman emeritus of the Orange County Republican Party. “We are absolutely where we ought to be.”

“This is as good as it gets,” GOP activist Doy Henley said. “We’ve got the right guy, and we’re back.”

The library visit, during which the couple received the Architect of Peace award, was part of a four-day tour of Western states by the vice president. He has been largely absent from public venues since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and has recently been buffeted by criticism of his secrecy about dealings with Enron executives.

On Monday, Cheney delivered his peace-through-strength message to an audience of Marines and their families at the Miramar air station in San Diego County, home to nine Marines lost in the military campaign in Afghanistan.

At the library luncheon, Cheney and his wife were presented with a Tiffany crystal star by Julie Nixon Eisenhower after dining on lobster salad, seared sea bass and miniature white- and dark-chocolate replicas of the Capitol and White House filled with berries and flavored cream.

Cheney praised President Bush, who he said will “not for a moment be deterred or distracted in the defense of this nation, our allies and our freedom.” He said the administration’s war on terrorism is using the help of several countries, “many of whom would not have qualified as friends of the U.S. in the past.” One of the new friends, Cheney said later, is China, which Bush will visit on his current trip overseas. “They’ve given us every indication they want to be allies in fighting against terrorism,” he said. “We have no criticism to offer in terms of the way they’ve cooperated.”

Cheney also praised Mexico and Canada for tightening their borders to help keep terrorists from slipping into the U.S.

But he rejected the idea that closed military bases could be reopened as part of the armed-forces buildup. He said the military shouldn’t be wasting money on bases that it doesn’t need and should focus instead on manpower and new-technology munitions.

Cheney left Yorba Linda for Century City to prepare for an appearance on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and then take the stage for a $1-million fund-raising dinner for members of the state GOP’s newly formed “Team Cal”--a group of donors who have each pledged to raise $25,000 for the party.

Later this week, Cheney will deliver speeches in Fresno and Silicon Valley, with fund-raisers for Republican Reps. Richard W. Pombo and John T. Doolittle. Also scheduled: a visit to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

In Los Angeles, meanwhile, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) joined a chorus of calls for Cheney to release the records of his closed-door energy task force, including his discussions with officials of the disgraced Enron Corp.

The administration has refused to turn over records of its meetings with Enron executives and others who advised Cheney’s panel last year, provoking a legal fight that Congress is expected to join.

“The American people deserve to know,” McCain told a town-hall audience about the deliberations that shaped the administration’s national energy policy.

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Times staff writer Mark Z. Barabak contributed to this report.