McCain: ‘Cheney Is Not Just Another Pretty Face’

He was many Democrats’ fantasy pick to run on their ticket for vice president. But on Friday, maverick Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona stood with the man who, according to that scenario, he would have been competing against -- and offered only kind words on everything from his policy record to his sex appeal.

Appearing in the capital of a state that McCain won in the 2000 Republican presidential primary, putting in doubt the candidacy of then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush, McCain heaped praise upon Vice President Dick Cheney.

“I’m very pleased -- I’m very, very pleased -- to have the honor of introducing a man I have known and admired for well over 20 years,” McCain said, describing Cheney as “one of the most capable, experienced, intelligent and steady vice presidents this country has ever had.”

“In short, my friends,” McCain said, “Vice President Cheney is not just another pretty face.”

He drew cheers from a sparse but enthusiastic crowd of partisans in a downtown convention center by describing the vice president as “very debonair.”

Cheney happily piled on.

“Somebody said to me the other day that Sen. [John] Edwards got picked because he’s sexy, good looking, charming,” said the vice president. “I said, ‘How do you think I got this job?’ ”

The running commentary on Cheney’s appearance was apparently a reference to the contrasts that had been drawn between the low-key, 63-year-old Cheney and Edwards of North Carolina -- the youthful, one-term senator tapped by presumed Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry for his ticket after McCain rejected the idea.

Democrats say they like the contrast with the sunnier Edwards, but Republicans say Cheney’s experience trumps charisma.

Cheney used his appearance with McCain on Friday for a new line of attack in the campaign. He invoked the legal fight over the Pledge of Allegiance, blaming activist federal judges of the sort he said Kerry and Edwards supported for trying to eliminate the reference to God in the pledge.

“We believe that our nation is one nation under God, and that Americans ought to be able to say so,” Cheney said.

The theme underscored the challenge facing the GOP this year, wooing independents with figures such as McCain while striking a tone that will please the party’s conservative base.

The joint appearance was designed to leave little doubt in the minds of voters in this and other crucial battleground states that McCain -- a frequent administration critic whose popularity among Democrats and independents makes him one of the nation’s most coveted political commodities -- was aligned with Bush.

Tension has simmered between Bush and McCain since a 2000 primary campaign that grew nasty and personal. McCain has criticized the administration on such issues as the number of troops it sent to Iraq and the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

Though McCain rebuffed reported vice presidential overtures from Kerry, a fellow Vietnam War veteran and Senate colleague, Republican strategists still were working to prevent the McCain aura from rubbing off on the Democratic ticket, merely through the power of association in voters’ minds.

McCain was featured in a Bush television ad titled “First Choice” that began running the day that Kerry named Edwards to his ticket. McCain campaigned with Bush last month.

On Friday, Cheney sought to establish his own McCain bona fides, reminiscing about a weeklong horseback riding tour the two took together years ago in Wyoming.

McCain went out of his way to praise the administration’s decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, waving off war critics who said the administration misled the public when it accused Hussein of stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.

“The president could count on the experience and wisdom of his vice president when he made the difficult decision to liberate Iraq from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein,” McCain said. “Whether Saddam then possessed the terrible weapons that every intelligence service on Earth believed he possessed, he had used them before and, I have no doubt, was firmly determined to acquire them again for what terrible purpose we can only anticipate with dread. That was a risk George Bush and Dick Cheney knew we just couldn’t afford in this new, violent age of terrorism.”

The vice president has been dogged by speculation in recent weeks -- fueled mostly by Democrats -- that Bush might dump him from the ticket to guard against the potential drag of Cheney’s low approval ratings.

Both Cheney and Bush have denied the rumors, which were spurred in part by the fact that Cheney recently hired a new doctor.

As the rumors had it, the new physician could declare that the vice president, who has suffered four heart attacks, was not healthy enough to keep pace, giving the White House an excuse to drop him from the ticket. Cheney did order his doctor into service Friday -- for a supporter in the room who had passed out.

“Is my doc out there?” he asked, interrupting his speech when he noticed the ill person in the audience.

“I’ve got a doctor with me. We’ll get him.”

The person was wheeled out moments later, treated by local medics.