As Democrats Convene, Cheney Will Counter Program

While Democrats convene in Boston, President Bush is 2,000 miles away at his ranch, chopping cedar, riding his mountain bike and resting up for the battle ahead. But that hardly means Republicans are ceding the limelight altogether as Democrats prepare to nominate Sen. John F. Kerry as their presidential candidate.

Led by Vice President Dick Cheney, GOP partisans will be out in full force, from Boston to Riverside, promoting their cause -- and doing their best to spoil Kerry’s party.

For his part, Bush plans to roar out of Texas the morning after Kerry’s nomination, launching a new phase of his reelection campaign, with stops Friday in the battleground states of Missouri, Michigan and Ohio.

The next day, the president will take a bus trip through eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

Between now and then, the task of attacking the Democratic ticket -- and selling the Republican ticket -- will fall to Cheney and a “rapid response” squadron of political strategists and luminaries who will operate GOP battle stations in Boston, eager to deliver running critiques of the opposition throughout the day. The group’s first news conference is set for Monday morning.

Meanwhile, Cheney will be stumping for Republican candidates up and down the West Coast, including in California, where he is expected to campaign for Bill Jones, Sen. Barbara Boxer’s challenger. Cheney also is expected to visit Camp Pendleton.

The Republican game plan seems to call for Cheney to show the flag and “make sure the Democrats don’t get all the attention,” said Philip Klinkner, a professor of government at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. William Lunch, a political scientist at Oregon State University, said he expected Cheney also to play the traditional “attack dog role” of most vice presidents, as he did all spring.

White House communications director Dan Bartlett did not dispute the notion Saturday. “The vice president is helping other candidates. But he will speak to issues in the national campaign also,” Bartlett said in a telephone interview.

No one should expect Cheney to offer “play-by-play” commentary on the Democratic convention, but the vice president will probably continue talking about the Kerry-Edwards ticket, although “not any more than he has done in the past,” Bartlett added.

Cheney will be the star attraction at GOP events in California, Oregon, Washington state and Utah from Monday through Wednesday, including a stop at Riverside’s historic Mission Inn, where he will speak at a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for Jones. Donors who pledge to raise $5,000 will be able to get their picture taken with Cheney.

Cheney will begin this West Coast swing with a stop in Kennewick, Wash., where he will speak at a $250-a-plate lunch for Dino Rossi, a former state senator who is seeking to become the state’s first Republican governor since 1984. Although Bush lost the state to Democrat Al Gore in 2000, Benton County, where Kennewick is located, voted for Bush-Cheney by nearly a 2-1 margin.

Accompanied by his wife, Lynne, the vice president will next go to Portland, Ore., where he will meet and greet at a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for House candidates Goli Ameri and Jim Zupancic, who are running against Democratic incumbents.

As part of the Republican strategy to retain, and perhaps even increase, the party’s majorities in the House and the Senate, Cheney already has visited 41 congressional districts to campaign for GOP candidates.

Although the vice president’s popularity has fallen -- to the point of inspiring speculation in Washington about his job security -- he remains popular among the GOP rank and file.

Carl Forti, a National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman, said Cheney was a “tremendous asset” to GOP House candidates. “He’s a big draw on the campaign trail and is very focused on helping us expand our majority,” Forti said.

Cheney is due to arrive in California on Tuesday. The precise timing of his events was still being finalized, but he is expected to appear at a Bakersfield fundraiser for state Sen. Roy Ashburn, who is running for the 20th Congressional District seat being vacated by Democrat Calvin Dooley.

On Wednesday, Cheney is scheduled to speak at a $250-a-person luncheon in Salt Lake City for yet another GOP House candidate.

The vice president will get a brief respite Thursday. By the time Kerry is delivering his acceptance speech that night, Cheney will be home in Wyoming. But the very next morning, he will head back to the West Coast to resume campaigning.

On Friday, Bush will lead the charge, seeking to set the terms of the debate. The president will make a series of campaign appearances during a two-day blitz in the Midwest.

He will address supporters at rallies in Springfield, Mo., and Grand Rapids, Mich. In Ohio that evening, Bush will make remarks at a children’s festival and a sporting event in Cleveland, then speak at a Republican Party fundraiser in suburban Cleveland.

“He hits the trail Friday morning, and he’ll be raring to go,” Bartlett said.

Bush intends to begin laying out some of his new ideas in the run-up to the GOP convention, Bartlett said.

“I think you’ll see him focus on an optimistic agenda for the future, based on passion and conviction,” he added. “You will see a lot more framing of the choice that the American people have.”

On Saturday, the president will speak at a rally in Canton, Ohio, and at a second, as-yet-undisclosed location, followed by a rally in Pittsburgh.

The Bush-Cheney campaign has more than $64 million still on hand that it can spend before the Republican convention, which starts at the end of August.

Both Bush and Kerry will accept public funding for the general election campaign.

Beyond this week, the exigencies of a hard-fought campaign mean that Bush won’t be spending much time on his 1,600-acre Prairie Chapel Ranch, where he usually vacations in August.

Next month, he will be traveling almost nonstop, using his ranch primarily as a base for excursions to points west.

“There will be a few days down,” around the height of the Summer Olympics in Athens, said Bartlett.

“This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon, and marathoners pace themselves to cross the finish line strong,” he said.

In early August, Bush also plans to spend a weekend at his parents’ summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine, in part to attend the wedding of his nephew, George P. Bush.

In recent days, the president also has been working with aides on his convention acceptance speech and the earliest stages of debate preparations.

Bush also is reading the just-released report of the 9/11 commission, Bartlett said.

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Chen reported from Crawford and Simon from Washington.