Cheney is playing "Mr Inside" to Bush's "Mr Outside." Good Politics.
''People are not going to vote for or against the Bush ticket because of Cheney.''
Cheney's grab-and-go rubs some the wrong way Quick fundraising visits tend to get bad local reviews
By Richard Benedetto
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Cheney is collecting millions in campaign contributions as he headlines fundraisers for the Bush-Cheney re-election bid and other Republican candidates.
But his cool, all-business approach to the task, with little attention to the communities he visits, risks reinforcing an image Democrats are pushing of an administration insensitive to the concerns of ordinary people.
As he travels, Cheney does not hold news conferences. His meetings with business and community leaders are private. He rarely makes time to meet voters outside the fundraisers, which often results in news reports and commentary that suggest he's indifferent to the people and problems of the cities he visits.
Protesters often get equal coverage. Traffic tie-ups caused by his motorcade and extra police costs bring complaints that sometimes overshadow the visit.
A sampling of recent news coverage:
* ''Cheney's lucrative visit comes at a cost to city,'' said a Nov. 19 headline in The Buffalo News.
* ''Cheney visit raises $750,000, along with voices of protest,'' said the Nov. 25 Plain Dealer in Cleveland.
* ''Cheney motorcade stalls traffic,'' said the Nov. 7 Denver Rocky Mountain News.
Since June, when Cheney launched a fundraising tour, he has made 32 stops in 21 states and the District of Columbia that have raised $12.9 million for the Bush-Cheney ticket. He also makes fundraising trips for other Republican candidates.
But unlike President Bush, who often combines fundraising with a stop at a school, senior center, factory or military base, Cheney sticks to raising money.
Under a Federal Election Commission formula, the government pays part of a trip's cost if Bush combines government business with political fundraising; the campaign committee pays the rest. Cheney's costs when he does no official business are covered fully by the committee.
''It's a big deal when the vice president comes to town,'' says Michael Hasel-swerdt, a political scientist at Canisius College in Buffalo. ''To do it in a purely mercenary way without giving something else invites other kinds of coverage.''
Buffalo News columnist Donn Esmonde was critical after Cheney made a $300,000 fundraising visit Nov. 17. He wrote that the campaign should pay the $10,000 cost of police overtime for what he called the vice president's ''wham-bam stop'' in Buffalo.
''It's one thing if you're coming here on official business to make a speech or announce a help-for-needy-cities program,'' Esmonde wrote. ''That we'll eagerly pick up the tab for. It's another thing if you're coming in to eat and run, or in this case, take the money and run.''
A high-ranking Cheney aide who spoke on condition of anonymity dismisses the idea that negative news stories are obscuring the vice president's message of staying the course in Iraq, pressing the war on terrorism, defending tax cuts and passing an energy bill. The aide says newspaper coverage is often more negative than radio and TV reports but the overall message is positive.
Local stops other than fundraisers have seldom been a part of the schedule recently because the 2004 campaign hasn't begun in earnest, and the focus has been on raising money, the aide says.
Also, Cheney has been less visible since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The White House cites security to explain why.
Voters will see more of Cheney next year, spokesman Kevin Kellems says. ''The vice president very much enjoys seeing and interacting with people on the trail.''
If Cheney enjoys campaigning, it is not always apparent. Reporters have gauged his style as low-key and colorless at best, arrogant or out of touch at worst.
''He read through his speech with the gusto of a man assigned to the clean-up committee,'' columnist Dick Case wrote in The Post-Standard of Syracuse, N.Y., after Cheney was there on Nov. 17.
Alan Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming who campaigned with Cheney when the vice president was a Wyoming congressman, says the knock on Cheney's style is a ''bad rap.''
He says bad campaigners aren't elected to six terms in Congress, as Cheney was. ''He just does it his own way with an economy of movement that is astoundingly effective,'' Simpson says.
Cheney's fundraising speeches do get covered. Often the headlines are about Iraq. ''Cheney addresses Iraq war, terrorism during stops here,'' the Houston Chronicle reported on Nov. 8.
But sometimes the sideshow gets as much attention.
In the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, a Nov. 18 headline said, ''Cheney defends Iraq war.'' On the same page was a competing story, ''300 protest at Cheney luncheon.'' There was a picture of Cheney and one of protesters waving signs. A demonstrator was quoted as saying the $1,000 ticket price could have been used better to feed the poor.
In Louisville on Nov. 24, Cheney attended a fundraising lunch for Rep. Anne Northup, R-Ky. The Courier-Journal reported, ''After the luncheon, Cheney remained at an undisclosed location for more than two hours and did not leave Louisville until near the beginning of the afternoon rush hour, which caused some traffic tie-ups.''
Cheney spokesman Kellems was quoted as saying the vice president was performing unspecified ''duties of his office.''
A traffic-snarling stop on Nov. 6 in Denver brought a headline on a story in the Denver Rocky Mountain News that said, ''Beep, beep, bleepin' veep!'' In a Nov. 11 letter to The Denver Post, Paul Rosenthal fumed, ''Send them a bill for all the business and productivity lost while people were sitting in their cars.''
Robert McClure, a political scientist at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, says Cheney's brief fundraising trip to Syracuse on Nov. 17 projected an image of an ''insulated, isolated and somewhat arrogant'' vice president.
But Haselswerdt wonders whether it matters. Vice presidents and their activities aren't much of a factor on Election Day, he notes.
Haselswerdt says, ''People are not going to vote for or against the Bush ticket because of Cheney.''
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