The Associated Press Saturday, November 4, 2006; 2:36 AM
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Vice President Dick Cheney, headed toward his final two years of office, has no more worries about winning votes. It's the Democrats who have him campaigning.
A Democratic Congress would cause huge headaches for the Bush administration, and polling shows the GOP is in real danger of losing its majority on Tuesday.
Vice President Dick Cheney speaks during Victory Rally 2006, a Republican rally, at the Coeur d'Alene Airport in Hayden, Idaho Thursday, Nov. 2, 2006. (AP Photo/Jason Hunt) (Jch - AP)
So even in the Rocky Mountain districts, where the Republicans never used to even contemplate losing, Cheney is stirring the base.
"The stakes in this campaign are high," Cheney told supporters at a rally Friday in Colorado Springs, a conservative military community that's home to a competitive House race.
"The outcome will determine whether Americans pay higher taxes or lower taxes," Cheney said. "It'll determine whether this government remains firm and resolute in the war on terror."
In this final campaign week, Cheney's main mission is to remind voters why they should care about this election. On Saturday, he was campaigning in his home state of Wyoming.
Overall, Cheney has raised $40 million for Republicans in 117 campaign stops.
Polls suggest the public is fed up. The body count in Iraq and the congressional scandals at home have taken a toll, mainly on Bush and on many Republicans who are on the ballot.
Yet in an interview with ABC News, Cheney said the administration plans to go "full speed ahead" with its policies in Iraq, despite sagging public opinion about the war.
Downplaying what voters say about the war, he told ABC: "It doesn't matter in the sense that we have to continue the mission and do what we think is right. ... We're not running for office." Like his boss, Cheney is in his last stand at the White House. At 65 with a history of heart trouble, he insists he will not run for president.
Cheney says Democrats will raise taxes and weaken national security _ a Bush message that Cheney often delivers in darker, starker terms than Bush. And that is why, Cheney has acknowledged, some cast him as the Darth Vader of the administration.
But his approach plays well to conservatives. They could use the boost. The GOP is having to spend time and money on races it didn't have to sweat before.
Enter Cheney, a presence without flash. He's the president's adviser, a former defense secretary, White House chief of staff and House Republican whip. He is at home in the West.
Sarah Feinberg, spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said her party's candidates can counter Cheney just fine.
"He has this angry message focused just on his base," she said. "We have Democratic challengers who are talking to the entire district about mainstream priorities, like middle-class tax cuts and cheaper prescription drugs. Republicans are desperate to rally their base."
