Rightist Indignation

He later worked with Lynne Cheney at Washingtonian magazine (he is still on the masthead and writes occasional articles), where he suggested she work with him as the co-author of a 1988 novel, "The Body Politic," about a Republican vice president who dies, as he puts it, "in the carnal embrace of a curvaceous television news reporter." When controversy erupted about the book after Dick Cheney was selected as Bush's running mate, Lynne assured reporters that the pivotal sex scene was written by her co-author, Gold remembers.

Lynne Cheney declined to comment for this article. But after being informed about his new book, she called her former co-author on Thursday, inquiring whether it was just an "April Fool's" joke, according to Gold. When Gold told that it was not, Cheney merely said, "I am sorry to hear that."

* * *

On a recent Saturday morning, Gold is sitting on the edge of a reclining red armchair in the study of his modest home in Fairfax City. He is surrounded by mementos of his passions -- University of Alabama football, St. Louis Cardinals baseball and GOP politics.

There's a black-and-white photo of Agnew and then-Attorney General John Mitchell gesturing at a news conference, in which the vice president has written in the imagined conversation, "Yes Mr. Attorney General, that is the voluble pugnacious Victor Gold -- and I agree, he is a tough SOB." There's also a picture of himself with the future vice president and an affectionate inscription from Dick Cheney: "The only other man who could have co-authored a book with my wife!"

Gold writes in this red chair by longhand -- it's been uncomfortable to work at a keyboard since an auto accident 15 years ago -- and his wife of 55 years, Dale, types up his work on the computer. Today, it is a perch for Gold's fulminations about the current administration, as he explains what prompted him to go public with his disillusionment. Words tumble out profusely, as he describes the different phases of grief -- first disappointment, then frustration, finally anger.

The war was a big factor. It seemed to Gold to run counter to the traditionally conservative notion of keeping clear of foreign entanglements. He was infuriated by Bush-Cheney moves to augment executive power. And he was disgusted by the Terri Schiavo episode, which to this old libertarian seemed emblematic of a modern GOP takeover by religious zealots.

"I really came to the conclusion that there was a threat to our system, to our way of life, and it was coming from those I thought were my people."

"I knew Agnew personally -- he did not represent a threat to the American way of life," Gold says. "Nixon, at the bottom of his heart, I am not sure what he wanted. I was never a Nixon admirer." But, he adds, "I knew the limitations on what they could do."

Gold is well aware that his conclusions will not sit well with the first families of the United States, though he seems less worried about the impact on the Cheneys and the president than on his old friend, the 41st president. A relationship with the Cheneys, which once included lunches with Lynne when she was at the NEH, has cooled. Gold and his wife went to a celebratory party at the Naval Observatory the day after the 2001 Inauguration -- but since then he and Lynne have spoken only occasionally. "I don't owe them a damn thing," Gold says.

But Gold says he recently wrote a letter to George H.W. Bush explaining himself and alerting him to the book -- and he says the former president offered a gracious reply to the effect of "You always called them like you saw them." On the few occasions they have talked or gotten together in recent years -- the last time was a "pleasant" lunch at Kennebunkport in the summer of 2005 -- Gold says he has purposely steered away from any talk of the current administration and his son, whom he refers to as "Young George."

"As a father, he's got to feel torn up because he sees this going on and obviously, obviously he has not been able to influence [the president]," says Gold. "George W. had one of the greatest resources in foreign relations and political experience in the world -- his old man! What if he didn't have this hubris of 'I am going to do it on my own'? If he had listened to his old man in terms of what to do after 9/11 and everything, he wouldn't have been in the mess he is in right now, and the country would not be in the mess it is right now."

Gold says he felt compelled to write his book because what he considers the depredations of the Bush administration -- the war, violations of civil liberties, expansion in government, the politicization of the Justice Department, to name just a few -- have violated his sense of what the Republican Party should stand for.

"Kennedy said sometimes political loyalty, party loyalty asks too much," he says.

Writing the book was hard because of his past associations. But, with a chuckle, Gold borrows the line that Cheney used after cursing at Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on the Senate floor:

"I feel better for having done it."