More Entries for the Cheney Files

By Al Kamen
Wednesday, October 10, 2007

In response to Friday's column, Loop Fans have been sending in fine sightings of the oft-reclusive Vice President Cheney on his travels.

"Thought I saw his entourage speeding through Jackson, Wyo., last Sunday morning (Sept. 30)," one reader wrote. "Also saw a large aircraft resembling Air Force Two on final approach to Jackson Airport" on Sept. 28. Yep, in town at least part of that time for a reception for Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), one of the events on his brief public schedule.

But by that Sunday afternoon, another spotter reported, Cheney and his wife, Lynne, were back in the Washington area, watching their granddaughter's soccer game (we hear she scored both goals in a 2-0 win) and posing for pictures with the opposing team.

Last Friday afternoon, "just like clockwork, Dick Cheney flew over my house" on Kent Island in the Chesapeake, "on his way to his home in St. Michaels," another fan wrote. "I can almost set my watch to his helicopter flights on Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon."

After the helicopters passed over Kent Island, another e-mailer wrote that he had a "clear sighting of a flight of two Marine helicopters directly overhead descending through 1,000 feet (I am a pilot, so this is an informed estimate)" at 5:30 p.m. about 500 yards from the Inn at Perry's Cabin in St. Michaels.

Send your sightings to whereistheveep@washpost.com.

The Cheney Way

Speaking of the vice president, former Bush counselor Dan Bartlett had a couple of working-for-Cheney tales to tell in a recent speech to the National Chamber of Commerce. (Bartlett, who left the White House in July, is charging $10,000 a speech for local folks and up to $30,000 for out-of-town gatherings.)

One involved briefing Cheney on his arrival in Philadelphia for the 2000 GOP convention. Bartlett learned that the Cheneys' lesbian daughter, Mary, was to be there with them, and, with serious trepidation during a conversation during a limo ride, he wanted to talk about how that would be handled.

Bartlett recalled: "The Cheneys aren't into small talk. . . . So finally I said . . . 'I just wanted to raise a couple issues.' Kind of got out some perfunctory stuff -- 'you're going to be going here, you're going to be doing that.' And he was just kind of nodding at me.

"And I said, 'There is one issue we need to talk about. We had heard that maybe, you know, that your daughter was going to join the campaign trail, going to be on the campaign trail with you. I just want to let you know -- perfectly fine, but I just want you to know that the press is going to really focus on this, they're going to maybe intrude more into your lives than you may be prepared [for]. Well, I just wanted to put that on the table for you.'

"And the vice president looks at me," Bartlett said and, in a decent Cheney impersonation, quoted him: " 'We won't be talking about my daughter.'

"I said, 'Okaaay, thank you very much.' What you see publicly is basically what you get privately with the vice president. It is a very matter-of-fact conversation usually with him."

Then there was the time Cheney shot his pal during a hunting accident in Texas. "We couldn't get hold of him for quite a bit of time," Bartlett said. "They were strategizing on their own, which as always got me worried. I called down there, and I finally get ahold of some of the people traveling with him and they kind of laid out their strategy.

" 'We're not going to talk about this. We're going to give it to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in the morning,' " Bartlett said. He was stunned. This little paper couldn't even find the reporter because it was the weekend.

"So finally, I said, 'I have to talk with the vice president directly. I have to intervene in this.' I get him on the phone. 'Mr. Vice President, I know you don't have any traveling press with you, but we need to pull together a pool, either get them down there, get you on the phone with them. We need to work this out.'

"Dead silence." Then: " 'This is how we're going to handle it.'

"'Okaaay, Mr. Vice President.' Hang up the phone and the rest is history," Bartlett recalled.

New Counsel at DHS

Speaking of the Cheneys, President Bush has picked a successor to vice presidential son-in-law Philip J. Perry, who stepped down in February as the Department of Homeland Security's general counsel. Bush declared his intention to nominate Gus P. Coldebella, Perry's deputy since October 2005 and acting general counsel at DHS the past eight months.

Oh, Those Activist Senators!

Finally, a bipartisan sentiment on the Hill.

"Congress Challenged to End Horse Slaughter," read the headline on our "Dear Colleague" letter to senators last week. ". . . failure by the current 'do-nothing Congress,' as [one advocate] calls us, to pass the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act into law, means that the suffering of our treasured equines" will continue.

"So let us show . . . all Americans who care about horses that we are not the 'do-nothing Congress,' " the senators wrote. The letter was signed by Sen. John Ensign (Nev.), part of the Republican leadership that has tried to pin the "do-nothing" label on the Democrats in charge.

It was also signed by Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (La.) -- last we checked, a Democrat.

Giving Props

Prop awareness alert! Sometimes a great prop -- Reagan's stacks of budget books at the State of the Union, Clinton's holding up a health security card or a veto pen, Ross Perot's ears -- can help drive home a point. Sometimes it doesn't help.

At a Senate hearing last week, Frank Gaffney, a Pentagon official in the Reagan administration and a leading critic of the long-debated Law of the Sea Treaty, said he wears "with the greatest of pride, a token of an award that I received from the Navy League of the United States." The watch "was given to me," he said, "because of confidence in my judgment about what is in the long-term interests of the Navy." And the treaty, he said, is certainly not in the Navy's or the country's interests.

But Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) brushed aside the memento.

"You know, Mr. Gaffney, I want to say I have great respect for the Navy League, as well, the entity that gave you your watch that you so proudly [held] before the committee. And I'd ask unanimous consent to include into the record a letter from the Navy League that says, '. . . we write to urge you and your Senate colleagues to vote in favor of the ratification of the Law of the Sea Convention . . . which . . . is also is fully consistent with current efforts in support of the global war on terrorism and the Proliferation Security Initiative."