Cheney takes center stage
Veep's role takes some heat off Bush
By Bill Schneider
CNN Political Unit
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 CNN's Bruce Morton on Dick Cheney's role.
 President Bush speaks about his meeting with the 9/11 panel.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Mr. Dooley -- the character created at the end of the 19th century by journalist Finley Peter Dunne -- once said, "The vice presidency is not a crime exactly. You can't be sent to jail for it. But it's kind of a disgrace. It's like writing anonymous letters.''
So what can a vice president do to score the political Play of the Week? Ask Dick Cheney.
When a president is running for re-election, the election is supposed to be a referendum on the incumbent. Vice President Cheney is turning it into a referendum on the challenger.
"Sen. [John] Kerry has repeatedly called for major reductions or outright cancellations of many our most important weapons systems," Cheney said Monday in a highly critical speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.
Cheney is keeping the war on terror at the top of the agenda.
"Senator Kerry has questioned whether the war on terror is really a war at all," Cheney said in another recent speech. "Senator Kerry's record raises serious doubts about his understanding of the broader war against terror."
The war on terror is Bush's issue. Drawing the Democrats into that debate means they're fighting on the president's turf.
It also kept the Democrats' message from getting out.
Kerry, for example, wanted to talk about Bush's record on the economy. "This is the worst jobs president since Herbert Hoover was president ," Kerry said Tuesday. But that speech didn't get much attention.
Cheney took a lot of heat for his attacks on Kerry.
"The lead chicken hawk against Senator Kerry is the vice president of the United States -- Vice President Cheney," Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, said Wednesday.
And Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe blasted Cheney as the president's "attack dog-in-chief."
But that drew fire away from Bush and left the president above the fray.
Sure, there was snickering when Cheney and Bush testified together before the 9/11 commission. Cartoonists portrayed Bush as Mini-Me to Cheney's Dr. Evil.
"It really begs the question of why they had to go hand in hand into this very, very important commission meeting," said Democratic Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California.
But the testimony was private. And afterward, the president met the news media on his own in the Rose Garden.
"I answered every question they asked," Bush told reporters.
Cheney baited the trap. The Democrats fell into it. And that makes it tough for Kerry to gain momentum -- giving Cheney the political Play of the Week.
Cheney dominated the news all week, including the Supreme Court hearing over whether he should be forced to release records of his energy task-force meetings.
At a time when the president is facing a lot of bad news, it's not such a terrible thing for the vice president to be the center of attention.
