Posted on 03/20/2004 9:32:15 PM PST by Indy Pendance
When Dick Cheney launched a stinging personal attack on John Kerry's presidential credentials this week, it signalled a prominent new role for the vice-president in this year's elections.
But the strategy also offered Democrats a fresh target and underscored the polarising effect Mr Cheney can have on the campaign trail as he tries to ensure the re-election of President George W. Bush.
While beloved by Republican conservatives, Mr Cheney has seen his popularity fall steadily over the past year and he has been dogged by controversy generated by his business ties.
A University of Pennsylvania survey this week placed his favourable rating at just 35 per cent - down from 60 per cent a year ago.
Mr Cheney's blunt, serious demeanour and unswerving conservative views have endeared him to the base of the Republican party. And his willingness to go for Mr Kerry's jugular is likely to motivate the base even more at a time when the party is eager to energise its most loyal supporters.
The attack on Mr Kerry was just the beginning of what is expected to be a sustained assault on the Democrat's credibility by Mr Cheney and other leading Republicans.
"The senator from Massachusetts has given us ample doubts about his judgment and the attitude he brings to bear on vital issues of national security," said Mr Cheney in a speech in California on Wednesday.
It is not unusual for vice-presidents to swing into attack mode in an election year. Most of Mr Cheney's predecessors have played similar roles. But Mr Cheney, dogged by his own controversies, may have the potential to mobilise Democrats and independent voters against him almost as forcefully as energising Republicans for Mr Bush.
"Dick Cheney's campaigning is a plus for reaching the Republican base but a minus in terms of reaching swing voters," says John Kessel, a political scientist at Ohio State University.
The fact that Republican strategists have opted to roll out their big "attack" guns - Mr Bush and Mr Cheney - so early in the campaign, Mr Kessel says, may indicate that internal Republican polling suggests the Bush-Cheney ticket is in a weak re-election position, leaving little choice but to pull out all the stops now.
Republicans obviously do not see it that way. "Vice-president Cheney is an incredible asset to the re-election effort. He is wildly popular with our grassroots activists and you can expect him to continue to be a very forceful advocate for President Bush and this administration's record," says Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign.
But Democrats are convinced Mr Cheney's more prominent role will work to their advantage.
"Dick Cheney is a very divisive figure. We say, go right ahead. Let's see lots of Dick Cheney on the campaign trail," says Cara Morris of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Republican strategists, in part, are hoping that Mr Cheney's aggressive new role will halt, once and for all, the speculation that Mr Bush might seek another running mate. At this late stage, it is unlikely Mr Cheney would be replaced.
Still, Mr Cheney continues to operate under a cloud of unwelcome attention. This week it emerged that the Pentagon is withholding $300m (€242m, £163m) in payments to Halliburton, the oil-services company he once led, for possible overcharging for meals served to US troops in Iraq and Kuwait.
And there are lingering questions about Mr Cheney's friendship with Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court justice who refused to recuse himself from a case seeking to force the White House to release documents related to Mr Cheney's energy task force.
None of it is likely to deter the former congressman from Wyoming, whose low profile has given way to a visible - and vocal - new presence in the campaign.
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