Unleashing the Cheney factor

Cheney, in many ways, fulfills the traditional role of vice president. In the reelection campaign, he is the attack dog, going for the jugular against probable opponent Kerry while the president takes the high road. At his appearance Monday at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., Cheney criticized Kerry's national security record at length, concluding: "The senator from Massachusetts has given us ample grounds to doubt the judgment and the attitude he brings to bear on vital issues of national security."

Cheney also serves regularly as an emissary to Bush's conservative base, delivering, for example, a pungent speech to abortion foes five days before Sunday's women's march on Washington. He assured the dinner of the National Right to life Committee that the administration would keep fighting on behalf of "the weakest members of our society," referring to the unborn. By having Cheney keep the base happy, Bush can focus on appealing to centrist voters.

On national security, Cheney's place at the table in so-called "principals" meetings is another example of how the vice president has carved out his role as a central adviser. While it has been standard procedure over the past 30 years for the vice president to be the last person in the room with the president after an important meeting, analysts say that with Cheney, the level of influence in unprecedented. This is, in part, because of the decades of experience Cheney brought to the White House in 2001, having served as a member of Congress and in executive branch roles such as White House chief of staff and Defense secretary.

"This is an unusual vice president," says Jim Walsh, an international security expert at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "We said that about Mondale and Gore, too. But this is Mondale-Gore squared, particularly in issues in national security. He's an independent force in security and military policymaking."

Bush, of course, came to the White House from the Texas governorship and after being a political operative during his father's presidency. He brought little foreign expertise to the table. All of this reinforces the notion of some that Bush needs Cheney at his side when he faces the 9/11 commission Thursday.

SMU's Jillson maintains that while Bush may be perpetuating the image that he needs a "babysitter," logic would say he doesn't. Bush has been in office for three years, plenty of time to climb the learning curve of the president's national security duties, particularly post-9/11. "The conclusion I reach is that they just want to be very certain that they support each other in terms of describing events similarly, remembering them as close to identically as possible, so no one can say, 'See, these guys have contradicted each other and we need to look into it further.' "

Of course, Jillson adds, the average voter's interpretation of the joint appearance will probably track with how he or she views Bush in the first place: If you support him, the joint appearance is fine; if not, it's a sign that Bush isn't up to the job.

Faye Bowers contributed to this story.

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