Cheney confident in terror war
BOISE – Vice President Dick Cheney told a crowd at a campaign fund-raiser Monday that there’s still hard work ahead in America’s military engagements around the world.
“We cannot predict the length or course of the war on terror, but we know for certain with good allies at our side this great nation will persevere and we will prevail,” Cheney told a crowd gathered to celebrate the 60th birthday of Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.
Cheney gave a similar speech earlier in the day during a campaign appearance for Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.
The vice president used the 17-minute speech in Boise to tout the nation’s economic recovery under the Bush administration, predict that a new national energy policy would lessen dependence on foreign oil and urge quick confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts.
The event was billed as a combination birthday party and campaign fund-raiser for Craig, but Idaho’s senior senator is not up for re-election until 2008, has no announced opponent and his 60th birthday was actually July 20. The $60-per-person event drew about 200 people inside a sweltering airport hangar for cake, ice cream and bottled water. Some paid $1,000 to get a photograph taken with Cheney.
Security was modest, and there were no visible protests as people filed into the hangar. Idaho gave the Bush-Cheney ticket 68 percent of the state’s presidential vote in 2004.
Cheney has been to Idaho several times, including a fishing trip on the South Fork of the Snake River last week.
“As somebody from Wyoming, it’s always good to get that guy back to the West to remember his roots, as it is for me,” Craig said. “Obviously, the West is changing, but it still has the values we appreciate.”
Joked Cheney: “Here in Idaho, I know you think of Wyoming as back East.”
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean criticized Craig for courting Cheney as a fund-raiser after the Bush administration pushed through the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) against the wishes of Idaho sugar beet growers.
“While he is in Boise, Vice President Cheney ought to explain why the Bush administration sold out the Idaho sugar industry,” Dean said in a statement. Idaho’s all-Republican congressional delegation voted against ratifying the free trade deal with Central American and Caribbean nations.
Cheney didn’t refer to CAFTA in his remarks nor did he directly make reference to the war in Iraq. National polls show declining public support for the president’s policy. Most of his comments focused on positive economic indicators that he attributed to Bush administration initiatives for tax cuts, federal incentives for small business growth and decreasing the rate of the estate tax.
“Americans today have more money to spend, to save and invest, and they are using it to drive the economy forward,” he said.
Cheney did not mention the nation’s record-high retail gasoline prices, but he praised the national energy policy bill that was signed into law a week earlier after years of congressional wrangling.
“Thanks in part to the good work of Larry Craig we now have an energy policy that will promote energy conservation and efficiency, expand production, modernize our infrastructure and make this nation less dependent on foreign oil,” he said.