Speech by Dick Cheney on the Wyoming State Legislature in Cheyenne (Wyoming)

Or for forgotten. I. Thank. You.

Yeah. Oh.

Why don't we look like your. Feet. You know. We're ready to roll Ruiz. For just a moment. With your. Tour. Can we have your teacher. Mrs. Cheney.

Governor Mrs. Friedan to all. Members of the judiciary. Or congressional delegation where everybody in Fords here today. And members of the of the legislature and all on are gifts. I like to thank all of you for coming. We are about to have an extraordinary honor. In this body and I may add for the second time. We're going to have speaking to us a very very special guest. From a personal standpoint I am just delighted. Because as you all know. I represent the Chinese in the Wyoming legislature. I am the vice president's. State Senator.

Whatever they ask. So it's very very special to me to have them here. Dick Cheney is represented Wyoming for for many many years in very many capacities. He has served several presidents in various capacities. But he has never forgotten Wyoming. He continues to serve. Now. As we like to refer to him as our third. U.S. Senator. Obviously that's because he's president of the Senate. We are very very pro. And it is with. Great pride. That I ask you to join me in welcoming again one of my constituents. The vice president of the United States. Mr. Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne Please join me as

the. Riddler with. THL. For the earth. If I may Mr. Vice President it's come to my attention that. A little

announcement here six weeks ago. In December 2005 the University of Wyoming received a gift of approximately two point seven million dollars. From our trust established by Lynn and Dick Cheney. We would like to thank you for that. Marvelous friends of the university in the state of Wyoming Mr. Vice President. For the OR. For the. Or. Well thank you very much. Mr. President I want to thank you for the kind words. Governor Frieden thought members of the House and

Senate constitutional officers distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen. I want to thank you for that. Welcome all. It's a wonderful experience to be greeted with such warmth by the leaders of our great state. That's especially true when you've had a very long week. Thankfully Harry Whittington is on the mend and doing very well. You are. Thank you all of them. I see many friends in the chamber this morning along with some newer members of the House and Senate. But I haven't yet had a chance to meet. It's a pleasure to be in your company today and all the Wyoming legislature I bring good wishes from our president George W. Bush. Up of. Linnen are pleased to have the university is the recipient of a gift from the trust. We set up in 2001 just before I became vice president of the University of

Wyoming US played a very important role in our lives. It provided me with a first class education at a price I could afford. Thanks to the generous support of the university by the people of Wyoming and the Wyoming state legislature the first years of our marriage were spent at Laramie in student housing while Lynn taught in the English department and I was a graduate student and this was our way of saying thank you and of making certain that future generations at the same opportunities that we can do it. Always a pleasure to visit Cheyenne to be in a historic capital building the capital is of course the city's prime landmark. But there's another very prominent building downtown the old Union Pacific Railroad a bill. And it's been part of the skyline since the 1900s room would lighted the secretary of the interior. This week designated the depo as a national historic landmark. It's been four years since I last visited the state capitol and more than four decades since the first time I stepped foot

into this chamber back in 1965. Walter frailing was in the Speaker's chair. Now Randall loosens in the speaker's chair he was my intern in 1080 two. Of them with me. With with any McMaster was present the Senate cliff Hansen was our governor and I was getting my first taste of politics as a legislative intern. I remember it as an important in a demanding job. You had to know every legislator. Be there when they needed you. And remember how they wanted their coffee. It was a very different time in those days there was no legislative staff to speak of one attorney as I recall the server the chambers and a few secretaries and just two interns one for each chamber. I was the Senate in turn and also a first year graduate student at the University of Wyoming. Ed. I was a newlywed. So you can bet I drove home to Laramie every night.

Those forty days a 965 constituted the entire session of the Wyoming 38 legislature. And for me the experience was one of life's turning points. Not only did it to me a great deal about the legislative process but also sparked a fascination in the business of government that stayed with me for a lifetime. And while you can learn a lot in any legislative setting I'm glad to have worked right here. Because we're a state with a small population and because we're a western state we've held close to the ideal of the citizen legislator. And so I witnessed the common sense the public mindedness and the spirit of goodwill that can come when you bring together a group of men and women who have careers of their own spend virtually all their time among their constituents and live close to the land as a citizen I've always appreciated all the advantages of our state our tremendous resource base the independence and decency of our people and the duty we

feel to be good stewards of the land and the life around us. And thanks to many far sighted decisions over the years from water development to good schools to a climate that favors free enterprise to the mineral trust fund our state has been governed very well. Wyoming is on course to a very bright future. Another quality I observed in this legislature and still appreciate is the spirit of bipartisanship. That's not to say that I didn't see any disagreements. This is a political business we're in and that means people take sides and argue but you get things done by making the best case you can for your point of view by keeping personalities out of it and trying to persuade others to come around. Party politics has its place but it's severely overdone in Washington D.C. these days out there we could learn a thing or two from the tone of the spirit of the Wyoming state legislature. Thank you

all. The law. I'm also proud of how we campaign here. This is a two party state. The voters put a high value on authenticity plain speaking and civility. Party label in Wyoming brings no guarantees as evidenced by the fact that only two Republicans have been elected governor in the last four decades. Not that we didn't drop the ball. I also am son and I were always laboring to elect Republican governors and over the years we were treated some fine people to run among them Pete Simpson John Austin Warren Morton. Somehow it just never panned out. In fact when I worked here Democrats had the House majority. And I'll never forget the day they brought in the sitting vice pres in the United States. You were dating him for who came and spoke to us and that's this very roster. It's been my privilege to work with a number of Democratic governors over the years on Wyoming issues.

Mike Sullivan they frequent all. Another leading Democrat I remember and respected as Gail McGee came from his academic background and won three elections the United States Senate and of course my predecessor in the house also a Democrat. You know one colleague fine guy and tremendously popular across Wyoming during my first term in the house Tino showed up at one of my public events where he stood up and declared for all to hear that I was doing a terrific job in Congress. It made me feel so good I took the rest of the day off. On the Republican side every time I visit this Capitol. My thoughts to understand Hathaway and the man who actually arranged for me to work here Stan was the state party chair at the time and he took care of the financial end setting me up with a stipend of $300 for 40 days work and worked out less than a dollar an hour which may seem like a bargain but it's probably all I was

worth. But I've always been grateful to Stan Hathaway for his early confidence in me because it led directly to my next several job in politics. Within a few years of working under this capitol dome I had the privilege of working in the White House. Stan and I kept in touch over the decades until he passed away last October. He was a great man at the end of his days. I counted on his continued friendship and wise counsel. I remember one conversation with Stan that I had after I came back to Wyoming in the late 70s after I'd been working in Washington for a while. We sat down one day here in Cheyenne to talk serious politics. He asked me what I was thinking about doing. I told him I was thinking about running for office. He said which office I said well Senator cliff Hansen is retiring. And I thought I might try for the Senate. Stan listened nodded and then in that direct way that he is he said there is only one problem. He said Dick if you run for the Senate Al Simpson is going to kick your fanny.

And he didn't say Fannie. Stan wasn't known for idle words so I took his advice to heart and ran instead for the US House of Representatives. Sure enough. Al Simpson did run for the Senate. Sure enough somebody else got their fanny here. So Al and I both arrived in Washington as freshman legislators at the 1978 election. We served together for 10 years and I've shared many fine experiences together whether we're home or in DC or campaigning all across the country because we represent represented a state with a small population and need so many of our constituents personally both Al and I like to occasionally add to the telephones in our office. One day Senator Simpson picked up the phone and the voice on the other end said. Where is that skinny so-and-so and I replied speaking. In all these years as a U.S. senator. I was the same person taking his job seriously but

always keeping his humility as Al himself has observed those who travel the high road of humility in Washington are not bothered by heavy traffic. Alan his brother Pete will come from one of the great Wyoming families and we all remember their dad and mom. Governor Milward Simpson and Lorna Alice the statesman one of the truly great sons of Wyoming and I'm proud to count him as a colleague and a friend. I'm also proud to serve with our longtime senior Senator Malcolm Wallach a rancher and a patriot who served in the legislature before going to Washington and now with Congresswoman Barbara Cubin senators Craig Thomas and Mike Enzi we continue to have a delegation. We can be very proud. Of the will of the. Another legendary representative of our state in the nation's capital was of course Clinton's out in Washington. Power is usually measured in terms of title and seniority.

But every so often somebody comes along who immediately commands a certain kind of authority and respect that isn't accorded on the basis of tenure or notoriety or the size of their state. It's accorded on the basis of good judgment integrity reliability character and from the day he arrived in Washington until the day he left 12 years later cliff hasn't had that kind of authority had that kind of respect left retired from politics some years ago but he's still going strong up in Jackson and later this year he'll mark his ninety fourth birthday. He's well remembered still in the nation's capital for his integrity and his independence. His good humor and his complete devotion to the causes of those people who elected him. Clip showed that devotion in every situation. And I recall one in particular from the time I was serving as White House chief of staff for Gerry Ford President I were upstairs in the family quarters in the White House one night going over legislation. The president reviewed a number of bills that were pending before him that had passed the Congress. He paused

over one in particular that involved a number of amendments to the mineral leasing act for various reasons. He didn't like this particular bill although it had an amendment on it that had been added by Cliff Hansen the cliff cared very much about. The president decided he was going to have to veto the bill anyway so he asked me to get Cliff on the phone so that he could tell him personally that he was about to veto this bill that had an important Hanson amendment on it so I contacted the senator on the phone passed the phone to the president present explained he was going to have to be to the bill. And then he listened for a minute and then he laughed. And hung up. And I asked him what the senator had said he said well I told him I was going to have to veto his bill. And he said it's ok I understand Mr. President and I'm going to have to override you read on. Well US President Ford knew the senator from Wyoming was not given to exaggeration as promised the president delivered the veto as promised cliff delivered the override.

Of the. Those days with President Ford I was still pretty young 34 I believe the youngest person to be chief of staff in Gerald Ford I had yet another fine role model and I would still look up to him for his steadiness versus kindness and complete lack of pretense for the way he conducted himself during one of the most serious constitutional crisis in the nation's history. It was too brief an experience it's we ended up losing the 976 election and I thereby became the youngest former chief of staff. And all the time since then I've been fortunate to see the greatness of America from many vantage points as Wyoming congressman. I saw it in the debates of our democracy in the sense of fairness and respect that makes those debates possible. As secretary of defense I saw the greatness of America and the character of the men and women in uniform who protect our nation. And in my current office I see the strength of

the American people in a time of testing on the resolve of the president who leads us today. Working with President Bush is an experience I've appreciated but that I had not anticipated. As most of you know when I left the Pentagon in 1993 I believe it was the end of my career in public service. Things began to change when then Governor Bush asked me to help him find a running mate. I ended up joining the ticket for the first election in the 21st century which turned out to be one of the truly historic contest during the campaign the president said he had not picked me because he was worried about carrying Wyoming. Ya. Know I've often had the chance since to remind him those three electoral votes came in mighty him to it was. Of the will of the. These five years have turned out to be a period of extraordinary

consequence in the life of this nation. Challenges have come to us in leadership and we have seen the land we love come under direct attack. Weve taken up the work of delivering justice to freedom's enemies and liberating brutalized people and serving the cause of liberty and peace in the troubled region of the world. There is still hard work ahead in the war on terror because we're dealing with enemies who are intent on bringing great harm to any nation that opposes their aims. Their prime targets the United States and the American people. So we have a continuing responsibility to lead in this fight. And as the president said in his State of the Union we are in this fight to win. And we are winning. Of the will. You all. Ladies and gentlemen it's a privilege to serve America as a vice president. But I can tell you that in the many privileges I've had as an elected official that first one will

always carry special significance when you serve in the House of Representatives. You were recognized from the chair not by your name but according to your state and for better than a decade I proudly answered the title of the gentleman from Wyoming and for that I have a debt that I owe to the people of this state. It is hard to square another man who served as vice president. Harry Truman used to say I tried never to forget who I was and where I come from and where I would go that for my part I've always found it easy to stick to my roots. I would not be where I am today were it not for the friendship and the confidence of people all across this state. It's always good to be home. And this morning is an officeholder and more than that as a citizen of Wyoming. I counted a high honor to be in such distinguished company and I'm grateful for your very kind hospitality. Like Earth. Were to.

We'll. Thanks we'll. Thank you. Thank you.

Although Mr. Vice President you're probably out of earshot as you work through that

gauntlet of friends. Thank you once again for attending this joint session and thank you for your remarks to us. Yeah.