Has Dick Cheney's Image Gotten Too Oil Slick?

By Michael Weisskopf, James Carney and John F. Dickerson/ Washington

Some 2,000 G.O.P. donors will be in Washington for Tuesday night's Presidential Gala fund raiser. But the big ticket is dinner at DICK CHENEY's vice-presidential mansion the night before, an event planned with as much secrecy as the report of his energy task force. Among those on the Veep's guest list are some of the party's most prolific fund raisers, including lobbyists for the coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear and utility industries. Rick Shelby of the American Gas Association, who raised or gave $250,000, is invited, as is former Republican Party chairman Haley Barbour, who lobbies for the huge coal-based utility Southern Co. and the firm of Cassidy & Associates, whose clients include Exxon, Texaco and Pennzoil. It's a stretch to link their fund raising and the Bush Administration's energy plan, but the timing is a p.r. nightmare: the Vice President breaking bread with energy lobbyists just four days after giving a boost to the industry.

Republican National Committee spokesman Mark Miner insists anyone who sees gala contributions from the energy sector as a payoff is "misinformed." Indeed, nonenergy executives dominated fund raising for the Bush gala and will be in abundance at the Cheney dinner, for which there is no price of admission. And while previous donors of at least $175,000 will be present at Cheney's home, they have contributed nothing to the Bush bash the following night. Still, comparisons to the Clintons' use of the Lincoln Bedroom seemed inevitable. "Is the Vice President's mansion the latest perk?" asked a G.O.P. veteran.

Criticism of Cheney's style has also come from within the Administration, since an April speech in which he seemed to mock conservation as a means of dealing with energy shortages. Top Bush aides did not see the speech until the day he delivered it. Even though Bush and Cheney are in complete agreement, the difference in tone between Cheney's blunt speech and Bush's conciliatory one last week was stark. By last week Bush aides were happy to have regained control of the energy-policy rollout from Cheney's office. Plans to have Cheney hit the road to help sell the plan were scrapped. Energy Secretary SPENCE ABRAHAM is scheduled to do most of the airport shuttling. Until last week internal copies of the energy task force's 176-page report had a cover bearing the vice-presidential seal. But when the report was officially released, the presidential seal was in its place.

--By Michael Weisskopf, James Carney and John F. Dickerson/Washington