Interview with Vice President Dick Cheney

How did you weigh the criticism of Russia as possibly alienating them at a time when the U.S. needs Russia in the Security Council to try to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions?

Well, we have no desire to alienate Russia. But you also need to speak truth to your friends. And the President has a good relationship with President Putin. They get on well, and they have very frank conversations and discussions. And this was certainly intended in that vein.

But it’s remarkable. What I find of concern when I look at Russia, in part, is that they operate as though those new democracies in Eastern Europe are somehow a threat, that what’s happened in the Baltics, or in Poland, or in Ukraine, Georgia all constitutes some kind of a threat to Russia itself. And they clearly don’t.

The best neighbor that a government can have is another democracy, somebody that’s committed to a free and open society and respects the rights of its own citizens and pursues friendly relations, if you will, to their neighbors. None of those governments in Eastern Europe constitute any kind of a threat to Russia. The fact that many of them are now members of NATO does not constitute a threat to Russia. It’s hard, though, sometimes to get the Russians to believe that. And so we need to have these conversations.

They’re not yet helpful with Iran.

Not yet. We hope they will be. They have—their effort earlier to offer to enrich uranium for Iran for civilian reactor purposes was a helpful contribution. And they’re an important member of the U.N. Security Council, so we’ll continue to work with them. We do have many common interests around the world. But it’s important with respect to the Iranian situation that the international community come together and adopt a unified effective position vis-a-vis Iran if we’re going to avoid having a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

Coming back to White House for a moment, the president’s approval rating has been in the 30s. Yours has slipped to the teens. Do you think you need to do more to better serve the President to improve how Americans perceive you?

Well, I do my job to the best of my ability. I am there specifically to serve him and not to worry about my ratings in the polls. I’m not there—I’m not running for anything. I call them like I see them. I give him the best advice I can. He doesn’t always agree. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn’t. But we don’t spend a lot of time looking at the polls. You can’t. There’s not enough hours in the day to worry about all of that. We’ve got a job to do. We’ve got a mission to accomplish, big things that we’re about—both in the international arena and domestically—and so I think for both of us, as I say, we don’t spend a lot of time on polls.

If people felt differently about the administration might that help you to achieve some of the things you’re looking to accomplish?

Well, I’m not sure that’s the case. I think the important thing is that we get people to focus on problems, that we get the Congress to focus on problems. We’ve done some pretty amazing things in the course of a little over five years now. But there’s a lot left to do. There’s always more work, if you will, if you think about it in those terms. And we’ll continue to push very, very hard. And the President is one of those who believes in taking on big issues. You don’t always prevail when you take on big issues. You can play small ball and deal only with small items at the margins. But that’s not what we went there to do. We went there to address big issues.

And when you think back about what we’ve done over the course of the last five-and-a-half years, we feel very good about our record, and I think the American people will, too.

The president has a new Chief of Staff who is making some changes. In the last year or so, there has been a lot of attention on your office, some of that coming from the CIA leak case. The hunting accident was a distraction. Do you believe your influence in the White House has changed in any way?

Not that I’m aware of. The president is the key to all of that, of course. And I feel like he gives me the access that I need to be able to do my job. He listens. As I say, he doesn’t always agree with me, but that wasn’t the deal. The deal at the outset was I’d be an important part of the team and have an opportunity to weigh in on those issues I wanted to weigh in on, and he’s kept his word.

You have said you will not seek the presidency. You will complete your term. When you consider what it might mean for the Republican Party, would there be any benefit if you were to retire, to allow the president to choose someone else who might then have an advantage in 2008?

Well, I’m not sure it would be an advantage. But that’s not my concern. I, in effect, took on the obligation when I put my name on the ballot at the request of the president — both in 2000 and again in 2004 — that if elected to serve out my term, I feel I’ve got a contract, if you will, with the American people, a constitutionally elected officer, my term ends in January of 2009, and barring some unforeseen disaster, that’s what I’ll do.

What role do you think you play for 2008?

Well, it’s—at this stage, obviously, it’s too early to get into the business of endorsing any candidates. We’ve got a lot of good candidates out there. At the appropriate time, I’ll be happy to campaign for the ticket in 2008, if they want me to. They may not want me to. That will be their call. But until then, I’ll keep focused on the job at hand, doing what the President needs to have done.

You have been out campaigning for Republican candidates.

Right.

Midterm elections are coming. Many Republicans are concerned that the party may lose seats. Do you expect the Republicans to lose seats?

I don’t. But I think it’s going to be a hard fought contest. It always is when you’re in the midterm election of a second presidential term. And we’re working at it harder than we ever have before. I’ve already done 57 events this campaign cycle that are campaign events to help members of Congress running for reelection, or to help some of our challengers. But in terms of trying to forecast what will happen in November, difficult to do at this stage. What I find when I get out around the country is that we’ve got some great candidates running out there, some great challengers, very talented people who are willing to step up and put their name on the ballot. And I think it will ultimately boil down to sort of race by race, congressional district by congressional district around the country in terms of deciding who is going to control the next Congress. I feel pretty good about our prospects, but I learned a long time ago not to make hard and fast projections.

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