America's people are safe, thanks to Bush administration security measures both at home and abroad, but there's still work to do.
America's energy future is moving toward domestic independence, thanks to Republican energy policies, but there's still work to do.
“In that work, we could not ask for a better partner than Senator Conrad Burns.”
So said Vice President Dick Cheney, who visited Whitefish on Wednesday to stump on behalf of Burns, a three-term Montana Republican now fighting for his political future in a tight race with Democratic challenger Jon Tester.
About 150 people paid $250 each for tickets to the luncheon featuring Cheney. For $2,100, a select few had their picture taken with the vice president. And for $5,000, a small group took Burns up on an afternoon of fishing.
But the highlight, for most, was the half-hour speech delivered by Cheney, who called Burns a “sensible, effective, patriotic senator who never forgets who sent him to Washington, D.C.”
Burns, Cheney said, has been an “outstanding United States senator,” noting that in the 20 years he's known Burns, “Conrad's always been the same person.”
Hardworking, Cheney said. Humble. Reliable. “A great son of Montana, a patriot, and I'm proud to count him as a friend.”
The men met, Burns said, in the late 1980s, when Cheney represented his home state of Wyoming back in Washington, D.C., and Burns was a freshman lawmaker.
“I think there is something special and unique about that Western perspective,” Cheney said of their shared rural roots.
Rural Western values are different than urban values, Cheney said, and sometimes that leads to “frustration,” particularly when city dwellers wield the power of numbers over less populated states. Burns, though, represents a real center of power for rural America, Cheney said.
“Conrad's always made a difference in Washington,” Cheney said, “in terms of getting things done.”
Throughout the luncheon - which also featured Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., former Gov. Stan Stephens and former Lt. Gov. Karl Ohs, now chair of the Montana Republican Party - Burns' seniority played center stage. The message was clear: A political newcomer such as Jon Tester simply will not pack the clout to get the big jobs done.
Burns sits on several key committees, and is among those holding the nation's purse strings. He holds a powerful position, giving rural Montana a powerful edge, the vice president said.
Burns' position also makes him an important ally to his GOP counterparts in the White House. “The president and I need Conrad,” Cheney said, “in order to meet the priorities we've set for the country.”
And with that, the vice president left Burns for a while, launching into a sales pitch for White House policy.
The past several years have been tough, Cheney admitted, with terrorists and wars and natural disasters and corporate scandals making headlines. But Americans are still moving forward, he said, because they have confidence in their leadership.
And Burns, he said, “shares our philosophy.”
The country's economy is strong and growing, Cheney said. Households control more real wealth. Productivity is up. Unemployment is down.
Even deficit projections aren't as bad as predicted, Cheney said, thanks to a shot of unexpected revenue at Treasury.
Cheney pointed to legislation such as the Deficit Reduction Act as movement in the right direction, noting that Burns voted for that measure. (As did Cheney, coincidentally. As vice president, he casts the deciding vote when the Senate is deadlocked. As he said, “Every time I vote, we win.”)
The future, Cheney said, will require Republican leadership, such as Burns provides, in order to pass immigration reform legislation, as well as to make more key judicial appointments.
But the No. 1 responsibility, Cheney said, is “to protect the American people. There's still hard work ahead in the global war on terror.”
Nevertheless, there has been progress, Cheney said. Iraq has a constitution and a democratic government.
Setting a deadline for withdrawal from the war in Iraq, as some lawmakers - especially Democrats - have suggested, would only embolden terrorists, Cheney said.
“The United States will not give up in the face of terror,” he told the crowd, to energetic applause.
And any troop redeployment, he said, should be predicated upon conditions on the ground, not upon “artificial timelines.”
Prior to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Cheney said, America failed to “hit back” hard enough when terrorists targeted U.S. interests.
“By doing so,” he said, “we simply invited more terrorism.”
He listed several attacks over the past decade, establishing the risk, confirming the threat, reinforcing the fear.
“No one,” Cheney said, “can guarantee that we won't be hit again.”
But some bets are better than others.
“Either we are serious about fighting this war or we are not,” Cheney said. “With George W. Bush leading this country, we are serious, and we will not let down our guard.”
The party providing the security is the GOP, and Conrad Burns is key to that effort, Cheney said. A vote for Burns is a vote for safety.
“We must not let up for a moment,” Cheney said. “It is critically important to remember that this nation is fighting a war.”
The withdrawal policy some Democrats have suggested is “the very kind of retreat that has been tried in the past, and failed,” Cheney said.
Cheney's speech was heavy on domestic employment, the war on terror, the importance of keeping powerful people in powerful places if the work is to be done.
Rehberg and others agreed Burns was responsible for much that has been accomplished, and will be key to much still to be done.
“He's a funny guy,” Rehberg said of Burns. “Sometimes it doesn't seem as funny when you read it in the press. But you know, this is a full-contact sport.”
His remarks were apparently aimed at recent controversy over how Burns treated a group of wildland firefighters fresh off the fire line.
When asked about that incident after the luncheon, Burns said only that “there was no confrontation. Maybe I could have picked my words a little better, and I'm sorry for that.”
But the senator is not sorry for his stand on important issues - on bringing telecommunication networks to the state, on diversifying the job force, on supporting farmers and ranchers, on encouraging distance learning, on transportation and security and, especially, on national energy policy.
Burns said he hopes the next agriculture bill to come out of Congress will include a strong energy component, with Montanans growing the crops that will, in part, fuel the future.
But it was his energy policy - a highlight of the luncheon - that had the longtime senator in trouble with Montanans who lined the street south of The Lodge at Whitefish Lake protesting American foreign policy and energy legislation.
They carried placards taking Cheney to task for failing to sign the Kyoto accords, aimed at slowing global warming. Their signs condemned the war in Iraq, the loss of civil liberties subsequent to 9/11, the Patriot Act and profits made by industries with ties to the White House.
“I just want them to know that not everyone has $5,000 for access to a top politician,” said protester Jason Hall. “But we matter. Our voices should count, too.”
Burns, they said, is, like Cheney, too close to big oil.
But back at the lodge, former Gov. Stephens touted the senator's integrity and honesty, adding that “Conrad Burns has never wavered one iota” from his Montana-based principles and values.
Burns, however, when asked if he had become the “Washington insider” he campaigned against back in 1988, admitted that “Washington changes you. You have to do certain things to be effective.”
And that is where the protesters turned Burns' strength into a weakness, his power to bring home results into a power to help special interests at the expense of the rest of America.
“He's in too deep,” Hall said. “He thinks delivering pork is a good thing.”
Hall and his fellow protesters numbered perhaps 200 - slightly more than the luncheon's paid attendance - but several more were stuck on the other side of the Whitefish viaduct, as police tape blocked pedestrian access across the bridge.
They will, however, have another chance to rally soon.
First lady Laura Bush is planning a Montana trip to campaign for Burns later this month, as is Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Even Illinois Republican Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House, is coming to the Big Sky, as a guest of Rehberg.
“It's an election cycle,” Rehberg said. “Anybody notice that yet? Montana is kind of the hot spot. You're going to see a lot of activity in the next few months.”
And he'll be there every step of the way, helping his party retain control of the House and Senate.
“I can't do it alone,” Rehberg said. “Conrad needs to be re-elected.”
He may have been preaching to the choir, but the applause was genuine and heartfelt.
As was the dismay out on the street, where the protest rally dwindled into insignificance as the afternoon wore on and Cheney hopped his airplane for his next stop, another campaign push in Boise, Idaho.
“I don't know if we accomplished everything we hoped,” said Velvet Phillips Sullivan, a protester and Whitefish City Council member. “But we had the last word.”
And with that she hefted her banner, one last word spelled in bright red capital letters: “PEACE.”
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