Dick Cheney handed away Monday on the age of 84. As one among his home coverage advisors throughout his time as vp, I used to be deeply saddened by the information; particularly as I take into consideration my very own getting old mother and father (my mother is 81 and my dad is 90).
I had the nice fortune of serving within the Workplace of the Vice President in the course of the first two years of the Bush–Cheney administration. My path to that function was equal elements luck and ambition. From the second I moved to Washington, D.C., within the early ’90s, I dreamed of working on the White Home. As an immigrant from Iran who didn’t turn into a health care provider, lawyer, or engineer, nothing felt extra like attaining the American Dream than serving there.
As an training reformer, I used to be particularly drawn to the administration’s deep dedication to training, rooted within the “compassionate conservatism” of the time. Having labored on the Bush–Cheney transition, I first met Scooter Libby as he was assembling what turned a small however mighty home coverage group. Because of Cesar Conda, who led that group, I used to be invited to affix.
At first, I wasn’t certain how my background in training coverage would match inside Cheney’s portfolio. However I figured if an training coverage guru like Jon Schnur might work for Vice President Gore, I might preserve my bona fides by working for Vice President Cheney whereas broadening my expertise. I additionally appreciated Cheney’s deep understanding of the Center East, an curiosity we shared, in my case as an Iranian American, and in his from his time at Halliburton.
The choice to affix his group turned out to be the most effective of my profession. Say what you’ll about his legacy, whether or not it’s his post-9/11 report or his current endorsement of Kamala Harris, Dick Cheney stood by what he believed in. That’s a uncommon high quality in public life at this time.
The function of the vp is a simple one: You do what the President asks. Training was very a lot President Bush’s area, so alternatives to have interaction the Vice President (or his spouse, who was deeply revered in training circles) had been restricted. But in our weekly home coverage conferences, I discovered him to be extremely engaged in understanding how No Little one Left Behind, or NCLB (the primary invoice that was launched in Congress), was doing. He had a dry wit (one thing that took me some time to get used to), and finally, I found methods to have interaction him within the work.
One instance stands out. Invoice Hansen, then deputy secretary underneath Rod Paige on the Division of Training, as soon as known as asking if the Vice President would possibly meet with the division’s senior group at Airlie Convention Middle. I had no thought if Cheney would agree, however not solely did he say sure, he appeared to genuinely get pleasure from it. We flew to Airlie Convention Middle on Marine Two to speak with the group concerning the administration’s first 90 days and provides the group a morale enhance contemplating the information items on the time indicating that the White Home was calling all of the photographs when it got here to training coverage (which is regular when a President makes a coverage thought their precedence).
One other a part of my job was to assist maintain the conservative coalition, a lot of whom I knew from my time on the Heritage Basis, aligned with the President’s NCLB targets. It was a difficult activity, to say the least. Finally, I requested the Vice President if he’d attend a type of conferences to lend his credibility. Once more, his reply was a easy “sure.” Conservatives trusted him, and his presence made an actual distinction.
After all, his function as president of the Senate was essentially the most helpful. Whereas 9/11 modified every part, Cheney’s long-standing relationships on Capitol Hill had been essential as we labored to carry a really completely different strategy to training into the Republican fold.
