Cheney and Lieberman Politely Stick to Scripts

DANVILLE, Ky. —  Picking up where their running mates left off, Dick Cheney and Joseph I. Lieberman sparred Thursday night over taxes, abortion and defense in a mild-mannered vice presidential debate that often muffled their differences beneath a blanket of civility.

The temperate tone was set from the start of the 90-minute session, when the two nominees swore off personal attacks and Cheney interjected a rare bit of levity. “I promise not to bring up your singing,” the Republican said of Lieberman’s musical turn last month on late-night television.

“I promise not to sing,” Lieberman replied.

The two, seated at a half-moon-shaped table across from moderator Bernard Shaw of CNN, then delivered many of the same responses to the same questions asked Tuesday night of presidential nominees George W. Bush and Al Gore during their first debate.

The sharpest exchanges were incited by Shaw. One came near the end, when he asked Cheney whether he felt Lieberman had shifted any of his positions since joining Vice President Gore’s ticket.

“I do have a couple of concerns where I liked the old Joe Lieberman better than the new Joe Lieberman,” Cheney said, suggesting the U.S. senator from Connecticut has softened his criticisms of Hollywood’s marketing of violence to young audiences. The entertainment industry is a major source of Democratic campaign dollars.

“The depth of conviction that we had admired before isn’t quite as strong as it was, perhaps, in the past,” Cheney said.

“You’ll not be surprised to hear that I disagree,” Lieberman replied, insisting, “I have not changed a single position since Al Gore nominated me to be his vice president.”

The exchange was one of the few that struck even the slightest sparks. Another came when Cheney pledged to “change the tone” in Washington, saying it would “take new leadership.”

Gore, he said, “campaigns on the basis of castigating others.”

“Dick Cheney must be one of the few people in America who thinks that nothing has been accomplished in eight years,” Lieberman said. “I mean, the fact is, that promises were made and the promises were kept.

“Did Al Gore make promises in 1992? Absolutely,” Lieberman said. “Did he deliver? Big-time, if I may put it that way.” The senator was slyly referring to Cheney’s enthusiastic response when an open microphone captured Texas Gov. Bush using a vulgarity to describe a newspaper reporter on Labor Day.

Lieberman continued: “If you ask most people in America today that famous question that Ronald Reagan asked--’Are you better off today than you were eight years ago?’--most people would say yes, and I’m pleased to see, Dick, from the newspapers, that you’re better off than you were eight years ago too.”

Little Humor or Spontaneity

Cheney, who stepped down as chief executive of Halliburton Co. in July with more than $30 million in stock and stock options, did not miss a beat. “And I can tell you, Joe, that the government had absolutely nothing to do with it,” he said. (In fact, Halliburton received more than $2 billion in federal contracts for support of American troops abroad.)

For the most part, however, the exchanges were far less humorous and not nearly as spontaneous, as the candidates seemed to read from virtually the same scripts their running mates used Tuesday night.

On taxes, Democrat Lieberman repeatedly portrayed Gore’s proposal for $500 billion in targeted tax cuts over 10 years as a more fiscally prudent approach to the projected federal surplus than Bush’s plan for an across-the-board $1.3 trillion cut.

“Al Gore and I want to live within our means,” Lieberman said. “We’re not going to give it all away in one big tax cut and certainly not to the top 1% of the public that doesn’t need it now.”

But Republican Cheney, while disputing those numbers, insisted that Gore’s targeted tax cuts were a way of imposing the will of Washington upon taxpayers who deserve to share in the good economic times, rich or poor. “If you live your life the way they want you to live your life . . . at that point you get some relief,” Cheney said. “Whereas, under the Bush plan, everybody who pays taxes will, in fact, get relief.”

The two echoed their running mates on abortion--Lieberman stating his support for its legalization and Cheney his opposition. Asked if Bush would sign legislation Republicans are promoting to restrict access to RU-486, an abortion pill, Cheney did not answer.

The two vice presidential candidates also reprised the argument concerning oil drilling in environmentally sensitive parts of Alaska, though with a twist.

Moderator Shaw noted that Cheney, while in Congress, had supported drilling in Alaska while opposing it in his home state of Wyoming. “I think it shows we are in fact trying to show a balanced approach,” Cheney replied, insisting there were differences--among them an existing Alaskan oil infrastructure--between the two locations.

Addressing Gay Rights, Racial Profiling

Gore and Lieberman oppose drilling in the Alaskan wilderness.

On another subject, the candidates were asked to imagine they were black and then consider how they would regard racial profiling. Lieberman said he would be “outraged” if he were a victim and said as president Gore would sign an executive order banning the practice of stopping or arresting individuals on the basis of their skin color.

Cheney also decried the practice but offered no specific proposal for the federal government to end it. “I’d like to answer your question to the best of my ability but I don’t think I can understand fully what it would be like,” he said.

In response to a question about gay rights, Cheney--who has a lesbian daughter--replied, “People should be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to enter into,” but suggested gay marriage was “a tougher problem” that should be decided by states rather than by the federal government.

For his part, Lieberman said gay men and lesbians were “children of the same awesome God just as much as any of the rest of us are.” He said his “mind is open to taking some action” to provide rights to gay couples “while respecting the traditional religious and civil institution of marriage.”

The talk-show style session was held in the fine arts theater of Centre College, a private liberal arts school set among the gently rolling hills of Kentucky’s Bluegrass Country.

Lieberman and Cheney followed divergent paths to get there.

The 58-year-old Connecticut senator made history as the first Jew picked for a major party ticket and has proved a skilled and effervescent campaigner. His surprise selection helped lift Gore in opinion polls and softened somewhat the vice president’s famously stodgy image.

Cheney, 59, also was a surprise pick, having headed Bush’s vice presidential search team. Since then, however, even some fellow Republicans have questioned the wisdom of Bush’s choice. On the trail, Cheney has proved a lackluster campaigner. Worse still, he has spent a good deal of his time on the defensive, over everything from his failure to vote in several elections to his Halliburton package.

But on Thursday night, Cheney displayed a wit that rarely has shined through in most appearances. Surprisingly, he showed few signs of rustiness in this, his first debate since 1988, when he last defended his Wyoming House seat.

Cheney spent 10 years in Congress, departing to become Defense secretary under Bush’s father. Lieberman, in contrast, engages in regular--if more formalized--debates in the Senate, where he has served for more than 11 years.

One of their longest discussions Thursday night revolved around defense and the Middle East.

Cheney restated the Republicans’ argument that the U.S. military has deteriorated under President Clinton’s watch at the same time the administration has pursued an overly venturesome foreign policy. “We’ve overcommitted and we’re under-resourced,” Cheney said.

Lieberman demurred. “I want to assure the American people that the American military is the best trained, best equipped, most powerful force in the world,” he said. “It’s not right and it’s not good for our military to run them down, essentially, in the midst of a partisan political debate.”

“I’m not attacking the military, Joe,” Cheney replied evenly. “But it’s irresponsible to suggest we should not have this debate in a presidential campaign. . . . With all due respect, Joe, this administration has a bad record in this regard.”

On the Middle East, both sought to take credit--and spread blame--for the advances made toward peace and the current impasse in Israeli-Palestinian relations. “Al Gore has played a critical role in advancing that process over the last eight years,” Lieberman said.

But Cheney credited former President Bush for “a significant breakthrough” in the peace process by rolling back the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. He then slapped at Clinton and Gore, who Republicans accuse of constant embellishment. “I think it’s important that we have . . . a president with firm leadership who has the kind of track record of dealing straight with people, of keeping his word so that friend and allies both respect us and adversaries fear us,” Cheney said.

Discussing the continued tensions in Iraq, Cheney said the United States “might have no other choice” but military action to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein if he is found to be developing weapons of mass destruction. Pointedly, Lieberman suggested the Persian Gulf War--which Cheney helped lead as Defense secretary--was not a “total victory” because “Hussein remained there.”

With the running mates having briefly enjoyed the spotlight, attention now shifts back to the top of the ticket. Bush and Gore will debate again Wednesday in Winston-Salem, N.C., and once more Oct. 17 in St. Louis.

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Times staff writers Michael Finnegan, Megan Garvey, Matea Gold and Cathleen Decker contributed to this story.