Where's Cheney?

By James Carney

The question won't go away, thanks to Saturday Night Live parodies and columnists like the New York Times's Thomas Friedman, who last week scolded the Veep for his "continued cave dwelling." Is he really in hiding? For much of last week, according to Mary Matalin, Cheney's political counselor, he was in plain sight in Washington, living at the Vice President's mansion with his wife, even working out of his office in the West Wing of the White House. "It's just silly," she says of the calls for her boss to emerge. "I guess he'll have to run a marathon or something to prove he's not hiding out." So why the widespread impression that he is? One reason is that since Sept. 11, his whereabouts are not announced to the press, for security reasons. And when President Bush is in town, Cheney leaves the White House to work from a separate location--essentially an office, with state-of-the-art communications equipment. Cheney sometimes spends the night there. But, Matalin points out, "it's not a bunker. It's aboveground."

--By James Carney