Bush Picks Cheney as Defense Secretary

WASHINGTON--President Bush yesterday named Rep. Richard Cheney (R-Wyo.) to be defense secretary, moving with surprising speed to leave behind the controversy caused by John G. Tower's rejection by the Senate.

Leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee quickly issued a statement praising Cheney and said confirmation hearings would begin next week.

Bush hailed Cheney as a "widely respected man of principle," and dismissed the Tower saga by saying, "Look that's history."

Bush said he expected Cheney would win confirmation "very fast."

Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole quickly hailed the appointment in a barbed comment that reflected the bitterness lingering from the Tower confirmation struggle.

"He's tough. That's what we wanted... tough, tough, tough guy," he said of Cheney. "This time it will be a confirmation, not an execution."

Cheney, 48, is a sixth-term conservative congressman from Wyoming who served as White House chief of staff in the Ford Administration in the mid-1970s.

"Obviously things have moved very quickly in the last 24 hours," Cheney said in referring to Bush's swift, overnight search for a replacement candidate for Tower. "I did agonize. It was not an easy decision."

Tower's nomination was killed on Thursday on a near party line vote of 53-47 in the Democratic-controlled Senate. He was defeated by concerns over his drinking habits, his relationships with women and his work as a paid defense industry consultant after leaving government service.

Bush repeated his earlier accusations that Tower had been unfairly treated during his losing campaign for confirmation, but expressed an eagerness not to dwell on the rejection. He said Democratic leaders in the Senate "had given their word" that they were willing to cooperate with the new administration.

But even as Bush reached out, Vice President Dan Quayle turned up the heat and accused Senate Democrats of engaging in "a McCarthyite mudslinging campaign" against Tower and waging an "assault on the powers of the presidency."

Bush turned aside questions about Quayle's remarks by saying he hadn't read them. "So I can't tell you whether he speaks for me. I speak for myself. He speaks for himself."

Bush thus moved to put the Tower defeat him swiftly--and if the speed was a surprise, so was the selection.

Cheney's name had not figured in any of the speculation that arose in the hours after Tower's rejection. But the nomination quickly drew praise from the Senate, which will vote on his confirmation.

Sen. Tim Wirth (D-Colo.) said, "He's a very able and impressive person. He's one of the smartest people in Congress."

"An excellent choice," said Sen. Charles Robb, the freshman from Virginia who was one of the last Democrats to announce his opposition to Tower.

In a joint statement issued by Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), the Senate Armed Services committee chairman, and Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the committee's ranking Republican, the senators said Cheney "is well known and highly respected by the members of the Senate. We have worked with him on many issues involving national defense and intelligence matters."

The senators said hearings will begin next week and the committee's work will be completed "as expeditiously as possible consistent with the president and the nominee providing the requisite background and financial material and consistent with thoroughness and fairness."