"Bush's choice of Richard Cheney to be his vice presidential running mate has raised the question of whether the G.O.P. will be renamed the Grand Oil Party. Both Bush and Cheney are tied to Big Oil, but Cheney is awash in it."(Ben A. Franklin, Editor, The Washington Spectator, September 1, 2000).

"Cheney, of course, was Bush the Elder's Secretary of Defense, not only overseeing the Gulf War but also hundreds of billions of dollars in Pentagon handouts to Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, and other military contractors - including one called Haliburton Company, the global oil services and construction conglomerate that also owns Brown & Root and Dresser Industries.

Losing his government job in 1993, Cheney soon found his way through Washington's revolving door to become CEO of Haliburton, which had hit a gusher of federal funds in the form of contracts to put out the hundreds of oil-well fires dotting Kuwait at the end of the Gulf War.

Not that cheney actually ran the company. Cheif operating officer David Lesar did that; Cheney's role was to drum up more lucrative business as Halliburton's front man and globe-trotting rainmaker.

He was quickly able to put his Pentagon procurement knowledge and contacts to work for his new corporate chums, zooming Halliburton from number 73 on the Defense Department's list of money recipients to number 18. Thanks to Dick, the company is now the benificiary of $3.8 billion a year in U.S. taxpayer largesse.

As a result of his dealings with assorted potentates during his Gulf War period, Cheney also had many useful pals in several foreign governments. As one industry analyst told USA Today, before Cheney came aboard, Halliburton executives 'would fly over [to Arab nations] and meet some third cousin twice removed. Now they meet the king of the country.'

Today, 70% of Halliburton's business is outside the U.S. Among the contracts that the company has gained abroad during Cheny's tenure are two with Baghdad! That's right - the U.S. official who oversaw the destruction of Iraq's oil production capability in 1991 has since been doing business with that nasty old Saddam to rebuild that country's oil-production capability.

Despite all of his globe-trotting, however, Cheney's time as CEO was not all that successful for the company, and for the last two years Halliburton has failed to meet its financial goals. Cheney also presidedover a major down-sizing last year, cutting 10,000 jobs and reducing the medical benefits of the company's retireees.

But one employee who has made out just fine, thank you, is Dick himself! He's become wealthy in his five years as CEO. Last year alone, his paycheck from Halliburton totalled $26.4 million (he also, by the way, drew $280,000 in pay just for being on the boards of Proctor & Gamble, EDS, and Union Pacific). In addition, he's been awarded Halliburton stock options that are presently valued at $39 million.

Then there's Dick's golden parachute. He's had to resign to run for veep, but the company - in a gesture of pure altruism that has nothing to do with the fact that he might become vice president and be in the position to help Halliburton a whole lot (let's invade Iraq again!) - is giving Cheney a $20 million farewell package. included is not one but two pensions for the guy who cut benefits for ordinary Halliburton workers and who wants to privatize Social Security.

Cheney is the perfect poster boy for corporate excess - down-sizing, CEO greed, cronyism in government...you name it. What a shame we don't have a Democratic ticket that would want to make this an issue."(Jim Hightower and Phillip Frazer, Editors, The Hightower Lowdown, September 2000).

"In a Bush administration, what role would Cheney play in a necessary but tough-on-oil government decision? He would either have to stand clear of such policy considerations or face the prospect of a Clinton-style investigation for conflict of interest by Congressional investigators, or maybe - à la Clinton - by grand jury." (Ben A. Franklin, Editor, The Washington Spectator, September 1, 2000).

In other news, "Chevron [has] named one of their oil tankers, the Condoleezza Rice,, after Geroge W. Bush's foreign-policy adviser." (From On the Trail from page 27 of the September 2, 2000 edition of The Economist).