The G.O.P.'s Hillary Clinton
By Ann Blackman
Like most conservatives, Lynne Cheney says Hillary Clinton
drives her crazy. But the two have a lot in common. Each is
smart, educated and controversial. While Hillary inflames people
on the right, those on the left are equally apoplectic about
Cheney, who headed the National Endowment for the Humanities
under the Reagan and Bush administrations. Each has an air of
certitude. When Cheney hosted CNN's now defunct Sunday version
of Crossfire, she once closed with the line "And from the
right--and right on most issues--I'm Lynne Cheney." She will not
be cowed by protocol. "It's not the kind of campaign where they
say, 'Gosh, could you muzzle your wife, Dick?'" she says.
With that kind of attitude, it's not surprising that her NEH
tenure was quite a ride. Under her predecessor, William Bennett,
the agency had waded deep into the culture wars--was Columbus a
hero or a villain?--and Cheney kept the heat turned up. "I
always think I'm just talking good common sense." For every
traditional Endowment-funded project like the public-TV series
The Civil War, there seemed to be just as many that stirred
controversy, like her 50 Hours scholarly report, which set
back-to-basics culture for college students. At the same time,
critics say, she imposed her political views on grant selection.
"She was hostile to anything that was multicultural or
feminist," says Don Gibson, who headed the public-programs
division under Cheney. Friends say the attacks took a toll. "She
expected it, but it always hurts," says ex-arms negotiator Ken
Adelman, a longtime friend.
Like Hillary, she has been criticized for not giving enough
credit to others in her writing. In 1987, while chairwoman of
the Endowment, Cheney published a booklet titled American
Memory, spotlighting how little history teens know. Drawing on
research gathered by an neh-funded advisory panel, Cheney used
her publication to scoop the panel's main researchers, Chester
Finn Jr. and Diane Ravitch, whose book on the subject was to be
published 10 days later. Asked why she did not credit the two,
Cheney replied at the time, "It did not occur to me that this
was necessary." Finn acknowledges the hard feelings. "We were
peeved at each other," he says. "We had done a fair amount of
the heavy lifting." In the Clinton years, Cheney stayed in the
spotlight. One editorial she penned: "Kill My Old Agency, Please."
A great storyteller who lavishes attention on her grandchildren,
Cheney writes potboilers. In one she co-wrote, a Vice President
and former Defense Secretary dies at age 59 of a heart attack
during sex. "Carnal arrest," she dubbed it. She also took a
swipe at the Veep position: "Under the Constitution, the only
thing the job calls for is waiting, waiting for the President to
die or be impeached." Now Lynne Cheney is a woman in competition
to become First-Lady-in-Waiting.
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