15 Minutes with the Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney

During the last few weeks on the 2004 campaign trail, the Vice President granted an interview with Jim Bequette, Intermedia Outdoors Group Editorial Director, and discussed his interest in the outdoors, his thoughts regarding issues related to outdoor activities, and addressed some of the concerns of fishermen and hunters.

Q. Your long-standing relationship with the outdoors and with hunters and fishermen. Did it come from your growing up in Wyoming?

A. It really started a little earlier, born in Lincoln, Nebraska, lived there until I was 13, my first sort of outdoor experience was with an old cane pole and a chunk of line, and a bobber fishing for bullheads with nightcrawlers in Nebraska. My grandfather was an avid fisherman...he used to concoct these god-awful baits for catfish. The more it smelled the better he liked it.

Growing up in Wyoming we fished all the time...fished the North Platte...a lot of small streams up and down the state, Wind River up in Dubois, the Big Horn. Then I also got started hunting as a youngster...remember buying a .22 from Sears & Roebuck when I was probably 14 or 15 years old....hunted everything...shot a lot of rabbits, varmints, prairie dogs, bobcats...never shot anything very big....I became a serious bird hunter about 10 years ago.

Q. What keeps pulling you back to the the hunting fields and fishing streams. What is it about the outdoor experience?

A. It's something about the western heritage and setting. Look at a state like Wyoming...it is so big.....relatively few people, which frankly is the way we like it. I was a congressman there for 10 years...know every nook and cranny. Part of the history and heritage that goes with it. The deep belief that to some extent was the norm for nearly everybody...not as many of us do it (fish and hunt) now as did it then at least on a percentage basis. I love the setting where you get to do it. I like the people you do it with, developed some great friendships over the years as a result of my fishing and hunting adventures. For me, given my career, spent most of it in politics, in public life--everything from being a staffer on the Hill to being Secretary of Defense during the Gulf War to being the Vice President--getting out with a shotgun or fly rod...whether it's hunting pheasants in South Dakota or quail in South Texas or up on the South Fork of Snake (River) where I fish a lot in Idaho...(I appreciate it even more).

To do it well, you have to concentrate, focus on skills, on the equipment, on people you are doing it with....whatever game it is you're after. The best way I know of to take the daily cares of the world, the problems that I worry about most of the time, and set (them) aside. You can't do those activities really well...you can do them but you can't do them very well unless you concentrate. And when you concentrate on that it really lets you set aside, if you will, the other concerns that are part of our normal daily lives.

It's always been an important part of my life. I still do it every chance I get. I get some great invitations in this job. Unfortunately, the job interferes with some of my normal hunting and fishing trips.

Q. Talk about your friendship with former Senator Alan Simpson R-WY, who is also an avid supporter of hunters and fishermen.

A. I knew who he was by reputation. His dad had been the governor and senator. I met him initially when he was a member of the Wyoming state legislature about 1965 and I was an intern in the state senate. Then in 1977, I had gone home to Wyoming after the Ford Administration. I thought about running for Congress myself and first position that came open was the Senate seat and Al was running for it. I went down and talked to Governor Hathaway at the time...consulted him and what I should do....thinking of running for the Senate, and he said, 'you could do that, but if you do, Alan Simpson will beat your butt.' I wisely chose the House, both (of us) ran, and we both won...that was 26 years ago.

Over the years we just got to be very close, battling political wars, if you will. In Washington, Al was Republican whip in the Senate and I eventually became Republican whip in the House...worked together with leadership....(it was) unusual for small state like Wyoming to have people in those positions. He (Al) always came out and campaigned for me...he didn't have to. Our families are very close. I still talk to him probably every other week. We've hunted quail in South Texas and fished in Wyoming...We've had a lot of fun over the years. We do it (hunt and fish) whenever we get the chance.