IF A BODY MEET A BODY:

Desperately Seeking Dick Cheney (RICK LYMAN, 9/19/04, NY Times)

They say that most stalkers imagine themselves to be the victim, and I guess I'm no different.

My first look at Vice President Dick Cheney was from a baking lawn on Ellis Island as he made his grand entrance into New York on a National Park Service tugboat, waving to the sweating crowd. I was just part of the small pack of reporters watching as he posed before the backdrop of Lower Manhattan, my first day on Cheney duty.

The vice president travels on Air Force Two, a tech-packed wide-body with private areas in the front, a Secret Service buffer in the middle and a media cabin in the back. A crew of about 10 reporters flies with him, representing all the networks, the wire services and two or three newspapers. There are snacks, cable television and camaraderie.

But there is not a seat for me.

Nor has there been a seat for the previous two New York Times reporters sent to cover the vice president. I am told not to take this personally. Nor, I am told, is this intended as a slight against the paper, which normally maintains a seat (paid for handsomely) on all campaign planes, presidential and vice-presidential.

Frankly, there are some colleagues who suspect that antipathy toward the newspaper may be behind it. Anne Womack, the vice president's chief spokeswoman, says such suspicions are baseless. There simply are not enough seats for all of the press, and other publications got their names on the list before us. If someone drops out, they'll let me know.

So, I stalk: Flying commercial, I hopscotch around the country, booking my own flights, trying to keep one step ahead of Mr. Cheney. I make it to at least one of the vice president's campaign events every day, more if the schedule permits. At each stop I'm swept by agents, sniffed by dogs and grab myself a seat in the press pen. (Those reporters on Air Force Two are swept once, at the beginning of the day, and never leave the security bubble.)

The truth is, it's a weird kind of gift to a reporter.

It's inside baseball from wall to wall but a very nicely turned piece by a good-natured Mr. Lyman. If they ran more like this--and fired the editorial staff--there might be room on the plane.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 18, 2004 4:43 PM