Stage set for vice president's visit

The Daily Inter Lake

Vice President Dick Cheney is due to arrive Wednesday in the Flathead Valley for a campaign event in Whitefish on behalf of Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.

Cheney will arrive at Glacier Park International Airport at about noon, proceeding to a luncheon at the Lodge at Whitefish Lake, where he will speak, then leave the Flathead at 2:25 p.m. for Boise, Idaho.

"We're planning on just about 150 people for the lunch," said Sarah Pompei, spokeswoman for the Burns campaign.

Those attending will include Burns, Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., and former Montana Gov. Stan Stephens, along with state GOP officials and local Republican lawmakers.

The Burns campaign has scheduled a series of stops in Northwest Montana around the tightly scheduled Whitefish event that is being coordinated by the vice president's office.

Burns will be in Libby this morning, and this afternoon he will accept an endorsement from the Montana Chamber of Commerce at Western Outdoor on Main Street in Kalispell. That event starts at 2:15 p.m.

He will travel to Polson for a Friends of Conrad Burns picnic at Butcher Park. After the lunch in Whitefish, Burns is scheduled to travel to Great Falls, while Cheney will go on to Boise to campaign for GOP congressional candidate Bill Sali.