Cheney (Rose Palmisano/Orange County Register via AP)Former Vice President Dick Cheney will host a high-priced fundraiser for Mitt Romney at his Wyoming home Thursday night.
The $30,000-a-couple dinner at Cheney's home outside of Jackson Hole will follow a reception at the fancy Teton Pines country club nearby. Together, the two events are expected to raise more than $2 million for the Romney campaign.
The evening represents Cheney's "grandest gesture to pass a torch to Romney," says the Washington Post. But it also draws attention to Romney's "complicated and not always comfortable" relationship with the last Republican administration.
The Associated Press says Romney rarely appears in public with Cheney or with former President George W. Bush, and even goes out of his way at times to avoid saying Bush's name out loud, simply calling him President Obama's "predecessor."
Romney advisers characterize his relationship with Cheney as cordial, though not particularly close, and say there's little evidence of Cheney's influence on Romney's policies.
Still, Romney has on occasion voiced his admiration for Cheney, who remains a popular figure within conservative circles — and a polarizing one outside them.
Back in September 2011, Romney said that when it comes time to choose a vice president, he'd pick someone like Cheney.
"That's the kind of person I'd like to have--a person of wisdom and judgment," Romney told a crowd in Arizona.
