Each has an air of certitude. She will not be cowed by protocol. With that kind of attitude, it's not surprising that her NEH tenure was quite a ride. I always think I'm just talking good common sense. At the same time, critics say, she imposed her political views on grant selection.
Friends say the attacks took a toll.
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. Finn acknowledges the hard feelings. We had done a fair amount of the heavy lifting.