The selection of former Rep. Dick Cheney (R-Wyo.) to be Texas Gov. George W. Bush's (R) running mate triggered a spate of profiles in major newspapers. Most mentioned that he had come to Washington first on a fellowship, occasionally referred to as a "Congressional fellowship."

A bit of clarification (and parochial pride): Dick Cheney came to Washington in 1968 and began his stellar career in public policy as an American Political Science Association Congressional fellow. Cheney had been a graduate student in political science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, had finished his coursework for a Ph.D. and was preparing to write a dissertation in legislative politics. He took a year to come to Washington, a route taken by many young political scientists (and journalists, by the way,) and, sadly for political science, never looked back.

Cheney was a fellow in 1968-69. I came to Washington as an APSA Congressional fellow the very next year, along with Tom Mann of the Brookings Institution; Curtis Willkie of the Boston Globe; Tom Daffron, former chief of staff to Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.); Hugh Heclo of George Mason University; and a raft of others.

I met Cheney then. He had worked for the late Bill Steiger (R) of Wisconsin, one of the best Members of all time. Cheney came to the attention of then-Rep. Don Rumsfeld (R) of Illinois and stayed on after the fellowship to work for Rumsfeld at the Office of Economic Opportunity, the agency created by President Lyndon B. Johnson to fight the war on poverty and continued under Richard Nixon.

Even as a young man, Cheney impressed Steiger and Rumsfeld with his maturity, intelligence, discretion, loyalty and unflappability. To meet him was to know he would be big stuff someday. The APSA Congressional Fellowship had provided the springboard to even bigger stuff than he or we imagined.

Of course, we all know now the path of Cheney's career. From OEO, he went to the White House to be assistant director of the Cost of Living Council. When Gerald Ford became president, he named Rumsfeld as his chief of staff; Rumsfeld in turn brought in his protege, Cheney, as his deputy.

When Rumsfeld went to the Cabinet, Cheney, at age 34, replaced him as White House chief of staff. By all accounts he was a superb one, understanding management and politics and operating with skill and discretion. Despite his youth, he wielded authority effectively, and never let his ego alienate other actors, whether they were Cabinet officers, other staffers or Members of Congress.

After Ford lost, Cheney began his own political career, getting elected to Wyoming's lone House seat in 1978, moving into a major leadership position, chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, in 1981, then elected Minority Whip in 1988. He would certainly have been elected Leader, and probably become Speaker, if not for his selection as secretary of Defense in 1989.

Cheney's overall success has come because of his prodigious talents. His political success in the Republican Party has come because he combined firm and consistent bedrock conservative politics with a warm, affable and straightforward personality, and with a reverence for the institutions of government and the people who populate them.

That enabled Cheney to win support now from House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) as he had won kudos and respect from then-Rep. Tom Foley (D-Wash.) during their times together in the House. From DeLay to Foley--that's quite a spread. In the House, and before that in the White House, and after that in the Defense Department, Cheney was a tough and thorough partisan, but in the best sense.

He never vilified his adversaries, never tried to criminalize policy differences, never tried to run down his own institution or his colleagues. He was always straightforward and honest, and always exuded that quiet competence that first became apparent to a broader group of voters during the Persian Gulf War.

Cheney's voting record was never focused on much by Democrats during his time in the House, in part because there was no chance he could be challenged in any way in Wyoming. It will be a bigger issue now. While it will probably have little effect on swing voters--it will be hard for anyone to look at and listen to Cheney and be frightened, or think of him as a wild-eyed radical--the story may be a different one with some of the Democrats' base.

Cheney's unwavering conservative record, including his votes on South Africa and Nelson Mandela, may energize some African-American voters and may convince a few on the left to vote for Vice President Al Gore instead of the Green Party's Ralph Nader. But the impact will likely be small and marginal; people vote for president, not vice president.

The bigger story now, at least for my purposes, is that the American Political Science Association Congressional Fellowship was his springboard to remarkable success. The CFP has its first national candidate.

The program already has Members--Reps. Steve Horn (R-Calif.) and Bob Filner (D-Calif.) served as fellows. So did a host of top journalists, major scholars, ambassadors and other public servants, and some major leaders in countries around the world. I am now chairman of the Congressional Fellowship Advisory Committee. The 1999-2000 fellows are wrapping up their years right now.

The 2000-01 class of fellows will be making the rounds of Congressional offices this fall. Memo to Members: Pay close attention if one comes by to interview for a slot in your office.

Treat him or her well: You may be seeing a future Speaker, or even a future president.