Bush's praise could damn Cheney

President Bush yesterday gave a vote of confidence to the vice-president, Dick Cheney, who is facing an investigation into his business practices.

But just as the president's attempts to calm Wall Street last week saw the markets nosedive, this set of remarks only increased the pressure on his deputy. Mr Bush expressed confidence that Mr Cheney would be exonerated by the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the accounting practices of Halliburton, the oil company he ran from 1995 to 2000.

"I've got great confidence in the vice-president. He's doing a heck of a good job. When I picked him, I knew he was a fine business leader and a fine, experienced man," Mr Bush said.

Others are also confident that Mr Cheney will be exonerated by the SEC, but that is largely because it is run by a Bush appointee, Harvey Pitt, who has already been criticised for his lax approach towards corporate fraud.

"The president caused a problem today by wading into the case," said a Democratic party spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri. "Before his comments, the notion that Harvey Pitt was going to conduct an impartial investigation was thin, and I think that the president's comments raise more concerns about the SEC's ability to be objective."

The legal pressure group Judicial Watch has sued Mr Cheney and Halliburton, alleging that they defrauded shareholders by overstating company revenues by nearly $450m. Both the company and the White House have dismissed the claims as groundless.

The president again brushed aside a suggestion that he should ask the SEC to release documents from its 11-year-old inquiry into Mr Bush's timely sale of shares in the energy company Harken, where he was a director. "The key document said there is no case," he said. Then he changed the subject. "The key thing for the American people is to realise that the fundamentals for economic vitality and growth are there," he said.

There is a sense in Washington that though there may well have been improprieties in Mr Bush's dealings, these could be very small beer compared with the goings-on at Halliburton.