Bush Defends Cheney in Face of SEC Probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush ( news - web sites) said on Wednesday he was confident a federal probe of Halliburton Co. would show Vice President Dick Cheney ( news - web sites) did nothing wrong while serving as chief executive, prompting Democrats to charge the remarks could taint the investigation.

Asked whether he was confident the Securities and Exchange Commission ( news - web sites), which is investigating Halliburton's procedures in accounting for cost overruns, would find Cheney did nothing wrong while chief executive of the oil services company, Bush told a news conference: "Yes, I am."

"That matter will run its course, the Halliburton investigation, and the facts will come out at some point in time," Bush said.

"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, and he's doing a great job," Bush said.

Cheney, regarded as one of Bush's steadiest hands and most influential advisers, is likely to weather the still-open probe and any questions over his tenure at Halliburton from 1995 to 2000, analysts said.

But they said the business records of Bush, Cheney and other former corporate chiefs in the Bush administration are not the political assets they had been as Bush seeks to crack down on corporate malfeasance he attributes to excesses of the 1990s.