Lynne Cheney To Resume Career

Friday, January 5th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) â€” After her husband is sworn in as vice president later this month, Lynne Cheney plans to return to a job at a Washington think tank and will serve on the board of two corporations, according to a published report.

``It wouldn't make sense that, having had a career for my entire life ... that somehow overnight I would turn into a pumpkin or something,'' she said in an interview published Friday in USA Today.

Cheney said she would return to the boards of Reader's Digest and American Express Mutual Funds. However, her career plans could raise concerns about possible conflicts of interest.

Larry Makinson of the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group that follows the connections between money and politics, noted that American Express ``is a very politically sensitive company.''

``The cleanest solution is to just get off the boards,'' he said.

A lawyer for the Bush-Cheney transition, David Addington, said the arrangement was legal and proper and said ``marriage to an elected official shouldn't be a handicap or vow of seclusion.''

The newspaper said Cheney, 59, will not return to two other corporate boards â€” defense contractor Lockheed Martin and Exide, a company that makes batteries. Cheney cited concerns about time, not possible conflict interests.

She took leaves of absence when her husband, Dick Cheney, became George W. Bush's running mate.

Cheney said she would return to the American Enterprise Institute as a resident scholar and will finish a book on education reform.