WASHINGTON — Al Gore came armed with policy memos, George H.W. Bush with jokes and Dan Quayle with requests from Cabinet secretaries. Mike Pence brought plenty of patience.
Though they differed in their tactics, the vice presidents had the same goal — maximizing their office's most valuable hour, a weekly lunch with the president.
For nearly 40 years, these regular lunches were a bedrock ritual of the vice presidency, a precious and low-key 60 minutes for the commander in chief and his No. 2 to catch up, swap gossip and mull strategy. The lunches were among Washington's most tightly guarded meetings, shrouded in mystery that has frustrated chiefs of staff and bedeviled historians. That's because no one else is usually in the room.
