Dick Cheney: Vice-President or Uber-President
Bob Williams
July 14, 2007
Dick Cheney has redefined the role of the Vice-President. Many observers have noted that Cheney plays a more prominent role in the administration than any Vice-President in history. Even so, few knew just how much power he has wielded until the data were pulled together and documented in a four-part series published by the Washington Post.
John Adams, elected our first Vice-President, said, "My country has, in its wisdom, contrived for me the most insignificant office ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived." Franklin D. Roosevelt’s two-term Vice-President, John Nance Garner, used a more evocative phrase when he said the vice presidency wasn’t worth “a warm bucket of spit.” Dick Cheney has changed that entirely, but whether the new bucket is more odious or less is still to be decided.
When George W. Bush decided to run for the presidency his father, the first President Bush, contacted an old friend, Dick Cheney, to tutor his son in the ways of Washington. Bad mistake. Cheney knew how to exercise power within the Washington bureaucracy but was far to the right of the senior Bush on many matters of policy. Undoubtedly he tutored young George well, but young George, as we all know, is not a “detail man” as it is so charitably put. He operates at the big picture level, whatever that may mean. Bush solved this problem – or did Cheney? – by selecting Cheney as his vice-presidential running mate.
Cheney quickly established himself as the gatekeeper to the President, the normal role of the chief of staff. Data and analyses flowing up to the President seldom go directly to Bush; they go to Cheney’s office. He decides what goes to the President, and he lets very little information go back down the chain. This applies, surprisingly enough, to the President’s cabinet members. When cabinet officers meet with the President, Cheney is normally there and has briefed the President from his own point of view. Bush may be the ultimate “decider” but many presidential directives have been written by Cheney, many choices made from a list of alternatives vetted by and narrowed down by Cheney.
In the month after the 9/11 attack a Bush order stripped terrorist suspects of access to any court and permitted military detention indefinitely without charge. No one knew until recently that this was the work of Cheney with the help of his attorney, David Addington. In this case, as in so many cases to this day, Cheney left no fingerprints; he operated where he always prefers – below the radar of public awareness.
It is not fair to say that Bush always does as Cheney wants; the recent Supreme Court appointment is an example. Cheney had prepared a list of suitable candidates, a slate from which the President was to pick. But Bush, known to value loyalty, decided to advance the name of the attorney he had worked with so long in Texas, Harriet Miers. This caught Cheney off-guard; Bush had ignored the approved list. It also caught many others in the Republican establishment off-guard and the nomination had to be withdrawn. Bush then selected from the approved list.
Cheney, while enlarging his own power, has enlarged the power of the President even more. This enlargement of powers, under Cheney’s direction, began in earnest after 9/11. This included the secret decision to intercept communications without court approval, forbidden by law since 1978. It included the internment of suspected terrorists beyond the court system. It included a redefinition of torture, giving the President the power to decide what torture was and how the Geneva Convention treaty was to be interpreted.
Cheney, with the help of legal advisors -- Addington, Gonzales and others – has helped craft “signing statements” to over 750 laws. After Bush signed bills into law he quietly filed the signing statements in the Federal Register asserting in effect that he, not the courts, would interpret the laws and ignore those he saw fit to ignore. This goes beyond anything any one has imagined as presidential power. This begins to look like the power of a powerful, inherited monarchy – exactly what a republic is not.
This sheds light on our original question, is Cheney a vice-president or a super-president (uber-president). The answer is neither – he is a Regent.
The post of Regent was important in the days of absolute monarchies. The Regent is "A person appointed to administer a State because the Monarch is a minor, is absent or is incapacitated" (Oxford English Dictionary). Not only has Cheney acted in all ways as a Regent but he has expanded presidential powers to be appropriate to his regency. Our founding fathers would be appalled.
John Adams, elected our first Vice-President, said, "My country has, in its wisdom, contrived for me the most insignificant office ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived." Franklin D. Roosevelt’s two-term Vice-President, John Nance Garner, used a more evocative phrase when he said the vice presidency wasn’t worth “a warm bucket of spit.” Dick Cheney has changed that entirely, but whether the new bucket is more odious or less is still to be decided.
When George W. Bush decided to run for the presidency his father, the first President Bush, contacted an old friend, Dick Cheney, to tutor his son in the ways of Washington. Bad mistake. Cheney knew how to exercise power within the Washington bureaucracy but was far to the right of the senior Bush on many matters of policy. Undoubtedly he tutored young George well, but young George, as we all know, is not a “detail man” as it is so charitably put. He operates at the big picture level, whatever that may mean. Bush solved this problem – or did Cheney? – by selecting Cheney as his vice-presidential running mate.
Cheney quickly established himself as the gatekeeper to the President, the normal role of the chief of staff. Data and analyses flowing up to the President seldom go directly to Bush; they go to Cheney’s office. He decides what goes to the President, and he lets very little information go back down the chain. This applies, surprisingly enough, to the President’s cabinet members. When cabinet officers meet with the President, Cheney is normally there and has briefed the President from his own point of view. Bush may be the ultimate “decider” but many presidential directives have been written by Cheney, many choices made from a list of alternatives vetted by and narrowed down by Cheney.
In the month after the 9/11 attack a Bush order stripped terrorist suspects of access to any court and permitted military detention indefinitely without charge. No one knew until recently that this was the work of Cheney with the help of his attorney, David Addington. In this case, as in so many cases to this day, Cheney left no fingerprints; he operated where he always prefers – below the radar of public awareness.
It is not fair to say that Bush always does as Cheney wants; the recent Supreme Court appointment is an example. Cheney had prepared a list of suitable candidates, a slate from which the President was to pick. But Bush, known to value loyalty, decided to advance the name of the attorney he had worked with so long in Texas, Harriet Miers. This caught Cheney off-guard; Bush had ignored the approved list. It also caught many others in the Republican establishment off-guard and the nomination had to be withdrawn. Bush then selected from the approved list.
Cheney, while enlarging his own power, has enlarged the power of the President even more. This enlargement of powers, under Cheney’s direction, began in earnest after 9/11. This included the secret decision to intercept communications without court approval, forbidden by law since 1978. It included the internment of suspected terrorists beyond the court system. It included a redefinition of torture, giving the President the power to decide what torture was and how the Geneva Convention treaty was to be interpreted.
Cheney, with the help of legal advisors -- Addington, Gonzales and others – has helped craft “signing statements” to over 750 laws. After Bush signed bills into law he quietly filed the signing statements in the Federal Register asserting in effect that he, not the courts, would interpret the laws and ignore those he saw fit to ignore. This goes beyond anything any one has imagined as presidential power. This begins to look like the power of a powerful, inherited monarchy – exactly what a republic is not.
This sheds light on our original question, is Cheney a vice-president or a super-president (uber-president). The answer is neither – he is a Regent.
The post of Regent was important in the days of absolute monarchies. The Regent is "A person appointed to administer a State because the Monarch is a minor, is absent or is incapacitated" (Oxford English Dictionary). Not only has Cheney acted in all ways as a Regent but he has expanded presidential powers to be appropriate to his regency. Our founding fathers would be appalled.
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