Robert Kuttner says what the MSM refuses to report.
Historically, the vice president’s job was to ceremonially preside over the Senate, attend second-tier foreign funerals, and be prepared for the president to die. Students are taught that John Nance Garner, Franklin Roosevelt’s first vice president, compared the job to a bucket of warm spit (and historians say spit was not the word the pungent Texan actually used).
Recent vice presidents Walter Mondale and Al Gore were given more authority than most, but there was no doubt that the president was in charge.
Cheney is in a class by himself. The administration’s grand strategy and its implementation are the work of Cheney– sometimes Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, sometimes Cheney and political director Karl Rove.
Cheney has planted aides in major Cabinet departments, often over the objection of a Cabinet secretary, to make sure his policies are carried out. He sits in on the Senate Republican caucus, to stamp out any rebellions. Cheney loyalists from the Office of the Vice President dominate interagency planning meetings.
The Iraq war is the work of Cheney and Rumsfeld. The capture of the career civil service is pure Cheney. The disciplining of Congress is the work of Cheney and Rove. The turning over of energy policy to the oil companies is Cheney. The extreme secrecy is Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
I will grant Robert Kuttner that Cheney has carved out an unprecedented role for himself, but I will also say that G.W. Bush has been without precedent the least politically qualified modern president. Nature abhors a vacuum.
Interesting.
http://uvgarden.blogspot.com
In the future, I believe historians will refer to the Bush/Cheney period as America’s Medieval Age.
It was pretty obvious from the beginning that GW Bush was just a useful idiot that the unelectable neocons could put out front to get elected.
Nixon virtually ran the show for Ike, and it was down to him that Cuba turned communist, having been turned down flat by Nixon for aid once they had kicked out the mob-run government they had. Nixon probably acted under the influence of J Edgar (the mob have got a phot of me in drag) Hoover.
They tried that in this country with John Major, but he turned out to have more balls than he looked.
In the future, I believe historians will refer to the Bush/Cheney period as America’s Medieval Age.
Dark Ages, more like it. We need a Renaissance, toot sweet.
Great. Now, just impeach and convict Bush and then you’ll have Cheney as President for real!
You know, with a Democratic majority in the House and Senate, I wouldn’t mind that so much. Two checks and balances would be better than none (what we have now). And if cheney were president, even for a little while, it would at least be him out in front instead of hiding behind W and leeting him take the fall for everything Cheney dreams up.
Plus, I don’t think his shriveled-up black hole of a heart would take the strain.
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