Washington Post Expose - The Cheney Vice Presidency, Part 3: "A Strong Push From Back Stage"

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/a_strong_push_from_back_stage/index.html

A Strong Push From Back Stage
By Jo Becker and Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, June 26, 2007; Page A01

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Cheney led a group that winnowed the president's list of potential Supreme Court nominees. Cheney resolved a crisis in the space program after the Columbia shuttle disaster. Cheney fashioned a controversial truce between the legislative and executive branches -- and averted resignations at the top of the Justice Department and the FBI -- over the right of law enforcement authorities to investigate political corruption in Congress.

And it was Cheney who served as the guardian of conservative orthodoxy on budget and tax matters. He shaped and pushed through Bush's tax cuts, blunting the influence of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, a longtime friend, and of Cabinet rivals he had played a principal role in selecting. He managed to overcome the president's "compassionate conservative" resistance to multiple breaks for the wealthy. He even orchestrated a decision to let a GOP senator switch parties -- giving control of the chamber to Democrats -- rather than meet the senator's demand for billions of dollars in new spending.

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It is well known that Cheney is usually the last to speak to the president before Bush makes a decision. Less so is his role, to a degree unmatched by his predecessors, in steering debate by weighing in at the lower-level meetings where proposals are born and die.

Cheney, Bolten said, is a vocal participant at a weekly luncheon meeting of Bush's economic team, which gathers without the president. As the most senior official in the room, Cheney receives great deference from Bush's advisers.

Wise officials vet their proposals in advance. White House budget director Rob Portman, for instance, sought Cheney's counsel as he was putting together the budget for the upcoming year, using him as a "sounding board" on issues as varied as defense spending and tax reform.

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Perhaps more important than Cheney's influence in pushing policies is his power to stop them before they reach the Oval Office.

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at its finest.

He can't even control his own vice president who has set up this elaborate shadow government right under bush's nose. And he doesn't even have the cojones to stand up to it and slap cheney back into place. Hell, he ain't Mr big macho texas cowboy at all - he's a scared little mama's boy who needs a daddy figure to prop him up.

I think the Dems need to jump on this and begin to make fun of bush as the weak leader he is. Nothing will push him over the edge quicker given how he likes to see himself.