Time to outline the fallout from the vice president's latest attempt to justify keeping his activities and records secret.
In order to circumvent a rule that the National Archives be allowed access to classified documents to ensure that they are properly handled, he famously asserted that since his office has legislative functions, it is not part of the executive branch and is not subject to those rules. This has been going on for several years. Officers from the National Archives apparently went to the vice president's office to pick up the records and were prevented from entering. Mr. Cheney has since attempted to have the National Archives disbanded in order to get them off his back.
My first impression, and I can so easily be underestimating him, is that this is a gross miscalculation. This claim is so patently silly that it will rally opposition to him. He just looks ridiculous and has negated the fear and leverage he had used to silence potential opponents. I wonder if he still had the services of Scooter Libby if this would have happened. Fallout like this is what quality aides are there to prevent.
The floodgates are now open though and critics are becoming more vocal. Analyses of the role of the vice president over the course of this administration are also more frequent. The most interesting is a series of articles now being published by the Washington Post. The authors suggest that Cheney has been at the heart of the most important of the president's policies over his term of office. Cheney is described as detail oriented and technical, Bush less so. Presentations to Cheney are more precise than those given to the president. He is also secretive in order to hide his influence--which helps make him stronger. He's the unseen force making things happen. This is why he guard his privacy and does what he can to keep his actions secret.
Cheney is said to see his office as the de facto chief of staff for the president meaning that he is the gatekeeper that says what goes forward and what does not: "The president is "the decider," as Bush puts it, but the vice president often serves up his menu of choices."
It is difficult to read the article and not come to the conclusion that Cheney runs the show. This might be unfair, and maybe untrue at the end of the day, but that's how it seems
