Tuesday, October 28, 2008
(BN): `Cheney Diet' Decided What Facts, Opinions Landed on Bush's Plate: Books
-----
`Cheney Diet' Decided What Facts Landed on Bush's Plate: Books
2008-10-23 04:01:00.10 GMT
Review by Celestine Bohlen
Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- In picking Dick Cheney as his
running mate in 2000, George W. Bush made a momentous
decision for his presidency. The choice, tellingly, wasn't
entirely his own.
In ``Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency,'' Washington
Post reporter Barton Gellman describes in convincing new
detail how Cheney, tapped to run the vice presidential
selection committee, wound up getting himself selected
instead.
``Amid stealth and misdirection, with visible
formalities obscuring the action offstage, Cheney served as
producer for Bush's first presidential decision,'' says
Gellman, who co-wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning series on
Cheney last year. ``Somewhere along the way, he stepped
aside as head of casting, taking the part of Bush's running
mate before anyone really auditioned.''
Candidates for the job had included Frank Keating,
then governor of Oklahoma; Lamar Alexander, a former
secretary of education and now a senator from Tennessee;
and Tom Ridge, then governor of Pennsylvania.
Bush, who prides himself on his intuitive judgments of
people, didn't interview any of the nominal candidates
before he settled on Cheney, Gellman writes. It's not known
if Bush reviewed the answers the others gave to 200
questions about every conceivable aspect of their lives,
from their public record to their private finances and
medical history.
Cheney provided none of this personal data, Gellman
says, writing that even his health check was a whitewash,
submitted by a Texas surgeon who had never examined him.
Cheney went on to have eight cardiac events in eight years,
the author says.
Filtering Information
The way Cheney handled the selection process was the
first example of what Gellman calls ``the Cheney Diet,'' a
reference to how the vice president controlled what went
onto Bush's plate. On an extraordinary range of issues,
Cheney and his staff, most notably his legal counsel David
Addington, set out to filter information, opinions and
decisions that in other presidencies went straight to the
Oval Office, the author shows.
The picture of stealth presented in the book is at
times staggering. Gellman piles up examples: Memos between
top government offices were copied to Cheney's staff
without the knowledge of the authors, he writes. Cheney
corralled low-level bureaucrats to fight environmental
protection measures, he adds, while Cheney and his
congressional allies also inserted a cut in the capital-
gains tax -- favored by Cheney and opposed by Bush --into
the 2003 tax cut bill as the legislation emerged from the
House of Representatives.
``Cheney's brief, all in all, encompassed most of the
core concerns of any president,'' Gellman writes.
``Angler'' reads like a series of detailed case
studies, and Cheney emerges as a savvy, sometimes vengeful
master of the Washington game -- a man who used his
influence to redefine the U.S. presidency, giving it powers
that most constitutional experts denied it had.
Wiretaps Without Warrants
An early test came with a directive Addington drafted
after the Sept. 11 attacks. The document asserted the
president's authority to sanction warrantless wiretaps on
U.S. citizens.
Three years later, this program led to a showdown,
grippingly described by Gellman, at the hospital bedside of
then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. It ended after a
resignation threat by FBI Director Robert Mueller and
several top Justice Department officials prompted a
startled Bush to reverse his decision by giving the
attorney general the right to certify wiretap requests.
Unlike other reporters, Gellman doesn't argue that
Cheney usurped the presidency outright. He tells of times
when, as he puts it, Bush grabbed back the steering wheel.
`Anti-Politician'
He also brushes off accusations that Cheney secretly
operated on behalf of Halliburton Co., the Houston-based
oilfield-services company where he had been chairman. He
shows respect for Cheney's abilities to listen, probe,
encourage debate and absorb dense government reports.
Cheney, he writes, is an ``anti-politician'' who is
largely indifferent to polls and the news media. What he
cares about most is the supremacy of the executive branch,
whose power he has sought to deploy in defense of the
country -- and of itself.
As the Bush administration drew to a close, Cheney's
power faded; he was lampooned as a sinister force, a kind
of Darth Vader with a permanently lopsided sneer.
Gellman gives a last word to Texas Republican Dick
Armey, the former House majority leader who said in 2002
that Cheney misled him in the run-up to the Iraq war, an
accusation Cheney has denied.
Usually, said Armey, vice presidents become footnotes
to history. In the case of the Bush-Cheney team, he told
Gellman, both will be dealt with ``unkindly in almost equal
part.''
``Angler'' is from Penguin Press in the U.S. and from
Allen Lane in the U.K. (483 pages, $27.95, 25 pounds).
(Celestine Bohlen writes for Bloomberg News. The
opinions expressed are her own.)
For Related News:
Top arts and lifestyle stories: MUSE <GO>
Book reviews: TNI BOOK MUSE <GO>
Most-read book news and reviews: MNI BOOK 1M <GO>
--Editors: James Pressley, Laurie Muchnick.
To contact the writer on the story:
Celestine Bohlen in Paris at +33-1-5365-5081 or
cbohlen1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Pressley in Brussels at +32-2-285-4300 or
jpressley@bloomberg.net.
`Cheney Diet' Decided What Facts Landed on Bush's Plate: Books
2008-10-23 04:01:00.10 GMT
Review by Celestine Bohlen
Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- In picking Dick Cheney as his
running mate in 2000, George W. Bush made a momentous
decision for his presidency. The choice, tellingly, wasn't
entirely his own.
In ``Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency,'' Washington
Post reporter Barton Gellman describes in convincing new
detail how Cheney, tapped to run the vice presidential
selection committee, wound up getting himself selected
instead.
``Amid stealth and misdirection, with visible
formalities obscuring the action offstage, Cheney served as
producer for Bush's first presidential decision,'' says
Gellman, who co-wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning series on
Cheney last year. ``Somewhere along the way, he stepped
aside as head of casting, taking the part of Bush's running
mate before anyone really auditioned.''
Candidates for the job had included Frank Keating,
then governor of Oklahoma; Lamar Alexander, a former
secretary of education and now a senator from Tennessee;
and Tom Ridge, then governor of Pennsylvania.
Bush, who prides himself on his intuitive judgments of
people, didn't interview any of the nominal candidates
before he settled on Cheney, Gellman writes. It's not known
if Bush reviewed the answers the others gave to 200
questions about every conceivable aspect of their lives,
from their public record to their private finances and
medical history.
Cheney provided none of this personal data, Gellman
says, writing that even his health check was a whitewash,
submitted by a Texas surgeon who had never examined him.
Cheney went on to have eight cardiac events in eight years,
the author says.
Filtering Information
The way Cheney handled the selection process was the
first example of what Gellman calls ``the Cheney Diet,'' a
reference to how the vice president controlled what went
onto Bush's plate. On an extraordinary range of issues,
Cheney and his staff, most notably his legal counsel David
Addington, set out to filter information, opinions and
decisions that in other presidencies went straight to the
Oval Office, the author shows.
The picture of stealth presented in the book is at
times staggering. Gellman piles up examples: Memos between
top government offices were copied to Cheney's staff
without the knowledge of the authors, he writes. Cheney
corralled low-level bureaucrats to fight environmental
protection measures, he adds, while Cheney and his
congressional allies also inserted a cut in the capital-
gains tax -- favored by Cheney and opposed by Bush --into
the 2003 tax cut bill as the legislation emerged from the
House of Representatives.
``Cheney's brief, all in all, encompassed most of the
core concerns of any president,'' Gellman writes.
``Angler'' reads like a series of detailed case
studies, and Cheney emerges as a savvy, sometimes vengeful
master of the Washington game -- a man who used his
influence to redefine the U.S. presidency, giving it powers
that most constitutional experts denied it had.
Wiretaps Without Warrants
An early test came with a directive Addington drafted
after the Sept. 11 attacks. The document asserted the
president's authority to sanction warrantless wiretaps on
U.S. citizens.
Three years later, this program led to a showdown,
grippingly described by Gellman, at the hospital bedside of
then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. It ended after a
resignation threat by FBI Director Robert Mueller and
several top Justice Department officials prompted a
startled Bush to reverse his decision by giving the
attorney general the right to certify wiretap requests.
Unlike other reporters, Gellman doesn't argue that
Cheney usurped the presidency outright. He tells of times
when, as he puts it, Bush grabbed back the steering wheel.
`Anti-Politician'
He also brushes off accusations that Cheney secretly
operated on behalf of Halliburton Co., the Houston-based
oilfield-services company where he had been chairman. He
shows respect for Cheney's abilities to listen, probe,
encourage debate and absorb dense government reports.
Cheney, he writes, is an ``anti-politician'' who is
largely indifferent to polls and the news media. What he
cares about most is the supremacy of the executive branch,
whose power he has sought to deploy in defense of the
country -- and of itself.
As the Bush administration drew to a close, Cheney's
power faded; he was lampooned as a sinister force, a kind
of Darth Vader with a permanently lopsided sneer.
Gellman gives a last word to Texas Republican Dick
Armey, the former House majority leader who said in 2002
that Cheney misled him in the run-up to the Iraq war, an
accusation Cheney has denied.
Usually, said Armey, vice presidents become footnotes
to history. In the case of the Bush-Cheney team, he told
Gellman, both will be dealt with ``unkindly in almost equal
part.''
``Angler'' is from Penguin Press in the U.S. and from
Allen Lane in the U.K. (483 pages, $27.95, 25 pounds).
(Celestine Bohlen writes for Bloomberg News. The
opinions expressed are her own.)
For Related News:
Top arts and lifestyle stories: MUSE <GO>
Book reviews: TNI BOOK MUSE <GO>
Most-read book news and reviews: MNI BOOK 1M <GO>
--Editors: James Pressley, Laurie Muchnick.
To contact the writer on the story:
Celestine Bohlen in Paris at +33-1-5365-5081 or
cbohlen1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Pressley in Brussels at +32-2-285-4300 or
jpressley@bloomberg.net.
# posted by I Dislike GWB @ 8:36 PM 
