The Big Dick - Part 3

The president is "the decider," as Bush puts it, but the vice president often serves up his menu of choices.

"It was like -- you know that experiment where you pass a magnet under the table and you see the iron filings on the top of the table move? You know there's a magnet there because of what you see happening, but you never see the magnet." -- David Frum

"My impression is that the president thinks that the Reagan style of leadership is best -- guiding the ship of state from high up on the mast." -- Former White House lawyer Bradford A. Berenson.

In Part 3 of the Washington Post's series on Dick Cheney, we get a listing of the behind-the-scenes (or below-the-decks) activity of the Veep, and we get a surprise: there was a time when Alberto "Fredo" Gonzales threatened to quit if forced to follow a Cheney directive. To be fair, he didn't do it alone. He had his deputy Paul McNulty and FBI director Robert Mueller threatening with him. (And once again, Bubble Boy is not in the picture.)

We get to see how Cheney is in charge of the budget and the economy.

Cheney and [then Federal Reserve chairman Alan] Greenspan met regularly, far more often than the Fed chief met with Bush, according to interviews and Greenspan's calendar. And when the president did meet with Greenspan, Cheney was nearly always in the room.

[...]

The vice president chairs a budget review board, a panel the Bush administration created to set spending priorities and serve as arbiter when Cabinet members appeal decisions by White House budget officials. The White House has portrayed the board as a device to keep Bush from wasting time on petty disagreements, but previous administrations have seldom seen Cabinet-level disputes in that light. Cheney's leadership of the panel gives him direct and indirect power over the federal budget -- and over those who must live within it.

Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., who served as Bush's budget director from 2001 to 2003 and is now governor of Indiana, said that during his tenure the number of times a Cabinet official made a direct budget appeal to Bush "was zero," which aides from previous administrations found "stunning," he added.

[...]

Cheney [...] 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.

[...]

When Edward P. Lazear, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, broached the idea of limiting the popular mortgage tax deduction, he said he quickly dropped it after Cheney told him it would never fly with Congress. "He's a big timesaver for us in that he takes off the table a lot of things he knows aren't going to go anywhere," Lazear said.

What a sweet interpretation. Mr. Lazear goes on to say

[...] that he may argue a point with Cheney "for 10 minutes or so" but that in the end he is always convinced. "I can't think of a time when I have thought I was right and the vice president was wrong."

You don't suppose that's why he has his job do you?

Lest you think The Big Dick makes all the decisions, he doesn't. The faith-based ones are left to Bubble Boy.