The Biggest Cheney Mystery By Dan Froomkin / WaPo

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/10/16/BL2007101600991.html

Just what is the relationship like between President Bush and Vice President Cheney? Behind closed doors, who defers to whom?

PBS's "Frontline" documentary series tonight chronicles Cheney's relentless, secretive and smashingly successful quest to expand executive power. While the Oval Office is traditionally the center of power, New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer notes on the show, "The strange thing about this administration is all of the most crucial decisions seem to be taking place in the vice president's office, or even the vice president's counsel's office."

In an interview for a Fox News special about Cheney that aired over the weekend, Bush insisted that he's the decider -- but even kindly disposed Fox News reporter Brett Baier noted that Bush was unusually vague in describing his relationship with the vice president.

Bush on Cheney

While neither Cheney nor his enormously influential legal adviser David S. Addington were willing to talk to PBS, the vice president welcomed Fox News's Baier with open arms...And yet the most interesting part of the show was not what Cheney had to say, most of which we'd heard many times before. It was what the president said. I don't think Bush has ever faced so many questions about Cheney before.

(AND VERY STUPID, PUSSY-FOOTING QUESTIONS THEY WERE, TOO! SEE ARTICLE AT LINK, IF YOU CAN STOMACH THAT SORT OF THING)


'Cheney's Law'

The Frontline episode "Cheney's Law" will be on PBS tonight and then online.

...Mary McNamara writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Famously secretive, often openly contemptuous of those who do not agree with him, has been seen by some to have a Faustian relationship with President Bush, and not in the Faust role. . . .

"There is no breaking news in 'Cheney's Law,' which uses an assortment of journalists and former politicos to narrate the various steps Cheney took to circumvent congressional intervention after 9/11. But having the dots connected so clearly and convincingly is both disturbing and helpful.

"Over and over, the report documents, Cheney and his lawyer, David Addington, acted to secure complete power for the president, leading to the alleged abuses at Guantanamo Bay, the controversy over surveillance of Americans and the recent Justice Department scandal involving the firing of U.S. attorneys that led to the resignation of Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales. The formation of military tribunals was signed by the president after being seen by no one but Cheney and Addington. The definition of torture was rewritten until, as Jane Mayer of the New Yorker says, it became almost impossible to commit the crime. . . .

"'Gonzales is out, Rove is out and Cheney is ready to fight the next battle tomorrow,' says author Ron Suskind toward the end of the program. 'Victory goes not to the swift nor to the strong but to he who endureth until the end. That is a principle that guides this ship of state.'"

Because so few have the balls to challenge this s.o.b.
At least Kucinich has taken action. Where are the rest?

all of that seizing of executive power was going on right under their noses? Why didn't someone howl and scream about what the Dick and Addington and Yoo were doing? Why did the Justice Dept. guys just quietly turn in their resignations without going to Congress or the media to say, "There's some illegal shit going on, you guys need to do some oversight here." Everyone was, and still IS, so afraid of this administration, and no one will stand up to evil--they're STILL rolling over, even now! That the Senate is even CONSIDERING granting telecom immunity is sickening, after all we know about how ChimpCo operated all these years.

It is my firm belief that Congress was, and is, being blackmailed (since before 9/11). That is the only way Bu$h/Cheney/Rove could get away with what they have done to this country.

Illegal wiretapping and anthrax-by-post is a powerful persuasive combination.

We must reject euphemisms like "expanding executive power," (or that other oft heard favorite "stretch the boundaries")

We must demand the truth. The whole truth. Bush and his puppet master Cheney are openly and willfully forging deeper and deeper into forbidden territory. And Nancy "off the table" Pelosi, the woman we have given the power, and charged with duty to stop them, is abusing that power to BLOCK any effort.



Unconstitutional power is not an executive's to claim or renounce. The terms of our common contract -- the Constitution of the United States, amended and entrusted to us to protect and perfect -- must be ENFORCED, not "restored." And when officers in the executive and judiciary break the contract, the ONLY means to enforce the terms is to impeach and seek to remove.

Congress -- the Voice of the People -- is the only power that can "Make it Stop." Accuse/impeach. Vote. Pass Judgment. Choose sides: American Principle or Fascist Principle. Whatever the outcome in Congress, We the People have the last word when WE pass judgment on the judges with Our Votes.

The stark truth, unspeakable and unspoken within the establishment, is that it is not the violators we should be pointing our fingers at. Violators can't destroy our constitutional democracy. Our system is designed to deal with them. It is only the failure of those we charge with enforcement who can destroy us.

From http://journals.democraticunderground.com/pat_k/23">Impeachophobia:

It's full of good info.

he's the best.