dick's unprecedented power is only possible cause bush is anxious to get out of the way.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

The article is not explicit, but an underlying theme of the Washington Post's profile on Dick Cheney is that his unprecedented power is only possible because Bush is anxious to get out of the way.

Waxing or waning, Cheney holds his purchase on an unrivaled portfolio across the executive branch. Bush works most naturally, close observers said, at the level of broad objectives, broadly declared. Cheney, they said, inhabits an operational world in which means are matched with ends and some of the most important choices are made. When particulars rise to presidential notice, Cheney often steers the preparation of options and sits with Bush, in side-by-side wing chairs, as he is briefed.

Before the president casts the only vote that counts, the final words of counsel nearly always come from Cheney.

"Side-by-side wing chairs"? I'm reminded of the embarrassing point in 2004 in which the President agreed to talk to the 9/11 Commission, but only if Cheney could sit with Bush, and help answer questions, during the discussion.

He just wanted to be on the presidential hall of portraits, he didn't want to do any actual hard work or thinking.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1177828&mesg_id=1177828

Geneva rules forbade not only torture but also, in equally categorical terms, the use of "violence," "cruel treatment" or "humiliating and degrading treatment" against a detainee "at any time and in any place whatsoever." The War Crimes Act of 1996 made any grave breach of those restrictions a U.S. felony . The best defense against such a charge, Addington wrote, would combine a broad presidential direction for humane treatment, in general, with an assertion of unrestricted authority to make exceptions.

The vice president's counsel proposed that President Bush issue a carefully ambiguous directive. Detainees would be treated "humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of" the Geneva Conventions. When Bush issued his public decision two weeks later, on Feb. 7, 2002, he adopted Addington's formula -- with all its room for maneuver -- verbatim.

From here:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/pushing_the_envelope_on_presi/index.html

Bush is President and anything his VP did is his problem. Fuck the Bush egacy - all this separation of the two won't spin with me. Both war war criminals and both have violated a plethora of laws.

I agree, they are a set, not to be bought seperately. I think they'll both be blaming each other soon.

him to hand over the reins to Cheney is deplorable and he/they both should be imprisoned.

Apparently it's the Congress, the Justice Department and the American voters. After all the facts about Cheney released in the last month alone, I'm frankly curious as to how long it can continue before the public starts screaming for his head. There seems to be no line he won't cross, re-draw or shoot dead. Cheney's having an orgy of power and the Constitution (therefore the security of our grandchilren) & taxpayers are the ones getting screwed. And that's just on American soil.

Roaches also prefer to operate in the dark, behind the scenes, spreading disease & feeding on garbage. Why are we so paralyzed into inaction?

He's only one fat bastard, and we are millions upon millions.