Bush's "Kitchen Cabinet" consists of just Cheney and his allies

Recent presidencies have seen the Cabinet decline as a vehicle for collective leadership, but under Bush, it has reached its nadir because the president prizes above all ideological uniformity.

Cabinet meetings are reported to be brief and perfunctory with no deep discussions or exploration of alternative policies. Can you name more than two or three members of Bush's Cabinet?

If Bush doesn't draw upon the collective leadership of a talented, diverse Cabinet, with whom does he share the responsibilities of leadership?

The answer is a device that goes back to the days of Andrew Jackson - the "Kitchen Cabinet," which enabled presidents to work closely with a small group of advisers drawn from their formal Cabinet and from outside it.

It can be a most useful tool if it is diverse in point of view and relatively public.

But Bush's Kitchen Cabinet is rather odd. It has only one member, Vice President Dick Cheney, backed up by hard-core conservative White House staffers, working in secrecy.

With little question, Cheney is the most powerful vice president in our history. He controls a staff of true believers, issues his own ideological pronunciamentos and maintains his own alliances with key conservatives in Congress.

White House watchers speculate that, behind the scenes, Cheney directs policy.

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