Friday, 30 April, 2004

Twins Presidents Bush's insistence that he and Vice President Cheney answers questions together before the 9-11 Commission initiated another round of stories in the press about the Cheney's relationship to Bush. Among them Unleashing the Cheney factor | csmonitor.com and Nightline last night 29Apr04 (hasn't gained its own link yet, segment appears to carry title the quiet American). I said something here in these pages when I first learnt of it. After a moment or two of raised eyebrows I had to admit I wasn't that troubled by it. The executive branch is a complex and messy institution and a lot of its operating bureaucracy gets designed ad hoc as each administration comes in. As the job of being President rapidly becomes too difficult for one man to effectively encompass; exceptionally powerful subordinates are going to come to the fore. They tend to be informal or semi informal creatures - chief's of staff, advisors - people like Karl Rove, Hillary Clinton. In which case the public (well me) only feels comfortable with them taking on certain jobs. Or people like Henry Kissinger who by aggregating National security advisor to himself as well as Secretary of State placed himself in a pre-eminent Cabinet position. I feel if such a position is going to emerge it might as well be the Vice President, who was on the ticket and is therefore one of only two directly elected official in the White House... well normally at least. If the VP wants to take on an expanded portfolio I don't have a problem with that. Its better than paying him to sit in his office for four years playing MS Solitare. The dynamics of such a working relationship are bound to be highly personal and because of that not superficially obvious. Cheney supposedly had to give his word not to run for president himself after Bush, and was rewarded with responsibility and the freedom to be himself. Such as his self is. Aside from the Constitutional requirements of the Presidents Job description they are free to organize their relation any way they chose. Not personally caring for his politics part of me wouldn't mind if he got took off to an undisclosed location and never found his way back. Another part recognizes that party and politics aside, the country is better off with organized and effective leadership even if it is occasionally fixated, hardheaded, and wrong. 10:29:24 AM    comment [];trackback [];

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. 2004 Paul Bushmiller. Last update: 5/05/04; 10:05:19.