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Amassing power in ceremonial office

Cartoonists delight in portraying United States President George W. Bush as a puppet dangling from strings pulled by his deputy, Dick Cheney. Insiders insist that such caricature is overly simplistic. According to them, Mr. Bush sets the policy and has the last word in decision-making. However, they too agree that Mr. Cheney has transformed Vice Presidency, a largely ceremonial office, into the most powerful one in history. A series of well-researched articles recently pub lished in The Washington Post have thrown light on how this has come about. These articles buttress the broad assessment of many other analysts that Mr. Bush has no interest in the details of policies, nor does he have any desire to ma ster the methodologies of implementing them. Mr. Cheney on the other hand is well versed in Washington’s ways since he has served as a legislator, a cabinet member, and a White House chief of staff, during his long stint in public life. This experience has enabled him to exercise control over the administrative machinery, bypassing the heads of departments. Mr. Cheney’s style of functioning has caused bitterness, sowed confusion, and often proved disastrous. But the 46th Vice President apparently believes that he has a mission to restore the executive’s pre-eminence among the three branches of government.

Mr. Cheney apparently saw an opportunity to push his agenda when, post-9/11, Congress authorised the President to use military means to combat the terrorist menace. The Vice President’s office was very active in propagating the thesis that courts and legislators were constitutionally barred from restraining the commander-in-chief while directing a war. Such an expansive interpretation of presidential powers was used to justify measures that were either violative of international law or would have been considered unconstitutional in normal circumstances. Among those measures were wiretapping of overseas communication without a warrant; the incarceration of terror suspects for long periods without trial; and the resort to cruel and inhuman procedures during interrogation. Mr. Cheney also appears to have used his expertise in governmental processes to bypass oversight by Congress and the courts in other areas of policy. His approach has proved to be both futile and self-defeating. Lawmakers and judges have reasserted their supervisory roles. The tactics adopted by the Darth Vader of Bush administration, as the New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd calls him, have thoroughly alienated the American public and the international community whose support is essential for anti-terror campaign.

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