Dick Cheney: The Co-President

Here is an article I wrote for Newsinkling.org a year ago... This article was examining the power of Cheney in the White House in relation to the CIA leak investigation.



Written by Biloxi
Montag, 05 Juni 2006


I wanted to focus on this article on Vice-President Dick Cheney and his direct ties to the CIA leak case. Cheney has been President Bush's right hand person since Bush has been in office for five years. One can argue that Karl Rove is Bush's brain and the brains behind Bush. Rove is the architect behind Bush's re-election and image.

Cheney is the business brains and behind Bush and the presidential power who really runs the White House. John Dean, former President Richard Nixon's White house counsel, says in an interview with Progressive magazine that "Bush doesn't have clue what's going on and Cheney is setting thing up the way he wants."


In addition, Dean says that Cheney "has been determined to expand Presidential power." Let's examine how much power that Cheney has been allowed in the White House in relation to the CIA Leak case.

During the year 2000, Dick Cheney was serving as CEO of Halliburton Company before he became Vice-President of the United States for the past five years. After taking office as Vice President, Cheney earned a reputation of being a "hands on" Vice President by taking an active role in cabinet meetings and policy information.


President Bush described his relationship to Cheney as a corporate structure. Bush has considered himself as a CEO and Cheney as a COO (Chief Operating Officer). In March 2003, "Executive Order 13292" gave Cheney the power to "classify" documents".


What is ironic is that on or before March 9, 2003 that Cheney chaired a meeting. The topic of the discussion was to discredit former Ambassador Joe Wilson. It is interesting that Cheney was giving the power to classify documents and yet chaired a meeting to destroy Wilson's reputation.


During March 2003, there was not indication of a risk of National Security at that time. For sure, Cheney took a lead role to strategize a plot to punish Joe Wilson. In the grand jury testimony by Scooter Libby on March 5, 2004, Fitzgerald asked Libby, "during the time did the Vice-President indicate that he was upset that this article (meaning the Wilson Op-Ed article about his findings in Niger) was out there falsely in his view attacked his own creditability?"
Libby said: "I recall that he (Cheney) was keen to get the truth out. He wanted all of the facts were or were not. He was very keen on that and said it repeatedly: ‘Let's get everything out.' "

There has been new twist in Scooter Libby's case in which Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald filed a response of Libby's government response to the court inquiry regarding news articles the government intends to offer at trial last month. This new filing by Fitzgerald is in relation to Dick Cheney.


The filing is a handwritten note on Joe Wilson's Op-Ed article in which Cheney wrote in relation to Joe Wilson. Cheney wrote four sentences:


1. "Have they done this sort of thing before?"
2. "Send an ambassador to answer a question?"
3. "Do ordinary send people out pro bono to work for us?"
4. "Did his wife send him on a junket?'

This does certainly sound like a person who was preoccupied with the former Ambassador. In the grand jury hearing on March 5, 2004, Libby was asked if he recognized the handwriting notes of Cheney. Libby replied that "it looks like the Vice-President's handwriting." In addition, we had learned from Libby in his testimony in March 2004 that Cheney often used a "little pen knife" to clip newspaper articles. Libby says Cheney put the "articles on the edge of his desk or inside and pulls them out to look at and think about."


Also, Libby says that Cheney would keep two or three articles on the corner of his desk where they remain ‘sometimes for a long time,' and Libby had seen Cheney produce the articles from different places."

Certainly, from Libby's testimony, this case is showing Cheney's pattern of behavior and state of mind in his anger towards former Ambassador Joe Wilson. In Cheney's mind, Mr. Wilson irritated him. In other words, the discredit of Joe Wilson was personal to Cheney. Cheney's weak spot is his emotions and temper. That certainly was demonstrated in that March 2003 meeting when he called Wilson an "asshole" and "son-of-bitch."

In Fitzgerald's filing on May 24, 2006 regarding the Cheney's handwritten notes, Fitzgerald says that Cheney's handwritten notes "on a clipping of the Wilson Op Ed, which reflect his (Cheney) views concerning Mr. Wilson and his wife, are evidence of the views the Vice President communicated during conversations that the Vice-President and his chief of staff had during the period immediately following the publication of the Wilson Op Ed, and corroborate other evidence regarding these communications, which are central proof that the defendant (Libby) knowingly made false statements to federal agents and the grand jury."


Fitzgerald adds on to say that "the Vice-President specifically directed the defendant (Libby) to speak to reporters during the week following the publication of the Wilson Op-Ed. At that time, the Vice-President was upset that his personal credibility had been attacked unfairly in his view."

We now know that Fitzgerald is eyeing Cheney as the next person to indict. Cheney did have his reason personally, emotionally, and financially to discredit Mr. Wilson. If Mr. Wilson was not silenced, then the plan for invasion of Iraq would have been foiled. As we are waiting for Rove's indictment, Cheney is now added to list for a future indictment.


The house of cards in the White House is falling apart. Vice President Cheney is a smart businessman but reputation and image will be his downfall. Cheney is financial intelligence but not emotional intelligence. When Bush likened himself to a CEO and Cheney to a COO, Bush doesn't understand that a corporate position is not always secured. In corporate businesses, someone is always trying to bump off some else for power.


As Cheney becomes more in the spotlight in this leak case, Cheney has never figured that there may be another Dick Cheney wannabe in the wing who want to be in power as the "Big Cheese." Business at times can be cut throat.


Cheney should know that since he was a CEO of Halliburton. But, this leak case is showing the public how much power the President has given to Cheney. President Bush has only been the figure head in the White House to portray the President.


But, the real person that has been in charge with the White House for five years has been Dick Cheney. And the power that Bush gave to Cheney is showing Cheney's character as the Vice-President of the United States.

As Abraham Lincoln said:"To test a man's character, give him power."