Cheney, a Little Tarnished washingtonpost.com
[ The erstwhile acting president and bunker resident takes a little more flack, pity. ]
By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, February 10, 2004; Page A21
"Dick Cheney," the president often says at campaign stops, "is the best vice president this nation has ever had." After the applause subsides, he quips: "My mother may not agree."
That joke may be at the elder George Bush's expense, but more often than not these days, Cheney is the one who has been the target of barbs. The word around town is the vice president, once revered as the regent behind the throne of George W. Bush, is becoming something of a liability for his boss. The chattering class is speculating about whether Cheney will be dumped from the ticket in '04, and who should replace him.
Of course, there is very little chance of that happening, assuming Cheney's health remains stable. Bush has committed to having him on the ticket, and Cheney has accepted. Undoing that would undermine Bush's famous loyalty.
But it's true that Cheney has been the source of a number of unwanted moments for the administration of late regarding secrecy, leaked intelligence, exaggerations and coziness with corporate interests.
It emerged last week that the Justice Department is investigating whether a Halliburton venture made improper payments in Nigeria when Cheney led the parent company in the 1990s; Halliburton is also embroiled in more recent scandals involving overcharging the government in Iraq.
Cheney has also been in the news as a chief architect of administration secrecy. He recently won an audience from the Supreme Court to hear his argument that the administration should not have to release details about who contributed to the drafting of its energy policy. Soon after the court agreed to hear the appeal, Cheney gained undesirable attention for going on a hunting trip with Justice Antonin Scalia, who has declined to recuse himself in the case.
Former Treasury secretary Paul H. O'Neill, in a new book, fingers Cheney as one of those responsible for a swelling federal deficit. O'Neill said that when he raised concerns about the deficit after the 2002 elections, Cheney replied: "Reagan proved deficits don't matter."
Similarly, on the issue of Iraq and its weapons and links to terrorism, Cheney has gone much further than Bush in making allegations. He recently revived the suggestion that Iraq had a role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks (Bush had said there was no evidence of this), and he said trailers found in Iraq were "conclusive evidence" that Iraq had weapons programs (a statement contradicted by former chief weapons inspector David Kay).
Cheney's office has been a focus of speculation about the unmasking of CIA operative Valerie Plame by administration officials in apparent retaliation for her husband's criticism of Bush. In the same Time magazine Web article that said "government officials have noted" Plame's identity, Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, was quoted as discussing her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV. At the time, White House press secretary Scott McClellan moved to quiet the speculation by vouching for Libby's innocence.
Some of this appears to have damaged Cheney's standing, for his image has not held up as well as Bush's. A CBS News-New York Times poll last month found that only 20 percent of Americans had a favorable view of Cheney, while 24 percent viewed him unfavorably; at his peak in October 2000, Cheney was viewed favorably by 43 percent and unfavorably by 13 percent. A Fox News poll found that 46 percent view him favorably and 39 percent unfavorably -- also significantly down from Cheney's high just after the inauguration, when 64 percent viewed him favorably and 16 percent unfavorably in the Fox poll.
The Cheney knack for controversy shows no signs of dissipating. Last month, in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News, Cheney demonstrated a link between Iraq and al Qaeda by pointing people to a report based on a classified leak that had been denounced by the Pentagon. Cheney said that the article, in the Weekly Standard, was the "best source of information" on the subject and that the article "goes through and lays out in some detail, based on an assessment that was done by the Department of Defense and forwarded to the Senate Intelligence Committee some weeks ago." The Pentagon had previously sought to knock down the report by calling its conclusions "inaccurate" and saying the leak of raw intelligence data does "serious harm to national security."
Some of Cheney's opponents, such as a group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, say he violated the law by confirming the validity of leaked classified information. Cheney's defenders say the Pentagon essentially confirmed the leak in its statement and point out that Cheney may have been cleared to confirm the classified information.
As vice president, Cheney is not required, as other government workers are, to sign the Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement. But the guide to the form suggests that confirming classified leaks is frowned upon. Before "confirming the accuracy of what appears in the public source," it says, the signer "must confirm through an authorized official that the information has, in fact, been declassified. If it has not, further dissemination of the information or confirmation of its accuracy is also an unauthorized disclosure."
Not guilty, a Cheney adviser said: "The vice president was merely lending a hand to an interested reporter, in response to a question, by mentioning an article that had already been published."
Al Gore Might Disagree
"We're now saying, democracy must flourish. And as I recall from my history, it took us quite a while here in the United States, but nevertheless we are making progress."
-- Bush, in a "Meet the Press" interview shown Sunday, discussing Iraq's transformation to democracy.
Is That Like a Chia Pet?
"This is a Shia fella."
-- Bush, in the same interview, discussing Iraqi religious plurality. |
