Cheney, redux

For anyone not so Cheney-saturated that you don't want to read another word, I strongly recommend Mickey Nardo's blog from yesterday, "where does one start?": http://1boringoldman.clom.

It concerns a review of the book, "Angler: The Cheney Vice-Presidency," and other published reports. "Angler" was published last fall but sort of got overlooked in all the financial crisis and the presidential campaign.

It is a devastating picture of the way Cheney operated behind the scenes to subvert the rule of law, to manipulate the workings of our government, and to subtly and slyly influence a callow, ex-frat-boy, faux-cowboy put in the White House by a 5/4 divided Supreme Court.

Much of the book has to do with the way Cheney sold the Iraq war and warrantless wiretapping to a cowed Congress. Gellman, the author, cites how Cheney personally briefed key Congressional leaders and misled and outright lied to them -- including the House majority leader in his own party, Dick Armey who was opposed to invading Iraq until Cheney told him a bunch of lies about Saddaam's WMD. Armey says now he believes Cheney misled him, and if he had known the truth then he would not have voted for the war authorization.

It became a caricature early on to portray Cheney as the puppeteer and Bush as the puppet, but it looks like it was truer than we even suspected.

Ralph