People cannot stop talking about Dick Cheney. He is either the Vice President of the United States, the number 2 Executive Branch guy, or President of the United States Senate, the number 1 Constitutionally-designated tie-breaker.
If you average these positions, this makes him number 1 – and a half. No wonder the country is so fixated on this enigmatic executive legislator.
Which means exactly what? Either we are going through a seasonally slow news period, which the summer often is, or pursuing an academic exercise which may or may not elucidate.
Yet there may be a lot more behind the bespectacled boss of the bureaucratic netherworld.
This week The Washington Post published a lengthy four-part series about the invisible hand of the Vice President pulling the strings and getting what he wants. He is portrayed as the consummate and all-knowing politico who brooks no dissent within his inner circle and certainly none from those outside of it.
How precise this report is in its manifestation of a manipulative mandarin is hard to discern. However, if only half of the representations are halfway accurate, our country has a significant problem.
First, if we have Cheney, we do not need the hundreds of thousands of other government employees. Cheney alone appears to know best. He apparently neither relishes nor acquiesces to the pedestrian pursuit of vetting issues with experts within the government bureaucracy. Why spend such time needlessly when he and his close coterie of omniscience operators know everything?
Second, we learn that being inscrutable has enormous benefits. Vice President Cheney is the embodiment of Mark Twain’s saying. “It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.” [Some sources attribute a quote similar in wording to Abraham Lincoln.]
Cheney is hardly stupid but, by saying less, neither opponents nor supporters know his desires or designs. Thus, he can operate unimpeded, for no one can predict or pinpoint his sphere of influence until the deal is done.
Strengthening executive power is what this is about, most experts agree. Going back to his days in the Nixon Administration, a twenty-something Cheney understood the value of a strong executive. Many feel his actions now are deliberate and determined to wring as much authority out of the U.S. Constitution as is legally possible or, at least, plausible.
An obvious shortcoming in adopting such an approach is that the Vice President appears as a demigod, possessing wisdom and knowledge far beyond the reach of normal men and women. Presenting such a posture only proves the poverty of that position, not its propriety.
Second, as we have seen this week with the Senate Judiciary Committee issuing subpoenas for more information about the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance/wiretapping program, the Vice President’s imperial initiatives will invite more oversight, questioning, and doubts, resulting ultimately and ironically in less executive power, not more as Mr. Cheney seemingly covets.
Last, Mr. Cheney’s legacy may be to alter the meaning of “Vice” President from its current etymology of “instead of” or “in the place of” to its darker definitions of “immoral,” “depraved,” or some other such less than glorious denotations.
This story’s final line is far from being written.
For a tad lighter view on Mr. Cheney's escapades, read my earlier article about his hunting misfortune.
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YETMO: “You’re Entitled To My Opinion,” A Balanced Point of View
"To stimulate thought, debate, and introspection”
Fred W. Apelquist, M.Ed.