More Evidence Cheney Will Seek '08 Nomination

An article in today's Washington Post took a look at how Vice President Cheney is taking further steps to prepare his staff for an '08 bid.

Cheney has changed history more than once, earning his reputation as the nation's most powerful vice president. His impact has been on public display in the arenas of foreign policy and homeland security, and in a long-running battle to broaden presidential authority. But he has also been the unseen hand behind some of the president's major domestic initiatives.

Scores of interviews with advisers to the president and vice president, as well as with other senior officials throughout the government, offer a backstage view of how the Bush White House operates. The president is "the decider," as Bush puts it, but the vice president often serves up his menu of choices.

Cheney led a group that winnowed the president's list of potential Supreme Court nominees. Cheney resolved a crisis in the space program after the Columbia shuttle disaster. Cheney fashioned a controversial truce between the legislative and executive branches -- and averted resignations at the top of the Justice Department and the FBI -- over the right of law enforcement authorities to investigate political corruption in Congress.

And it was Cheney who served as the guardian of conservative orthodoxy on budget and tax matters. He shaped and pushed through Bush's tax cuts, blunting the influence of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, a longtime friend, and of Cabinet rivals he had played a principal role in selecting. He managed to overcome the president's "compassionate conservative" resistance to multiple breaks for the wealthy. He even orchestrated a decision to let a GOP senator switch parties -- giving control of the chamber to Democrats -- rather than meet the senator's demand for billions of dollars in new spending.

On the home front, the vice president is well known for leading a secretive task force on energy policy. But in a town where politicians routinely scurry for credit, Cheney more often kept his role concealed, even from top Bush advisers..."Dick's major concern, one of them was, and I agree, that there needs to be a greater and more effective role for the vice president," Marsh, a longtime Cheney friend, said in an interview. "He holds the view, as do I, that the vice president should be the chief of staff in effect, that everything should run through his office."

In Bush, Cheney found the perfect partner. The president's willingness to delegate left plenty of room for his more detail-oriented vice president.

Vice President Cheney's steady hand has played an important role in the administration of President George W. Bush. By pushing for more influence for the office of the Vice President is Vice President Cheney signaling to his supporters that he will be running in '08? With the current list of possible Republican canidadates made up of papists, scientologists, and believers in evolution, the only chance for the United States to survive would be for Vice President Cheney to run. Let's hope he does.

Is V.P. Cheney Making Preparations for a Presidential Bid?

Vice President Dick Cheney's office appears to be gearing up for a possible presidential campaign. He is doing this by slightly distancing himself from President Bush's executive office so that he can have a free hand when it comes time to campaign.

For four years, Vice President Dick Cheney has resisted routine oversight of his office’s handling of classified information, and when the National Archives unit that monitors classification in the executive branch objected, the vice president’s office suggested abolishing the oversight unit, according to documents released yesterday by a Democratic congressman...The letter said that after repeatedly refusing to comply with a routine annual request from the archives for data on his staff’s classification of internal documents, the vice president’s office in 2004 blocked an on-site inspection of records that other agencies of the executive branch regularly go through...David B. Rivkin, a Washington lawyer who served in Justice Department and White House posts in earlier Republican administrations, said Mr. Cheney had a valid point about the unusual status of the office he holds.
“The office of the vice president really is unique,” Mr. Rivkin said. “It’s not an agency. It’s an extension of the vice president himself.”

The democrats are again trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill; the vice presidency is constitutionally defined as a legislative function (he is the tie breaker in the Senate). The only reason that democrats are trying to tie Cheney to the White House is so that they can continue their smear campaign. I think this bold move by Vice President Cheney is a signal to the people of the United States: He is going to run in 2008. The American people need to stand up to this vicious attempt by the democrat party to smear Vice President Cheney. He may be our only hope to secure liberty and freedom when 2008 rolls around.