He's running his own show now. Maybe he plans to run it the way he feels it should've been run in the past. IOW, maybe he won't back down. They've been putting their ducks in a row for some time now. For what?
Anyway, here's some more info to add to your topic, from John Dean:
The Nixon Shadow that Hovers Over the Bush White House
By John Dean
Not since Richard Nixon's presidency have the powers of Congress been in greater jeopardy. ...
~snip~
The Man Behind The White House Power Plays
Clearly, Vice President Dick Cheney is the force behind the White House's effort to enhance presidential power, and limit the powers of those on Capitol Hill. ...
Indeed, Cheney has all but admitted the point. "In thirty-four years, I have repeatedly seen an erosion of the powers and the ability of the president of the United States to do his job," Cheney told ABC's "This Week" in January 2002.
His reference to "thirty-four years" is quite clear. About thirty-four years ago, in 1969, Dick Cheney joined the Nixon Administration - serving in a number of positions at the Cost of Living Council, and later the Office of Economic Opportunity. ... Cheney's reference to the erosion of presidential powers thus appears to relate to the Nixon presidency and Watergate, and then to the Reagan presidency and Iran-contra. ...
Nixon's Treatment Of Congress, and How It Likely Informed Cheney's Views
What then is Cheney's target? History suggests that it is probably what he sees as the expansion of congressional power vis-a-vis the president. ... this perception is probably what bothers Cheney most - and what he would most like to remedy. Cheney watched Nixon "throw down a gauntlet to Congress, the bureaucracy, the media, and the Washington establishment and challenge them to epic battle" - to quote the disgraced former president's memoirs. But for Watergate, Nixon would have succeeded.
~snip~
Nixon was ignoring Congress in four areas. First, he refused to spend money the Congress had appropriated for programs he didn't believe in, simply impounding the money. Second, he ignored Congress's efforts to get him to cut back or end the war in Vietnam, often increasing and widening the war when they were in recess. Third, he regularly invoked executive privilege, thus denying Congress information it sought as aid in its job of conducting oversight of the executive branch. Fourth, finally, and in what was probably his most offensive act of the four, Nixon implemented a total reorganization of the executive branch by executive order. The result was to give Congress no say over departments and agencies that had years earlier been created by Congress.
~snip~
Numerous New Laws Restore Congress's Powers
No new law was more important than the congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which Nixon was forced to sign (knowing his veto would be overridden) ... Also - overriding Nixon's veto - Congress passed its War Powers Resolution... When the Watergate Special Prosecutor took Nixon to court with a very narrow subpoena seeking his secret Oval Office tapes of conversations with his aides about Watergate, the Supreme Court used the opportunity to write the law of executive privilege. It ruled against Nixon, and forced his resignation.
~snip~
Cheney's Criticism of the Iran-Contra Investigation
When Dick Cheney was a member of Congress, the Iran-contra scandal erupted. During the scandal, it should be recalled, Cheney became President Reagan's principal defender in Congress. ... Cheney served as a minority member of the special Iran Contra Congressional Committee investigating the violation by the Reagan administration of the laws prohibiting sale of weapons to Nicaraguan rebels. In 1987, the committee issued its final report - charging the Reagan administration with "secrecy, deception and disdain for law." But Cheney dissented.
~snip~
Cheney's Current Tactic: Block Congressional Information Requests
Cheney's drive to halt what he perceives as an erosion of presidential power has been most apparent in his effort to block Congress from obtaining information about executive branch activities. ... Cheney is forcing the Government Accounting Office to go to Court to obtain even the most minimal information about the work of the Energy Task Force, forcing an unprecedented lawsuit which is currently pending. But this is only the most visible of Cheney's efforts; after all, he is a man who prefers to work behind the scenes. I'm told by Washington journalists and scholars who daily seek information from the executive branch as part of their jobs and research, that making GAO file a lawsuit is merely the tip of the iceberg. Far more broadly, Cheney seeks to place a blanket freeze on information. For example, provisions have been added to the USA PATRIOT Act, and appropriations legislation, that in effect create an unofficial "official secrets act."
Meanwhile, Cheney only extends his cheek in downplaying his own aggressiveness in creating a blanket of secrecy. It is the information-seekers themselves, according to the administration, who are the aggressive ones. Thus, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post recently reported that "(i)n the fight over the energy documents, the Bush administration has made an ... argument that it is the victim." And the vice president's lawyer is taking the position that Congress does not even have authority to institute legal action against the vice president or president.
If the GAO loses its lawsuit, that will virtually put Congress out of the business of oversight over the executive branch. (And even if it wins, Cheney will have successfully delayed disclosure.) A court loss for the GAO thus will mean that there are no real checks whatsoever on the president or vice president - for it is impossible for Congress, or the public, to exercise oversight over that of which it is not even aware. Such a judicial decision may provoke as serious a constitutional crisis as Watergate - though this time the federal judiciary, not the president, would be at fault.
~snip~
Cheney's efforts to block access to information appears more strategic than tactical. By that I mean Cheney is not fighting only a single, specific battle ... Rather, he has launched a war on Congress ... Cheney apparently wants to turn the clock back to the days of the Nixon administration, before Watergate, when Nixon sought to make Congress merely another administrative arm of the presidency.
~snip~
http://hnn.us/articles/printfriendly/1192.html And, remember, we do not necessarily have enough votes to override any of Bush's vetoes
and the Supreme Court is now in their favor. Has Cheney planned this all too well? Scary, IMHO.