Froomkin > The Cheney Supremacy

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/06/19/BL2006061900578.html

The Cheney Supremacy
By Dan Froomkin

The part of Ron Suskind's new book that's getting all the attention this morning is his chilling disclosure that al-Qaeda apparently planned, then called off, a hydrogen cyanide gas attack in New York's subway in 2003.

But the longer-term significance of Suskind's new book -- his second major expose of the Bush White House in three years -- will likely be how it documents Vice President Cheney's singularly dominant role in the foreign policy and national security decisions typically attributed to President Bush.

...

In an appearance on NBC's Today Show this morning, Suskind had this to say about the "one percent doctrine" -- which he also calls the "Cheney doctrine": "What it does is it embraces suspicions as a threshold for action."

Matt Lauer: "You think there are grave dangers in this type of policy. Why?"

Suskind: "The fact is for us as the most powerful nation in the world, what it does is it sends us into a kind of tactical ferocity where we're following everything, where we can't even have a one percent chance not be handled with the full force of the U.S. The difficulty is there is backlash when you act that way. . . . "

Lauer: "Are you suggesting that Dick Cheney drives the policy of the administration?"

Suskind: "The evidence is that Cheney is the global thinker. Bush is an action-based man, but he operates within a framework that Cheney largely designed."

[neoblues]

1. Cheney Provides the Vision...

Poor Chimpy wouldn't be able to muster enough 'vision' to merely run a 7-11, much less lead the world's most powerful nation; naturally he defers to Cheney, though only so long as it's not public knowledge (public suspicion, no matter how convinced, doesn't count). Unkie Dick let's little Georgie take credit or appear to be responsible and everyone's happy. Everyone inside their diseased little clique anyway.

[Warpy]

2. I flipped on the tube a few minutes ago

and Russert was on Charlie Rose. Ordinarily I'd have hit the mute button then switched over to the local weather, but I caught one exchange.

Russert's opinion of why Rumsfeld still has a job is because he is inextricably intertwined with Cheney in terms of policy and outlook. Russert's quote was "If he fires Rumsfeld, it would be like firing himself."

There you have it. It's too bad Fitzgerald allowed this bunch to get away with the Plame outing by not putting Roves fat ass into a solitary cell until he finally decided to squeal. It was the best chance we had of ridding ourselves of both Cheney and Rumsfeld.

[Captain Hilts]

3. They don't want confirmation hearings for Rumsfeld's replacement. nt