If you ask 100 Americans today who calls the shots in the White House, a recent poll suggests 43 of them would say it’s not George W. Bush.
And chances are they’d have Vice President Dick Cheney on the brain. Richard Bruce Cheney, the quiet man from Wyoming. The Congressman who flunked out of Yale. Later, the budding political scientist on a protest-ridden 1960’s Wisconsin campus. The Secretary of Defense during the Gulf War, The oil executive. Cheney has worn many hats, but what his time in the White House shows so far is that he’s a well-connected, deft and powerful hand. He’s taken on the so-called “energy crisis.” He’s set up four, yes four, offices from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to Capitol Hill.
The list of administrative appointees is redolent with people closely linked to the Veep. We’re looking at the man some call the wizard behind the curtain, or the American Prime Minister. The redefining of Number Two, Dick Cheney, here.
(Hosted by Nina Totenberg)
Guests:
Nicholas Lemann, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of a recent piece on Cheney
former US Senator from Wyoming Alan Simpson
Pat Towell, senior writer at the Congressional Quarterly.