1 Boring Old Man

This table is a brief summary of the article Hail to the Chief in the Sunday Boston Globe about Dick Cheney’s political career. There’s also a good article, The Curse of Dick Cheney, in Rolling Stone:

From his earliest days, Dick Cheney has been at war with Oversight, fighting to return us not to the Reagan Era, but to the Nixon Era. The roots of his systematic erosion of the balance of powers is part of a campaign that dates from his days as President Ford’s Chief of Staff – fighting the post-Nixon attempts to force Executive Branch transparency. Ah, those were the days of the Imperial Presidency when men were men.

"Cheney’s manner and authority of voice far outstrip his true abilities," says Chas Freeman, who served under Bush’s father as ambassador to Saudi Arabia. "It was clear from the start that Bush required adult supervision — but it turns out Cheney has even worse instincts. He does not understand that when you act recklessly, your mistakes will come back and bite you on the ass."

…

"I don’t believe he is an ideologue," says former Sen. Tim Wirth of Colorado. "But he is the most partisan politician I’ve ever met." Many weekends, while Congress was in session, Wirth and Cheney would take the same flight to Chicago, where they’d change planes for Colorado and Wyoming. "I spent a lot of time waiting for planes with Dick Cheney," Wirth, a Democrat, says. "He never talked about ideology. He talked about how the Republicans were going to take over the House of Representatives." Wirth adds, "It seemed impossible, but that’s exactly what happened."