The Contemporary Presidency: Cheney, Vice Presidential Power, and the War on Terror

Abstract

This essay explores the relationship between the war on terror, the rise in presidential power, and the unprecedented nature of the Dick Cheney vice presidency, which is generally recognized as America's most influential vice presidency. Whereas historically the second office often had been dismissed as too feeble, the Cheney vice presidency sometimes was attacked as too robust. Although the events of 9/11 and the subsequent war on terror certainly contributed in important ways to the rise of presidential and vice presidential power during the presidency of George W. Bush, both developments were under way and would have occurred, although differently, had al‐Qaeda never attacked the United States. The author attributes Cheney's influential vice presidency in large part to a confluence of factors relating to Bush and Cheney that predated 9/11. The essay suggests that these factors produced a unique vice presidency that, for most of Cheney's tenure, allowed Cheney to escape conventional sources of vice presidential accountability.

Polls and Elections: Under the Radar: Public Support for Vice Presidents

“…Another approach to the subject is biographical in nature, yielding books that offer chapters on each vice president (Hatfield ; Purcell ; Southwick ; Waldrup ; Witcover ). Article‐length case studies of various vice presidents include (perhaps predictably, given his controversial tenure in office) overviews of Dick Cheney's vice presidency (Baumgartner ; Goldstein ) and others (Natoli ; ; ). Rounding out serious scholarship on the vice presidency are articles which look at presidential succession (Adkinson ; Schlesinger ) and numerous legal analyses of various aspects of the institution (e.g., Albert ; Brownell ; ; ; ; Goldstein ).…”

“…One account of the transformation of the institution goes so far as to suggest that vice presidents have moved out from the shadow of obscurity into the spotlight (Baumgartner 2015). Another refers to a modern White House vice presidency (Goldstein 2016). The implication of these and other accounts of the modern vice presidency is that the institution is significantly more important to twenty-first-century U.S. politics and government.…”

“…There is some consensus among scholars and observers of U.S. government, and of the U.S. presidency in particular, that the vice presidency has come of age. Once viewed by many with scorn and derision, vice presidents are now considered an integral part of a president's administration (see, e.g., Baumgartner 2015;Goldstein 2016;Hite 2013;Light 1984). One account of the transformation of the institution goes so far as to suggest that vice presidents have moved out from the shadow of obscurity into the spotlight (Baumgartner 2015).…”

Policy Entrepreneurs and the Reorientation of National Security Policy under the G. W. Bush Administration (2001‐04)

“…“Rumsfeld just assumed Bush had clued in his Vice President in a way he had not done with the rest of the team yet” (Baker , 241). Rumsfeld (, 450) admits, “this was the first time I had heard a senior administration official speak with such certainty about imminent military action.” The consensus among observers is that Cheney proved to be the most powerful vice president in history, a sort of de facto “co‐president” or “assistant president”—ironically enough, as he had no personal presidential ambitions (Gellman , 388; Goldstein ; Unger , 181‐214). He organized the transition and constructed the administration.…”

“…Military lawyers from each branch of the armed forces and Bush's counter‐terrorism adviser Fran Townsend, who all disagreed vigorously with the executive orders, were upbraided by Addington, Haynes, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Feith (Forsythe , 76‐81; Gellman and Becker , A1; Graham , 316‐22, 371‐5, 468‐76, 540‐4) . The electronic surveillance program was also developed and supervised entirely by the vice president's office—“Cheney's brainchild” (Goldstein , 116), a first in the annals of intelligence. “Addington, armed with Cheney's proxy, kept the program secret not just from Congress and the courts, but from the NSC” (Unger , 221).…”