President Cheney?

The historical stereotype of American vice-presidents, as described in this book and others, has been of has-been and never-will-be political hacks selected partly on the basis of their purported ability to attract votes from geographical or political sectors of the population different from the man at the head of the ticket, but most importantly, for their all-important inability to outshine The Big Man in the Number One slot. (Remember Dan Quayle?)

The present administration appears to be an exception. Bob Woodward's latest book reportedly confirms what many have suspected for a long time, especially since the administration insisted that President Bush could only meet with the 9-11 commission under his supervision... er, in his company: Dick Cheney is the real president, the one who makes the policy decisions and provides the intellectual direction for the administration.

Total Information Secrecy

This makes it all the more disturbing that, as discussed in Common Dreams and the New York Times, the administration has doggedly and persistently insisted on total secrecy about his activities and the influence of his energy-industry cohorts. But this has been a consistent theme of the Bush administration, not just in dealing with Cheney's and Bush's oil-industry connections, but in all aspects of its activities. John Ashcroft has ordered government staff to ignore the Freedom-Of-Information Act; the Education department website has been peremptorily scrubbed of all documents that don't support the president's policies; and Bush seems to be determined to replace the existing National Archivist under circumstances that have aroused the suspicions of the Society of American Archivists, the American Library Association, and others. Meanwhile, as reported in Salon, the National Council for Research on Women claims that a number of reports dealing with women's issues have been "disappeared" from government websites.

This goes beyond mere spin-doctoring. As the Common Dreams article says, "What Mr. Cheney is defending, in other words, is a doctrine that makes the United States a sort of elected dictatorship: a system in which the president, once in office, can do whatever he likes, and isn't obliged to consult or inform either Congress or the public."

That's not compatible with democracy.

Bush delenda est. Cheney delenda est.