Vice : Dick Cheney and the hijacking of the American presidency /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Dubose, Lou.
Edition:1st ed.
Imprint:New York : Random House, c2006.
Description:x, 261 p. ; 25 cm.
Language:English
Subject:Cheney, Richard B.
Cheney, Richard B.
Vice-Presidents -- United States -- Biography.
Power (Social sciences) -- United States.
Politics and government
Power (Social sciences)
Vice-Presidents.
United States -- Politics and government -- 2001-2009-
United States.
Biography.
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/6244262
Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:Bernstein, Jake.
ISBN:1400065763 (hbk.)
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (p. [231]-248) and index.
Standard no.:9781400065769
Review by New York Times Review

If you think Dick Cheney exists in "a parallel radical-right fantasyland"; if you believe that his chief of staff, David S. Addington, is an "attack dog"; and if you consider Robert Novak "the dark doyen of conservative journalism," you may find yourself high-fiving Dubose and Bernstein as you read "Vice." Dubose, the co-author (with Molly Ivins) of "Bushwhacked," and Bernstein, the executive editor of The Texas Observer, devote chapters to Cheney's Halliburton stint ("Lawless C.E.O."), family life ("Lady MacCheney") and recent achievements ("The Torture Presidency"). They also describe his feelings about the Freedom of Information Act and presidential power (you can probably guess). Despite having little access to Cheney and his colleagues, the authors capture the vice president's interiority with surprising certainty ("Cheney didn't want a normal life; he wanted to live, eat and breathe the White House"). Google, disgruntled civil servants, an ex-Grateful Dead lyricist and Ron Suskind's "Price of Loyalty" appear to be their sources. Dubose and Bernstein, who use the word "cabal" at least 10 times, seem aghast at Washington behavior, saying, for example, that the former State Department official Elliott Abrams "apparently had no qualms about misleading legislators and the American people." This brings to mind a story that made the rounds in early-1990s Poland. At a briefing under martial law, a journalist supposedly asked the government spokesman Jerzy Urban if he was telling the truth. "Is this the first time you've ever been to a press conference?" was his reply.

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 27, 2009]
Review by Booklist Review

Dubose and Bernstein, journalists who have covered Texas politics with a particular eye on the career of President George W. Bush, examine the power and personality of the vice president. With a penchant for secrecy and disdain for Congress and the press, Cheney has managed to skirt all the rules that were meant to balance powers in the U.S. government, forever changing the power vested in the office of the vice president. Dubose and Bernstein detail Cheney's close ties to energy interests and how those ties influenced policy and led to efforts to circumvent congressional oversight. In what Dubose and Bernstein call a secrecy befitting the Kremlin, Cheney maneuvered around sunshine laws and defied the media, Congress, and lawsuits to assert the administration's rights to secrecy in developing national policy on everything from energy to the war in Iraq. Dubose and Bernstein also ponder the implications of Cheney's actions for the future of the U.S. government. --Vanessa Bush Copyright 2006 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Dubose and Bernstein show in this thorough, rollicking career biography that it's Cheney-not the more publicly criticized Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, Condoleeza Rice or President Bush-who is chiefly responsible for the most unpopular aspects of the Bush regime: an imperial executive office and foreign policy; abandonment of democratic ideals (respect for government checks and balances, the Geneva Convention, the Bill of Rights and the Freedom of Information Act); and questionable corporate-government colusion (the secret energy task force, Halliburton's government contracts in Iraq). Tracing Cheney through three White House adminsitrations, six terms in the House of Representatives, and a tour as Halliburton CEO, the portrait that emerges from these pages is both alarming and compelling; like a J.R. Ewing, Cheney proves to be the kind of fascinating figure you love to hate. As obstacles to Cheney's will-Congress, the Constitution, foreign countries, the press, or other politicians-are sidestepped, ignored, or trammeled, Cheney emerges as a classic Machiavellian; in Cheney's case, it appears that the end which justifies the means is power, pure and simple. Against Cheney, idealistic liberals who believe that an appeal to democratic ideals, the Constitution, or basic decency will work with this administration emerge here as painfully naive; unfortunately, this realization has only settled in after the damage was already done. Dubose and Bernstein present a sobering and darkly flattering expose of the reclusive power behind the throne, and a grim vision of what his legacy may be. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.


Review by New York Times Review


Review by Booklist Review


Review by Publisher's Weekly Review