Gov. Palin: Cheney Lite
Agreed, Christopher, that Biden and Palin aren't made of the stuff of Cheney, and that Obama and McCain wouldn't welcome a vice presidency like his anyway. Still, I think there's a bit more to play out in Jane's question, at least on the Republican side. Last week, when Palin got into a spat with the press over covering the handshake pleasantries before her sit downs with foreign dignitaries, I made the Sarah-to-Dick connection. Albeit for different reasons, they share a penchant for secrecy and obfuscation. Palin's has a different basis at the moment--she's turning tail, whereas Cheney barks and bites. At the moment it seems laughable to imagine her as the Cheney in "The Dark Side" and "The Angler." She's all puppet and no puppet master--that's her problem. But as governor, she had a governing style that sounds like Cheney lite, prizing loyalty and discretion above other attributes.
Power once accrued to the executive branch doesn't easily ebb away. And then it's a tool for another day. Whether or not the next vice president doesn't him or herself wield it, a future one might, unless it's been formally repudiated. I worry about the excesses of Cheney being dusted off at a future moment when the country is again scared and not in the mood to worry over separation of powers and civil liberties. So here's a question: Will a Vice President Palin give back the power to classify documents, equivalent to the president's, which Cheney won for himself when Bush signed this 2003 executive order. Will Biden?
I had a nightmare in which Palin picked Addington as her chief of staff.
October 1, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
"IF Joe Six Pack can do the job, should we award VP in a lottery instead of an election?"
I hope Ifill asks her that.
October 1, 2008 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
You say Sarah Palin is no puppet master, but does she need to be? The power is already accrued, and if the tens of thousands of prisoners under U.S. control, and the abusive techniques, and the torture and all the other Dark Side tactics go sailing through the election with no comment, aren't they subject to the Cheneyism that the public stamped their approval of the Iraq War in 2004?
If she's secretive to use such powers, she need not be another Cheney to use them. There have been brutal people who were not well informed or smart before.
This is part of why nothing short of prosecution is really adequate to stop torture, isn't it?
October 1, 2008 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
What "power accrued?" I'm not aware of any legislation or constitutional amendments that have given additional power to the vice-presidency in the past 8 years.
The power Cheney has, he took and Bush gave him. The vice-president has less power than any cabinet member. He or she has only the power and duties that the president allows her to have. Cheney's footprint isn't going to mean jack to McCain, or to Obama for that matter. Cheney had a lot of experience in the executive branch and a lot of neocon allies in DoD and Justice. He had no power; he had influence over Bush, who gave him power.
October 2, 2008 6:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with L0ngT0m. The degree that Gov. Palin is a threat to the republic comparable to that posed by Vice President* Cheney is only when we consider that if she needs to assume the top job (even temporarily) she will be completely at the whim of the people with which a President McCain would surround himself. Taking a cursory look at his advisors, especially in the foreign policy area is frightening (although they might be so fractious as to render themselves impotent). Of course his domestic and economic policy hands are no less scary, but they at least would not be inclined to start wars.
October 2, 2008 8:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
There are two types of power that have been gathered in the Vice President's office. One is semi-permanent: the increase in staff, all the various assistants for policy, the size of the chief of staff's office, the functioning of new protocols, like having the Vice President's counsel present at meetings with the Defense Department's lawyers or the OLC lawyers. That continues for sure.
Then there is the part where Cheney controls the information that reaches Bush for decisions. That would ostensibly disappear, given that Palin doesn't present a formidable countenance as a trusted adviser. But you forget that as it stands now, Addington controls the information that reaches Cheney, and in essence, his counsel to the President. Addington, or somebody like him, could just as easily advise Palin of what to say, how to argue, and then she would present as a credible trusted adviser. That would complete the use of the accrued power.
I wouldn't rule it out until you see who the inside players are going to be.
October 2, 2008 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is good policy to maintain.
Sazala
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May 11, 2009 7:16 AM | Reply | Permalink