Not everyone realizes (I didn't) that Dick was in the Nixon White House for every day of Watergate, from 1971 through and beyond the 1974 resignation, and he was already Deputy Assistant to the President by Ford's time, so he must have been in on that pardon caper.  (Not saying it was his idea, but he obviously came to love it.)

So, no surprise he figured he could get away with anything under Bush, he had the ace in the hole:  "Listen here, you stupid peasants, every anti-Constitutional act of mine, each and every felony, betrayal of my oath of office, they're all covered by this pardon thing I used before (and it's golden, as Blago might say).  If you're not happy, Overreach THIS, 'cuz I'm the wiseguy who tells Bush what to sign and what not to sign!"  

Now, the day after the James Comey Incident (read Dickday's happy-go-lucky account (recommended!) and/or listen to Acting Att'y Gen. Comey's mind-bending testimony before Schumer), the White House (read, Cheney et al) decided to authorize continuation of the program without Justice's okay despite the black-and-white legal requirement mandating their approval.  (Comey glosses over this totally in his otherwise eye-popping account.) When Bush tried to bullshit Acting Att'y Gen. Comey the day after that, Comey told him that no one had that kind of consitutional authority and not only was Comey resigning, but he added (without granting the Decider so much as a chance to retort "Overreach THIS, you pimp!")  that FBI Director Mueller was downstairs waiting to give him the finger as well.   Plus, Card had passed along information by then that convalescening Ashcroft would also flip them off as soon as physicians would permit obscene gesturing, plus around a dozen more top officials would resign contemporaneously.  It would would make Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre look like puny. Nonetheless, this worried Cheney not one iota; if they didn't have the fire in their bellies (Powell had called it "the fever"), let them all go and Cheney could monitor the mass resignations from his undisclosed location and presumably plot retribution.

But reflecting on the inevitable foot-tall headlines (FBI Director, Atty General, Top Justice Officials Resign in Protest) and likely moves toward impeachment, Bush backed down.  And this for the first time made him think that Watergate Dick might bring trouble.  (The latter had begun writing memos proposing various lawlessness to Ford and (yep!) Rumsfeld as early as 1975 BTW and had never really stopped.)   So Bush, who abhors pardons anyway, starts moving off the Cheney reservation, denies Libby a full pardon, whereas I betcha Dick had wanted a preemptive pardon for himself too:  

   I hereby pardon Dick "Watergate" Cheney for any possible crimes he may have ever committed without limitation.
   Your Worst President Ever,

   W.


But Bush had bailed on him, whereas Cheney (stupefied!) hounded him for every last day of his failed presidency at least about Libby, and eventually Bush began avoiding the madman.  Bush literally grumbled about this to Obama as they were in the limo on the way to Obama's swearing in!  So Cheney's master get-out-of-jail-free strategy had worked for Tricky Dick, but not for the dick in question. And speaking of Attorneys General, what next, Eric Holder?

© 2009, J.D.