WaPo: Cheney, Part 3 of 4

The third in the Washington Post's Richard Bruce Cheney series has been posted. Like the rest of the series, it was written by Barton Gellman and Jo Becker, who scored a major coup with a team-written story about Rupert Murdoch on the front page of The New York Times on Monday, the same day she had a team-written story on the front page of the Washington Post. Part 3 is headlined: A Strong Push From Back Stage. Here's one short excerpt and all the subheads to spark your commentary:

Cheney has changed history more than once, earning his reputation as the nation's most powerful vice president. His impact has been on public display in the arenas of foreign policy and homeland security, and in a long-running battle to broaden presidential authority. But he has also been the unseen hand behind some of the president's major domestic initiatives.

Scores of interviews with advisers to the president and vice president, as well as with other senior officials throughout the government, offer a backstage view of how the Bush White House operates. The president is "the decider," as Bush puts it, but the vice president often serves up his menu of choices.

Cheney led a group that winnowed the president's list of potential Supreme Court nominees. Cheney resolved a crisis in the space program after the Columbia shuttle disaster. Cheney fashioned a controversial truce between the legislative and executive branches -- and averted resignations at the top of the Justice Department and the FBI -- over the right of law enforcement authorities to investigate political corruption in Congress.

And it was Cheney who served as the guardian of conservative orthodoxy on budget and tax matters. He shaped and pushed through Bush's tax cuts, blunting the influence of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, a longtime friend, and of Cabinet rivals he had played a principal role in selecting. He managed to overcome the president's "compassionate conservative" resistance to multiple breaks for the wealthy. He even orchestrated a decision to let a GOP senator switch parties -- giving control of the chamber to Democrats -- rather than meet the senator's demand for billions of dollars in new spending.

A 'More Effective Role'

'The President Made the Call'

One thing has been made perfectly clear by this series: There's a very good reason why on 9/11 that Cheney was calling the shots from a bunker while the man who was supposed to be in charge - after seven dazed minutes with The Pet Goat - flew hither and yon aboard Air Force One. Does anyone still object to my calling that man Mister Bush instead of the President?