[Zardoz]

Fascinating comments by John Dean in this Eleanor Clift column:

Holding Pattern

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')ush favors top-down decision making and fancies himself the CEO of the enterprise with Rumsfeld and others doing the heavy lifting. Bush is the echo chamber, repeating what he hears, and he’s heard pretty much what the American people have heard over the course of this war. Things are going well, they’re going to get better and we’ve got to stay the course because if we leave things will get worse.

“I’ve got some very good sources still here in this town, and it looks to me from everything I can put together that the vice presidency has swallowed the president,” says John Dean of Watergate fame...

...The poor judgment that prompted Bush to invade Iraq can be laid squarely at the feet of Cheney. Yet the veep continues to operate largely unchecked and beneath the radar, wielding far more power than the president he serves, says Dean. Cheney has a national-security apparatus that’s more able than the statutory one: Budget decisions that used to go to the Oval Office are done at the vice-presidential level. Appointments, personnel—they’re all handled by Cheney.

“I’m not one who thinks Bush is stupid,” Dean told NEWSWEEK. “I think you can legitimately say on many issues [Bush is] ignorant—and he’s ignorant by design. He’s not interested in this stuff, and he knows Cheney loves it. As long as Cheney doesn’t get him arrested, fine, let him have it.”

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') think you can legitimately say on many issues [Bush is] ignorant—and he’s ignorant by design.

[mmasters]

Yeah, Bush outsourced his job to Cheney out of the gate.

[lateralus]

I knew Dick had his hand up W's ass, you never see Cheney's mouth move when George is speaking.