The Dick Cheney You Don't Know

Howard Mortman reprints Kenneth Tomlinson's review of Stephen Hayes’s new book, Cheney: The Untold Story of America’s Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President:

[W]henever I think about the most powerful material in the book, I come back to Cheney’s early life. Like the time Cheney was twice nailed for drunk driving while working in transmission line construction in the mountains of Wyoming. Hayes writes:

The same month that he was arrested for a second time, Cheney’s friends and former classmates received their diplomas from Yale. As he sat in the jail cell in Rock Springs, the contrast struck him hard. For 18 years, Cheney had a carefree life marked by a series of seemingly effortless accomplishments. His admission to Yale, on a full scholarship, appeared to continue this promising trajectory.

Now almost four years after the excitement and anticipation of that first cross-country train trip to New Haven, Cheney found himself alone in jail, left to contemplate everything that had gone wrong. Even for someone who had been—and would be—known for his equanimity, it was another disturbing new low.

So how did Cheney emerge from these depths?

He experienced no rehab or AA. Fact is, he didn’t even stop drinking.

Seems his girlfriend who had just graduated early from the University of Colorado let him know she had no intension of spending her life with an electrical worker who was in trouble with the law. He knew Lynne Vincent was a woman of her word. So he simply straightened up and went to the University of Colorado let him know she had no intension of spending her life with an electrical worker who was in trouble with the law. He knew Lynne Vincent was a woman of her word. So he simply straightened up and went to the University of Wyoming (where he lived on tomato soup and rice) and got interested in political science.

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The Daily Digest

Rentals in Manhattan (clockwise from top left): 1 Carnegie Hill; 37 Wall Street; Chelsea Landmark; Ritz Plaza

Under Governor Mitt Blunt, Missouri has established the Missouri Accountability Portal (MAP), a Web site that MAPs out the entire state's finances. Better yet, Blunt did this using existing staff and resources, without a single additional expenditure.

In another instance of what I call "reverse snob appeal," Michael Medved and Jim Geraghty extol Mike Huckabee's anti-elitism. "Huckabee spontaneously deploys the warmth, humor, gift of gab, accessibility and kindness that we haven’t seen in a GOP presidential contender since Reagan," writes Medved. "He comes across as a regular guy who cares about other regular guys. He also possesses a rare ability to craft catchy phrases that connect with people." For Geraghty, Huckabee is "a vague populist with a fresh face who has quietly accumulated 10 years of executive experience."

Grover on Cheney: "His penchant for secrecy makes Howard Hughes look like Gypsy Rose Lee."A few days later, Grover also got a dig in at GWB, whose "compassionate conservatism" he referred to as "whatever that was."

What's the point of a blind trust if you know what's in it?

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The Daily Digest

Prepared remarks for George W. Bush, with handwritten corrections, on the podium after he officially opened the remodeled Brady Press Briefing room at the White House

Patrick Ruffini advises politicians how to embrace the Web 2.0: "[C]andidates shouldn't Twitter; they should TwitterGram. They shouldn't blog; they should videoblog. That solves the authenticity dilemma of campaign Web sites—we'll know for sure it's them, in video or voice, delivering a message many times more compelling than plain text."

It's now a cliche that Dick Cheney is the most influential and powerful person ever to hold the office of vice president. The question everyone wants to know but few do: how does he do it? In a fascinating four-part series—the kind of journalism that makes us remember why bloggers need the so-called MSM—the Washington Post "examines Cheney's largely hidden and little-understood role in crafting policies for the War on Terror, the economy and the environment."

Cato's Gene Healy is hard at work on a new book, tentatively titled, The Cult of the Presidency: America’s Dangerous Romance with Executive Power. Nut: "If the public expects the president to solve all national problems, physical or spiritual, the president will seek—or seize—the power necessary to handle that responsibility. As a result, powers that the Constitution leaves to the states or the people increasingly flow to the center, and increasingly become concentrated in the hands of one person."

You know who Mitt Romney is. Now meet his dad, courtesy of a Time cover story from 1959. Related: Jonathan Cohn asks if George Romney would be proud of his son's presidential politicking?

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Romney, Richard and Rupert

Today's a big day for in-depth investigations.

The Boston Globe, Mitt Romney's hometown paper, publishes part two of its seven-part series, "The Making of Mitt Romney." (See also Michael Scherer's profile in today's Salon.)

The Washington Post pulls back the curtain behind the Office of the Vice President with a four-part series titled "Angler," the Secret Service code name for Dick Cheney.

The NYT delves into the international lobbying efforts and editorial oversight exercised by media baron Rupert Murdoch. (The New York Observer reported the back story last week.)

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