Two comments in Dan Froomkin's November 8th column in the Washington Post ("Bush's Tortured Logic") that caught my eye. The first was taken from Thomas M. DeFrank's article in the New York Daily News, "Dubya-Cheney Ties Frayed by Scandal":
"Multiple sources close to Bush told the Daily News that while the vice president remains his boss' valued political partner and counselor, his clout has lessened -- primarily as a result of issues arising from the Iraq war.
"'The relationship is not what it was,' a presidential counselor said. 'There has been some distance for some time.'"
No surprise there. I read about this almost two weeks ago in Justin Raimando column, "Earth to Bush: Ditch Cheney" (31 October 2005). But what was interesting was the second comment that Froomkin quoted, from James Carroll's article, Deconstructing Cheney," in the Boston Globe:
"When the World Trade Center towers were hit in New York, it was Cheney who told a shaken President Bush to flee. The true nature of their relationship (Cheney, not Bush, having shaped the national security team; Cheney, not Bush, having appointed himself as vice president) showed itself for a moment.
"The 9/11 Commission found that, from the White House situation room, Cheney warned the president that a 'specific threat' had targeted Air Force One, prompting Bush to spend the day hiding in the bunker at Offut Air Force Base in Nebraska. There was no specific threat. In Bush's absence, Cheney, implying an authorizing telephone call from the president, took command of the nation's response to the crisis. There was no authorizing telephone call. The 9/11 Commission declined to make an issue of Cheney's usurpation of powers, but the record shows it."
Which makes me wonder...is the President's recent slump in the polls due to this distancing between Bush and Cheney?
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