http://slate.msn.com/pol/01-07-06/pol.asp
Who's Really President?
Rove or Cheney?
By David Plotz
David Plotz is Slate's Washington bureau chief. .
Posted Friday, July 6, 2001, at 9:30 a.m. PT
Karl Rove is "the center of all power in the White House." But Dick Cheney is
the White House's "supreme power broker."
Cheney is the "most influential member of the Bush team." But Rove is the
"most influential presidential aide in two decades."
According to Time, Rove is "the Busiest Man in Washington." According to
Time, Cheney is the administration's "John Henry."
Cheney is "uniquely powerful." On the other hand, "no one, with the possible
exception of the President, will be more responsible for the success or
failure of Bush's presidency" than Rove.
Says Newsweek of Rove: "[He] has a hand in virtually every decision the
president makes." Says Time of Cheney: "There is almost no major issue that
doesn't feel his touch." (This is certainly a hands-on administration.)
It's enough to drive a poor influence-peddler crazy. If you need a wheel
greased, who should you call? "The Indispensable Man" (Cheney)? Or "the man
to see in Washington" (Rove)? If you're measuring influence, which is better:
Cheney spending "half the working day" with W., or Rove talking "constantly"
on the phone to Bush? Is Rove the shadow president? Or is Cheney?
This week has brought more conflicting evidence. Rove has almost
single-handedly blocked the administration from permitting stem-cell
research. Most Americans, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson,
and lots of top Republican politicians say it's a scientific and ethical
good. Rove says it could alienate Catholic voters. Cheney, meanwhile, rushed
back to the office a day after heart surgery, a frantic return that confirmed
the Democratic suspicion that the White House—and President Bush—would
collapse without him.
Naturally, administration folks—especially Cheney and Rove—insist President
Bush is President Bush. He is the chairman, the CEO. He says jump, they say
how high, etc. But Bush is a hands-off president—that's why Rove and Cheney
have their hands in everything—and it's clear his underlings are remarkably
powerful.
Who you believe is shadow president depends on your worldview. If you think
the presidency is essentially politics, Rove is your man. If you believe the
presidency is process, Cheney is.
Rove, officially Bush's senior adviser, is grandmaster of all things
strategic and political. (This was a job Bill Clinton kept for himself.) His
basic duty is to do whatever it takes to re-elect Bush in 2004. On Vieques,
Puerto Rico, it was Rove who decided—without significantly consulting the
president or defense secretary—that the administration would stop bombing
runs in a couple of years. Rove calculated that the halt would please
Hispanics. White House polling is funneled through Rove, and he uses the data
to modify administration strategy. When Bush was pummeled for being
anti-green and pro-energy, Rove decided the administration would emphasize
environmental initiatives and back-burner drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge. Rove is the pooh-bah of national party politics: He helped
install Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore as chairman of the RNC. When a bitter
primary fight threatened GOP chances in a Minnesota Senate race recently,
Rove was instrumental in persuading one of the candidates to withdraw.
Rove also handles the administration's relations with interest groups,
particularly the religious right. Republicans learned in Bush I that they
dare not alienate the conservative base. So Rove has almost total freedom to
do whatever he wants to satisfy them. Thanks to Rove, the White House may get
involved in the Sudanese civil war—exactly the kind of complex, intractable,
irrelevant-to-American-interests conflict that candidate Bush said the United
States should avoid. But Christian conservatives are enraged by Muslim abuse
(and sometimes enslavement) of Christian rebels and have recruited Rove to
help them. Similarly, Rove has blocked stem-cell research in service to
religious conservatives. And Rove has guided some of the marketing of Bush's
faith-based bill, even establishing an outside lobbying group to help give
the proposal juice.
Vice President Cheney also has a job that Clinton reserved for himself.
Cheney is president of everything beige, the dull but essential questions of
process and policy. Cheney dominated the transition and got his favorites
installed in key positions in the administration—including Treasury Secretary
Paul O'Neill and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. As "prime minister,"
Cheney runs much of the day-to-day business of the administration. Cheney,
for example, directed the budget-review process, settling disagreements
between Cabinet secretaries without taking them to the president. Cheney
serves as the White House delegate to Congress, acting as
