Editorial: No balance in this power

Sunday, July 1, 2007 | 7:06 a.m.

Vice President Dick Cheney's resistance to federal oversight of how his office handles classified information is only the tip of an iceberg when it comes to his behind-the-scenes maneuvers.

A four-part series by The Washington Post last week shows in extraordinary detail how Cheney has, with Bush's blessing, changed the scope and political reach of the vice presidency in a way that has given him powers unlike that of any of his predecessors.

Cheney's influence has permeated and guided policy decisions on everything, including presidential authority, the Iraq invasion, military interrogations and matters of energy, tax law and the environment, the Post reports.

"Before the president casts the only vote that counts," the Post writes, "the final words of counsel nearly always come from Cheney."

Vice presidential aides told the Post that Cheney has persistently and consistently pressed for 77,000 tons of the nation's high-level nuclear waste to be buried in a repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Cheney's mission, as always, places industry interests - in this case, those of the nuclear power industry - above the interests of residents and conservationists who seek science-based decisions regarding environmental safety and protections.

The vice president also drove the Bush administration's rewriting of a Clinton-era policy that was designed to protect national forests from logging, mining and development.

Cheney exerted pressure on lower-ranking federal officials and won policy changes that broadened Clean Air Act definitions, allowing power plants to modify their operations without having to install updated pollution controls. Christine Todd Whitman resigned her post as Environmental Protection Agency administrator over the decision in 2003.

Cheney even guided the revision of rules - with virtually no administration review - governing how military prisoners were to be interrogated, clearing the way for using methods of torture that the United States previously prosecuted as war crimes, the Post reports.

And he did all of it with Bush's knowledge and blessing. Former Vice President Dan Quayle told the Post that when he sought to give Cheney some advice about being vice president, Cheney told him that he and Bush had an "understanding" that Cheney would be "surrogate chief of staff." As a result, Cheney has been afforded access to discussions and policy decisions that no other vice president has had.

As Bush embarks on his final 18 months in office, he undoubtedly seeks to define his legacy. But his legacy has been set. In relinquishing so much power to Cheney, that legacy is destined to be a string of ruinous policies that will bring disastrous consequences for years to come.