Woodward in the Post part III

This article is based on chapters which were leaked and discussed in the 60 minutes interview. The leaks and the headline confirm the hypothesis that the press considers Colin Powell's angst more important than the constitution. The concern Powell's preception that Cheney had a feaver. The do not concern who exactly was conducting US foreign policy in the Summer of 2002.

"Cheney decided that everyone was offering an opinion except the administration. ... It was highly unusual for the vice president to speak on such a major issue before the president, .... But Cheney couldn't wait. ...He spoke privately with the president, who gave his approval without reviewing the details of what Cheney might say.

At an NSC meeting, Cheney said to the president, "Well, I'm going to give that speech."

"Don't get me in trouble," Bush half joked.

Trouble is what Cheney had in mind.

"Cheney Says Peril of a Nuclear Iraq Justifies Attack," read the headline in the New York Times on Aug. 27"

Woodward asserts that the administrations policy was publicly declared in a speach which was not even read by the President. After Cheney's speech Bush had a choice between eliminating Saddam Hussein by whatever means necessary and publicly backing down, wimping out and retreating from the administration position decided and publicly stated by the Vice Presicent acting on his own and without the Presidents knowledge or approval of the decision to commit to war or humiliation based on the undread text of the speach not the approved topic.

Well enough about the constitution time for some gossip-

We all know that Wolfowitz was frozen in amber, obsessed with the decision in 1991 to let Saddam Hussein stay in power, but who could have imagined that he was so obsessed that he was still complaining on April 10 2003 after Saddam Hussein's army had been defeated.

" "We're all together. There should be no protocol; let's just talk," Cheney said when they sat down to dinner.

Wolfowitz embarked on a long review of the 1991 Persian Gulf War and what a mistake it had been to allow the Iraqis to fly helicopters after the armistice."

Frankly the man seems to be insane to me.

As in Richard Clarke's report on the PEOC on September 11th we see that the person who is really in charge is not Richard Cheney or even Rove but Lynn Cheney

""I want you three guys to shut up," Lynne Cheney said, pointing at Cheney, Wolfowitz and Adelman."

I have searched the US constitution and find no reference to the absolute authority of the spouse of the Vice President.