What is Cheney Defending?

Shirley Anne Warshaw was interviewed by the Rorotoko blog about her new book, The Co-Presidency of Bush and Cheney.

"In the past month or so, we have seen former Vice President Cheney aggressively respond to charges by President Obama that the Bush administration exacerbated America’s friends and foes with its policies of torture, prisoner abuse, and inadequate trials."  Warshaw argues that this is because the policies of the Bush administration were very much Cheney's policies so it is only fitting that he is defending them.

Not only did Cheney have major influence over foreign policy but he also had all the legal arenas stacked with his supporters in order to push his agenda through the Justice Department. According to Warshaw, Cheney "had his hand in almost every area of domestic policy" by stacking the White House with his own staff of trusted insiders. The Bush/Cheney working relationship came to work so well because George Bush was focused on creating a moral and civil, faith-based society, leaving Cheney to take care of everything else.

Cheney staffed the administration with pro-business executives and "shaped the Bush administration’s energy, environmental, pro-business, and national security policies." From environmental regulations to government outsourcing, Cheney was bent on creating a business-friendly society.

Warshaw remarks, "I hope that The Co-Presidency of Bush and Cheney sheds new light on the limited agenda that George W. Bush had as president and the far larger agenda that Dick Cheney had as vice president – as well as the tools Cheney employed to move that agenda forward."