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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barton Gellman’s newsbreaking investigative journalism documents how Vice President Dick Cheney redefined the role of the American vice presidency, assuming unprecedented responsibilities and making it a post of historic power.

Dick Cheney changed history, defining his times and shaping a White House as no vice president has before— yet concealing most of his work from public view. Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman parts the curtains of secrecy to show how Cheney operated, why, and what he wrought.

Angler, Gellman’s embargoed and highly explosive book, is a work of careful, concrete, and original reporting backed by hundreds of interviews with close Cheney allies as well as rivals, many speaking candidly on the record for the first time. On the signature issues of war and peace, Angler takes readers behind the scenes as Cheney maneuvers for dominance on what he calls the iron issues from Iraq, Iran, and North Korea to executive supremacy, interrogation of Al Qaeda suspects, and domestic espionage. Gellman explores the behind-the- scenes story of Cheney’s tremendous influence on foreign policy, exposing how he misled the four ranking members of Congress with faulty intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, how he derailed Bush from venturing into Israeli- Palestinian peace talks for nearly five years, and how his policy left North Korea and Iran free to make major advances in their nuclear programs.

Domestically, Gellman details Cheney’s role as “super Chief of Staff ”, enforcer of conservative orthodoxy; gatekeeper of Supreme Court nominees; referee of Cabinet turf; editor of tax and budget laws; and regulator in chief of the administration’s environment policy. We watch as Cheney, the ultimate Washington insider, leverages his influence within the Bush administration in order to implement his policy goals. Gellman’s discoveries will surprise even the most astute students of political science.

Above all, Angler is a study of the inner workings of the Bush administration and the vice president’s central role as the administration’s canniest power player. Gellman exposes the mechanics of Cheney’s largely successful post-September 11 campaign to win unchecked power for the commander in chief, and reflects upon, and perhaps changes, the legacy that Cheney—and the Bush administration as a whole—will leave as they exit office.

Rating : - A good account of how Cheney operates.
In Angler, Gellman argues that with the Cheney vice-presidency we came as close as possible to having a deputy president. That's putting it mildly. What we learn in this book really is that we had a co-presidency. While Bush rarely appears in this book, since it's not about him, we have to assume that Bush at some point does whatever it is that presidents are supposed to do, although there is little evidence here. What we do learn is that Cheney did an awful lot of what a president does and then some.

Cheney had two personal interests in joining this administration: the economy and foreign policy. Today every American can judge for himself to what extent Cheney was a success in these areas. In terms of the economy, Cheney is the old-fashioned conservative: small government, big military, tax breaks for the rich as the only solution for all ills. Bush, we are told, is more of a populist, who cares about the little guy and has no problem with big government. Bush's (only?) two interests were education reform and prescription assistance for the elderly. Again and again we are introduced to issues where ideology takes Cheney in one direction and instincts take Bush in another, yet Cheney invariably wins- while claiming that the president has the last word. And every time this entails plenty of collateral damage: people whose careers where destroyed for not going along with Cheney. In foreign policy Cheney saw the end of the cold war as a chance for America to become and remain the only power on earth to dictate the new globalism. 9/11 was a key event because with it, Cheney saw the chance to give the executive office absolute powers.

Almost every chapter focuses on some issue where Cheney exerted more power than a VP has ever had. The book is also arranged chronologically, from the days of Cheney trying to find a running mate for Bush to Bush reflecting in 2008 about his relationship to Cheney. Some of the issues discussed are: 2 chapters on the environment, a couple on economic issues, 9/11, domestic spying, dealing with Congress, Iraq, torture, Iran.

We find out how Cheney works: by learning as much as he can about an issue, not because he is interesting in learning to make up his mind but rather because he is looking for definitive arguments for his already-made-up mind. He tried to manage as much information as possible, that is, get as much information, and let no info out. He did this by inserting himself in meetings that a VP has no business in or sending his proxies, by obtaining all communications that went to the president and to the State Department. He would create alternative channels of communication and influence if the official ways didn't get the result he wanted fast and he did so without letting those who should know have any idea of what happened. He did it all it utmost secrecy. Then, of course, he'd lie about it all. He'd be the last guy in the room with the president after everyone else left- and that meant that Bush ended up agreeing with Cheney.

We meet an interesting cast of characters. We are told that Libby is a Cheney's Cheney, but he does not appear often in this book, perhaps that's how secretive he is. Instead the one who really seems to be a Cheney's Cheney is Addington, who is also a psychopath and acts as Cheney's mouth. While Cheney rarely speaks but mainly asks questions, Addington pretty much gives voice to whatever is in Cheney's mind- and it's never good. But Addington did more than talk, he also articulated in writing what Cheney wanted. Whatever law or order Bush signed and regardless where it came from, it went through Addington before Bush signed it and Addington created the final version making changes that allowed for things to go Cheney's way in the end and after all was said and done- even if the law was one explicitly opposing Cheney.

While the author does not insert himself in this book for the most part, he does become particularly confrontational when it comes to constitutional issues. He tries not to be judgmental or take sides, but a lot is made clear by what issues he chose. Chapter eight, "Matching the Science," pertains to an economical/environmental issue: whether to let farmlands dry out and put farmers out of business or insure the survival of some type of fish. Gellman wants the reader to become outraged over Cheney's choice to side with the farmers over the fish, but you'd have to be a radical to fault Cheney here for putting people over fish. I will also give credit to Cheney for fighting to allow the CIA to be free of restrictions in their investigative methods, and for trying to inject some dynamism in Washington, a town characterized by inertia.

Note that this book is NOT an analysis of the Cheney vice-presidency or of Cheney himself, it is an account and description of events and what went on behind the scenes. It is an easy and quick read thanks to large print and generous margins (hardcover edition). The research the author did is first rate. I am not so impressed by the writing style. I take it in this genre sentence fragments are acceptable. The chapters on the events that almost led to a part of the administration resigning are thrilling.

What I concluded from this book is that Cheney is very intelligent and competent as a bureaucrat. The faculty of reason alone, without a moral directive, however, has proven catastrophic again and again in history. And Cheney is not intelligent enough to recognize when he is wrong. But it must be an accomplishment to get so much done in Washington with a handful of acolytes and without everyone else finding out. Unfortunately, he was wrong on nearly everything; his ideology is flat out immoral, incorrect, and disastrous. The man is also emotionally-challenged and for whatever reasons (inability to trust others?) starved for power. He can only work with those who are like-minded and has an uncanny type of leadership, where he was able to control any meeting he was in, whether invited or uninvited, in person or via TV, merely by his presence. Perhaps it is true that image is everything in America, and all these high-powered people deferred to the grandfather-figure Cheney to get the last word on everything.

Gellman wants to convince us that Bush and Cheney are men who have the best of intentions and are entirely driven by the desire to serve this country. His books proves that this is not the case at all. The chapters on 9/11 show that before 9/11 the intelligence community did their best to get Cheney's attention about the threat of Al-Qaeda. Yet Cheney would have none of it. During 9/11 Cheney remains completely and in my view pathologically apathetic. After 9/11 the administration blamed the intelligence community and used 9/11 to try to install a tyranny.

This book gives support to the view that the Bush-Cheney administration was the worst ever in American history, if nothing else for the fact that the people did not perform their assigned roles. Bush happily allowed Cheney to usurp the roles of his cabinet and of himself. There weren't enough courageous folks to effectively counterbalance Cheney's wrong doctrines and apparently those who tried did not have Bush's support or even his ear. Bush blindly accepted nearly every position Cheney took. Cheney moreover filled the administration with the insane but articulate neo-cons whose ideology has no basis whatsoever in reality. But don't look for details about the Cheney-neo-con relationship in this book. How that ever happened is for others to investigate; the index doesn't even include the word "neo-conservative," which Gellman does mention, and he does spend some time discussing the absurd views of Yoo and Wurmser.

I want to conclude this review by mentioning the names of some of the good guys who appear in this book and who did the right thing and fought against this administration and the entire Cheney machine for what was right: John Ashcroft, James Comey, Jack Goldsmith, Richard Haas, Ben Miller, Theodore Olson, Jim Jeffords, Alberto Mora, Colin Powell, Condi Rice, Paul O'Neill.