The Bush administration still has a chance to recover, said John Heilemann in New York magazine. But the 'œCheney administration is over.' Considered 'œthe most influential vice president' in history, Dick Cheney has spent the past five years discreetly whispering in George W. Bush's ear, lobbying heavily for the invasion of Iraq, and pushing the administration's energy, tax, and environmental policies to the extreme right. But over the past year, the popularity of the behind-the-scenes power broker has plummeted, as critics have zeroed in on how he sold the war to the American public. The final blow may have been last week's indictment of his top aide, I. Lewis 'œScooter' Libby, in the CIA leak investigation. The indictment says Libby learned the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame not from reporters, as he had claimed, but from Cheney himself. It wasn't a crime for Cheney to tell another official about Plame, but it puts Cheney at the center of the campaign to publicly discredit her husband, war critic Joseph Wilson. Suddenly, Washington is filled with 'œmurmurings''”unimaginable a few months ago'”that Bush may even want to replace the man he fondly calls 'œVice.'
Even if Cheney keeps his job, said Howard Fineman and Richard Wolffe in Newsweek, his influence is clearly waning. In foreign affairs, where Cheney's hawkish, unilateral views were once predominant, the more conciliatory Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is now the leading voice. Bush aides now insist that Cheney's influence was always overstated. 'œEven if they are rewriting history, the revision is politically significant'”and an ominous sign for Cheney in a city where power is the appearance of power.' Even more ominous, said Andrew Sullivan in the London Times, is the fact that special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald hasn't closed the book on his investigation. 'œSome kind of plea deal by Libby'”a shorter sentence in return for naming names in the underlying case?'”is not inconceivable. If I were Cheney, I'd be sweating.'
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