Cheney Wields Unprecedented V.P. Power

Nov. 29, 2003 — -- Though Vice President Dick Cheney may stand discreetly in the background, rarely seen or heard from in public, don't underestimate him.

"His power is unparalleled in the history of the republic, frankly, for that position," said John Hulsman, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington-based think tank.

"Everybody knows that the vice president is going to fundamentally affect the foreign policy of the country," Hulsman added. "[When the vice president's office calls] you better get down there and you better wipe your hands on the side of your jacket on the way in the door."

Analysts believe the secretive and conservative Cheney, who did not speak to Nightline for this story, was a driving force behind the Bush administration's aggressive approach to war in Iraq, a role that eventually might cost him.

But for now, critics and adversaries in Washington are extremely reluctant to talk publicly about Cheney.

"I think he has this mystique, whether it's justified or not, of being a very tough guy, and a very Machiavellian guy, and a very bare-knuckles fighter," said Richard Clarke, who worked with Cheney after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as a National Security Council official and is now an ABCNEWS consultant.

"I don't know whether any of that is true. I've never really seen very much of that, but that's the mystique," Clarke said. "I wouldn't want to put it to the test. I never did. I think he enjoys the reputation that you don't want to cross Dick Cheney."

The vice president's job has gained an enormous amount of prestige since John Nance Garner, who occupied the office under President Roosevelt in the 1930s, famously described it as "not worth a warm bucket of spit." But even Al Gore, the most powerful and influential vice president until Cheney came along, was hampered by the perception that afflicts most vice presidents — that they all want to be president.

Cheney ran an abortive presidential campaign in 1996, but might never have been elected to the No. 2 position without Bush. Paradoxically, that may be the very thing that gives him his clout as a trusted adviser.

"There's an inherent tension in having a vice president who's politically ambitious," Hulsman said. "If you're president, you have to factor that in when you ask his advice. I think most of us know that due to his age and health, that Vice President Cheney is highly unlikely to seek the presidential nomination. So he has no axes to grind.

"The president, I think, can be very confident about just saying, 'For the good of the country, Dick, what do you think about what's going on here?' " Hulsman added. "And I think that's really made him an honest broker in an administration full of very strong personalities that often have very different ideological touchstones."