The Co-Presidency of Bush and Cheney

by Shirley Anne Warshaw

Overview

This analysis of the Bush administration reveals how the president willingly ceded power to a calculating vice president—with disastrous consequences.

Under the relatively inexperienced president George W. Bush, Dick Cheney was perhaps the most powerful vice president in American history. In this excellently documented work, presidential scholar Shirley Anne Warshaw debunks the popular myth that Bush’s authority was hijacked or stolen. Instead, drawing on extensive research as well as personal interviews with White House Staffers and Washington insiders, she demonstrates how Bush and Cheney operated as nothing less than co-presidents.

While Bush focused on building what he called a moral and civil society, anchored by a war on science and by the proliferation of faith-based programs, he allowed Cheney to lead in business and foreign policy. Warshaw highlights Cheney’s decades-long career in Washington and his familiarity with its inner workings to present a complete picture of this calculating political powerhouse. From Cheney’s unprecedented merging of presidential and vice-presidential authority to his abhorrence of what he deemed congressional interference, Warshaw paints an intriguing, and at times frightening, portrait.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804771184
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	05/25/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	788 KB

About the Author

Shirley Anne Warshaw is Professor of Political Science at Gettysburg College. An authority on the American presidency, the president's Cabinet, and organizational decision structures for presidential policymaking, Warshaw is the author of numerous books and is a frequent commentator on National Public Radio and network radio and television.

Editorial Reviews

In this critical investigation of former vice president Cheney's role in George W. Bush's administration, Warshaw (The Keys to Power) reveals how Bush and Cheney split the presidency, each using the office's power to advance agendas that rarely overlapped. This suited Bush's limited agenda and experience well; while he focused on education reform and faith-based initiatives, he was content to leave Cheney in charge of economic and foreign policy. As head of Bush's transition team, Cheney staffed virtually the entire administration with longtime associates who shared his vision of a strong-some have called it "imperial"-executive. He and his staff controlled political appointments and drafted most of the 800-plus signing statements affixed to bills that declared the president's refusal to enforce selected parts of laws passed by Congress. Warshaw rejects analyses that portray either Cheney or Karl Rove as puppet masters in favor of portraying Bush as capable in the spheres that mattered to him, where Cheney was careful not to interfere. Thoroughly researched and insightful into the complexities of both personalities, the book offers an engaging look at the most controversial presidency since Nixon's. (June)

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Publishers Weekly

Warshaw (political science, Gettysburg Coll.; Powersharing) is not the first writer to refer to Dick Cheney's "copresidency" with George W. Bush. She is, however, the first to present the idea at length and to give as much weight to how this operated as to the results. With an early tacit agreement on division of labor, Bush would focus on what mattered to him-a domestic faith-based agenda-leaving Cheney to focus on energy, the economy, and foreign affairs. Given his knowledge of how the bureaucracy worked, penchant for secrecy, control over administration staffing, and lack of ambition to become president, Cheney was able to see that Bush "essentially rubber-stamped" his recommendations. More than that: after 9/11 Bush "abrogated his presidency and turned it over to Cheney." Warshaw traces Cheney's ideas on presidential power to his service in the Ford administration and is particularly good on how power was exercised in the Bush administration. Occasionally repetitive, this work of scholarship complements Barton Gellman's Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency, a fine journalistic narrative. Because the Bush/Cheney literature is already substantial and no doubt will continue to grow, Warshaw's book is best for readers who can't get enough on the subject.
—Bob Nardini

Library Journal

"The Co-Presidency of Bush and Cheney chronicles Vice President Cheney's unprecedented role in helping to shape White House policy on energy, Iraq, assertions of presidential prerogative, and more. Shirley Anne Warshaw details and assesses the actions of the Bush administration—a provocative and valuable start in exploring the lessons that future presidents may take from the past eight years."

Susan Page

"The author successfully argues that Cheney did not usurp the power of the presidency but rather reached an accommodation with Bush on a division of labor and responsibility with the executive office ... The work contains extensive notes and documentation. It is a must read for presidential scholars and all others trying to understand the Bush-Cheney relationship."

Choice. - J. R. Hdetke

"An absorbing account of the relationship between George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. This is a must-read for people who care about governance and our constitutional system."

Eisenhower Institute - Susan Eisenhower

"Shirley Anne Warshaw's masterful analysis demonstrates how George W. Bush ceded the most significant presidential powers to Dick Cheney. Warshaw's book provides strong evidence that Cheney was able to grab the levers of power that Bush had so casually yielded. The lesson is a stark one; the combination of a weak president, and a vice president who captured that power, took the country in dangerous directions the voters neither envisioned nor chose."

Chris Matthews

"Warshaw lays out with commendable academic diligence the division of power in the Bush White House and how a new, untested president, surrounded by political aides, willingly ceded all the heavy lifting to his vice president. Dick Cheney commandeered economic, energy, environmental and national security while George W. Bush kept busy with his faith-based agenda. The irony is that Bush succeeded with his small share of the copresidency while Cheney became a human wrecking ball, taking Bush down with him, yet leaving a legacy of broadened executive power for future presidents."

Contributing Editor, Newsweek - Eleanor Clift

"In my view—an insider's view—Dr. Warshaw is too kind. Dick Cheney was not copresident, he was president. In all matters of great importance, that's the way he wanted it, that's the way it was. Dr. Warshaw's book brilliantly illuminates Cheney's shadow presidency, and for that reason alone should be read by everyone who cares about the fate of our Republic."

and Visiting Harriman Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary - Lawrence Wilkerson

"A fascinating analytical work on the most powerful vice president in our history, how he built that power with a willing president, and the unwanted consequences that ensued."

Center for the Study of the Presidency - David M. Abshire

"Warshaw has produced an astonishing portrayal of the Cheney phenomenon—a unique episode in American national governance. This work is a powerful indictment of wrongful vice presidential over-reaching. Years from now, however, Cheney's actions may be cited as evidence of bold statecraft in a time of great crisis. The Devil and Daniel Webster are both at work in these pages."

Stanford University - Charles Hill

"The author successfully argues that Cheney did not usurp the power of the presidency but rather reached an accommodation with Bush on a division of labor and responsibility with the executive office ... The work contains extensive notes and documentation. It is a must read for presidential scholars and all others trying to understand the Bush-Cheney relationship."—J. R. Hdetke, Choice.



"Shirley Anne Warshaw's masterful analysis demonstrates how George W. Bush ceded the most significant presidential powers to Dick Cheney. Warshaw's book provides strong evidence that Cheney was able to grab the levers of power that Bush had so casually yielded. The lesson is a stark one; the combination of a weak president, and a vice president who captured that power, took the country in dangerous directions the voters neither envisioned nor chose." —Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball" and NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show"


"The Co-Presidency of Bush and Cheney chronicles Vice President Cheney's unprecedented role in helping to shape White House policy on energy, Iraq, assertions of presidential prerogative, and more. Shirley Anne Warshaw details and assesses the actions of the Bush administration—a provocative and valuable start in exploring the lessons that future presidents may take from the past eight years." —Susan Page, Washington Bureau Chief, USA Today


"In my view—an insider's view—Dr. Warshaw is too kind. Dick Cheney was not copresident, he was president. In all matters of great importance, that's the way he wanted it, that's the way it was. Dr. Warshaw's book brilliantly illuminates Cheney's shadow presidency, and for that reason alone should be read by everyone who cares about the fate of our Republic." —Lawrence Wilkerson, Former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Visiting Harriman Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary


"Warshaw lays out with commendable academic diligence the division of power in the Bush White House and how a new, untested president, surrounded by political aides, willingly ceded all the heavy lifting to his vice president. Dick Cheney commandeered economic, energy, environmental and national security while George W. Bush kept busy with his faith-based agenda. The irony is that Bush succeeded with his small share of the copresidency while Cheney became a human wrecking ball, taking Bush down with him, yet leaving a legacy of broadened executive power for future presidents." —Eleanor Clift, Contributing Editor, Newsweek
"Warshaw has produced an astonishing portrayal of the Cheney phenomenon—a unique episode in American national governance. This work is a powerful indictment of wrongful vice presidential over-reaching. Years from now, however, Cheney's actions may be cited as evidence of bold statecraft in a time of great crisis. The Devil and Daniel Webster are both at work in these pages."—Charles Hill, Brady-Johnson Distinguished Fellow in Grand Strategy, Yale University and Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
"A fascinating analytical work on the most powerful vice president in our history, how he built that power with a willing president, and the unwanted consequences that ensued."—David M. Abshire, Co-Founder and Vice Chairman, Center for Strategic and International Studies, and President, Center for the Study of the Presidency
"An absorbing account of the relationship between George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. This is a must-read for people who care about governance and our constitutional system."—Susan Eisenhower, Chairman Emeritus, Eisenhower Institute
"Thoroughly researched and insightful into the complexities of both personalities, the book offers an engaging look at the most controversial presidency since Nixon's." —Publishers Weekly

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