Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
I loved that this book isn't really a biography, but rather a mostly chronological depiction of Cheney's time in the White House. It's also classically objective, unbiased journalism--Gellman even refrains from using 'I' the few times it's necessary, calling himself "the author." I even came out of it with a little more respect for Cheney than I had before, since Gellman gives no credence to the accusations of financial impropriety that linger over Cheney and his Halliburton connections. And Cheney's a brutally efficient manager, using simple strategies to have his staff dominate over Bush's. There's some comedy in how easily he defeats Rice and Powell, who often found themselves on the opposite side of arguments. (There's even a scene where Rice breaks down in tears during a meeting she can't get Cheney-ally Rumsfeld to attend.)The book's chapters are broken down thematically: there's a chapter, for instance, on Cheney's role shaping financial policy (he advocated for even more tax cuts than Bush thought wise, and eventually got them), the environment (anything impeding natural resource extraction was bad, according to the former oil-man), and, of course, the War on Terror. I wish there was perhaps another chapter on the War in Iraq and more perspective on Cheney's role in it, but Gellman does a good job covering all the ways Cheney impacted the country.The scariest part, for me, was the way Cheney manipulated the law. His theory of unitary executive power was so extreme that it meant, essentially, that the President had the power not to obey any law he so chose. (Execute is the proper legal term, of course, but Cheney and his legal team of Dave Addington and John Yoo stretched it beyond my imagination.) Meanwhile, our legal system is so slow/inept that the only thing that eventually challenged Cheney was the threat of resignation from Bush Administration appointees, or the people most likely to agree with him. The book is not an indictment. It maintains a low-key tone. It documents that Cheney really did dissociate himself from Halliburton before entering government, even at personal cost. It documents his phenomenal capacity for hard work and detail. It also describes his skill at operating the machinery of government, and "managing" the flow of information to his nominal boss, to get things done. A sober portrait of someone driven to seize power and tell himself that he was doing it for his country. Frightening.
What do You think about Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency (2008)?
Ends with a thud, like the administration it documents. The first half is riveting.
—KiaraDelgado014
The man is truly the Prince of Darkness.
—haironfire
