“‘Round, ’round, get around, I get around”

According to Steve Clemons over at The Washington Note, Vice President Dick Cheney is prepared to do a run-around on presidential policy towards Iran: Multiple sources have reported that a senior aide on Vice President Cheney’s national security team has been meeting with policy hands … and explicitly stating that Vice President Cheney does not ...

601653_cheney8.jpg
601653_cheney8.jpg

According to Steve Clemons over at The Washington Note, Vice President Dick Cheney is prepared to do a run-around on presidential policy towards Iran:

According to Steve Clemons over at The Washington Note, Vice President Dick Cheney is prepared to do a run-around on presidential policy towards Iran:

Multiple sources have reported that a senior aide on Vice President Cheney’s national security team has been meeting with policy hands … and explicitly stating that Vice President Cheney does not support President Bush’s tack towards Condoleezza Rice’s diplomatic efforts and fears that the President is taking diplomacy with Iran too seriously.

This White House official has stated to several Washington insiders that Cheney is planning to deploy an “end run strategy” around the President if he and his team lose the policy argument….

The zinger of this information is the admission by this Cheney aide that Cheney himself is frustrated with President Bush and believes, much like Richard Perle, that Bush is making a disastrous mistake by aligning himself with the policy course that Condoleezza Rice, Bob Gates, Michael Hayden and McConnell have sculpted.

According to this official, Cheney believes that Bush can not be counted on to make the “right decision” when it comes to dealing with Iran and thus Cheney believes that he must tie the President’s hands.

Worrisome? Yes. But let’s hold off on the conspiracy theories for now. It’s also par for the course in the Bush administration. And as Marcus Mabry notes in the current issue of FP, it’s unwise to sell Condi short. She sidestepped Cheney to push the six-party agreement on North Korea forward and she proved adept at wrestling key Iraq policymaking decisions away from the Defense Department when it was run by Don Rumsfeld, Cheney’s chief ally. This time, Condi has Gates, Hayden, and McConnell. It would be tough for anyone—even Cheney—to usurp the power of all four.

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