Richard B. Cheney and the Rise of the Imperial Vice Presidency

On taking office in 2001, Dick Cheney crowned himself the first imperial vice president in the nation's history, transforming a traditionally inconsequential office into a de facto fourth branch of government. Taking a less journalistic and personal approach to Cheney than previous biographers, this critical new biography shows exactly how Cheney engineered his arrogation of vast executive powers -- and the dire consequences his power grab has had and will long continue to have for the office of the vice presidency; the balance of powers; the Constitution; geopolitics; and America's security, strength and prestige.

Taking advantage of the administration's global war on terrorism, a president inexperienced in matters of war and peace, and a Republican Congress that rated party power above institutional prerogatives, Vice President Cheney moved with astonishing speed and energy to assume a dominant role on the national and international stage as the effective president-in-proxy of the United States. Cheney asserted that all constitutional checks and balances and all individual liberties under the Bill of Rights are subservient to the president's powers as commander-in-chief in confronting international terrorism. Although former administrations had made power grabs in the past in times of national crisis, no president —and certainly no vice president — has ever exerted such sweeping claims of executive power on so many fronts in violation of the bedrock principles of the Constitution.