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Angler, September 2008
Hardcover
The Cheney Vice Presidency
Penguin Press
September 2008
On Sale: September 16, 2008
384 pages ISBN: 1594201862 EAN: 9781594201868 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barton Gellman’s
newsbreaking investigative journalism documents how Vice
President Dick Cheney redefined the role of the American
vice presidency, assuming unprecedented responsibilities
and making it a post of historic power. Dick Cheney changed history, defining his times and shaping
a White House as no vice president has before— yet
concealing most of his work from public view. Pulitzer
Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman parts
the curtains of secrecy to show how Cheney operated, why,
and what he wrought. Angler, Gellman’s embargoed and highly explosive book, is a
work of careful, concrete, and original reporting backed by
hundreds of interviews with close Cheney allies as well as
rivals, many speaking candidly on the record for the first
time. On the signature issues of war and peace, Angler
takes readers behind the scenes as Cheney maneuvers for
dominance on what he calls the iron issues from Iraq, Iran,
and North Korea to executive supremacy, interrogation of Al
Qaeda suspects, and domestic espionage. Gellman explores
the behind-the- scenes story of Cheney’s tremendous
influence on foreign policy, exposing how he misled the
four ranking members of Congress with faulty intelligence
on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, how he derailed Bush
from venturing into Israeli- Palestinian peace talks for
nearly five years, and how his policy left North Korea and
Iran free to make major advances in their nuclear programs. Domestically, Gellman details Cheney’s role as “super Chief
of Staff ”, enforcer of conservative orthodoxy; gatekeeper
of Supreme Court nominees; referee of Cabinet turf; editor
of tax and budget laws; and regulator in chief of the
administration’s environment policy. We watch as Cheney,
the ultimate Washington insider, leverages his influence
within the Bush administration in order to implement his
policy goals. Gellman’s discoveries will surprise even the
most astute students of political science. Above all, Angler is a study of the inner workings of the
Bush administration and the vice president’s central role
as the administration’s canniest power player. Gellman
exposes the mechanics of Cheney’s largely successful post-
September 11 campaign to win unchecked power for the
commander in chief, and reflects upon, and perhaps changes,
the legacy that Cheney—and the Bush administration as a
whole—will leave as they exit office.
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