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Cheney Says 9/11 Changed the Rules

Posted on: Wednesday, 21 December 2005, 12:00 CST

By Richard W. Stevenson

Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday explained and defended the administration's assertion of broad presidential powers, saying that executive authority had become dangerously constrained before President George W. Bush took office and had to be restored to fight the threat from terrorism.

"I believe in a strong, robust executive authority and I think that the world we live in demands it," he said.

Speaking with a small group of reporters on Air Force Two as he flew from Pakistan to Oman, Cheney laid out more fully and explicitly than any senior official the administration's thinking on the need for a stronger presidency. And he directly linked the effort to strengthen it under Bush to the nation's safety since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"You know, it's not an accident that we haven't been hit in four years," he said.

Cheney acknowledged that the disclosure last week of a secret administration program to eavesdrop on a limited number of international phone calls might reopen debate over whether Bush had taken too expansive a view of presidential power. But he was unapologetic about the program and suggested that it was well within the bounds of what he considered an appropriate use of executive authority.

"I'm sure there is going to be a debate," he said. "It's an important subject. Again, I would argue that the actions that we've taken there are totally appropriate and consistent with the constitutional authority of the president."

Cheney has long been seen as an advocate of an assertive presidency. In response to questions about the roots of his thinking and his role in shaping the administration's policy, he made clear his strong views on the issue.

Having served in Congress for a decade, Cheney said, he has respect for Congress. "But I do believe that especially in the day and age we live in, the nature of the threats we face," he said, "the president of the United States needs to have his constitutional powers unimpaired, if you will, in terms of the conduct of national security policy."

Cheney's views about the need for a strong executive were shaped in part by his service as the White House chief of staff under President Gerald Ford. On Tuesday, he described presidential authority as having reached a nadir after Watergate.

He described the War Powers Act, passed in 1973, as "an infringement on the authority of the presidency" and suggested that it could be unconstitutional. Similarly, he said, budget legislation passed in the 1970s had restricted the president's ability to impound money.

"Watergate and a lot of the things around Watergate and Vietnam both during the '70s served, I think, to erode the authority I think the president needs to be effective, especially in the national security area," Cheney said.

He said he had been expressing his views on the subject as far back as 1987, when, as a Republican member of Congress from Wyoming, he contributed to the minority views in the congressional report on the Iran-contra affair.

"Part of the argument in Iran-contra was whether or not the president had the authority to do what was done in the Reagan years," he said. "And those of us in the minority wrote minority views that were actually authored by a guy working for me, one of my staff people, that I think are very good at laying out a robust view of the president's prerogatives with respect to the conduct of especially foreign policy and national security matters."

Asked if the proper balance had been restored, he said, "I do think it's swung back."

He brought up the effort by his office to fight back against demands early in the first term that he release the names of people his energy task force was consulting as it drew up recommendations for Bush on energy policy. The White House prevailed on the issue after a long court fight.

"I believe that the president is entitled and needs to have unfiltered advice in formulating policy," Cheney said. "He ought to be able to seek the opinion of anybody he wants to and that he should not have to reveal, for example, who he talked to that morning."

Cheney suggested that Democrats who push to pare the powers of the presidency after the disclosure of the eavesdropping program would pay a political price.

"Either we're serious about fighting the war on terror or we're not," he said. "Either we believe that there are individuals out there doing everything they can to try to launch more attacks, try to get ever deadlier weapons to use against us or we don't. '"The president and I believe very deeply that there is a hell of a threat."

Source: International Herald Tribune

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