Cheney seems to be the administration's Achilles Heel as far as PR goes. Even people that like Dubya are suspicious of Cheney. "Dr. Strangelove" was one comparison.
The administration has to be conscious of this. I'm guessing that's why it refused to allow TIME Magazine to put a picture on its cover of Bush sitting in the foreground, with Cheney behind him, for its "Man of the Year" issue. (As most know, they went with the whistleblowers motif when Team Bush refused to allow the Cheney-in-the-background pic.)
In my experience, if you play up Cheney, some of the people in the administration like Wolfowitz and Perle, and the religious fanaticism apparent in Bush's mentality (i.e. the fact that Bush said his favorite philosopher was Jesus, considers himself charged with an evangelical mission in the world, etc.), people react more quickly than when saddled with rhetoric about double taxation and 700 billion vs. 300 billion in tax cuts. (For better or worse.)
Brian
On Wed, 9 Apr 2003, Carl Remick wrote:
> [SLW I, the Spanish-American War, opened Act One of the American Empire. It
> will be interesting to see what Act Two holds in store.]
>
> April 9, 2003
>
> Cheney Calls U.S. Military Campaign 'Extraordinary'
>
> By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
> Filed at 12:22 p.m. ET
>