The Most Disappointing President

H.D.S. Greenway writes in his Boston Globe opinion column: "Cheney gets near top billing in the national catastrophe that he and George W. Bush have wrought. It was Cheney who said, 'I really believe we will be greeted as liberators (in Iraq).' It was Cheney who formed his own parallel national security apparatus to cherry-pick intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. And it was Cheney who pushed the bogus connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

"Ultimately, of course, the blame lies with Bush, essentially a weak president hiding behind his bluster, who came to office too willing to delegate too much responsibility, and chose to make Cheney the most influential and powerful vice president in history.

"The Cheney influence has been hard to miss. Whether it was sticking to the most impractical hard line on foreign policy, or advocating torture, or curbing civil liberties, Cheney's fingerprints were always there."

Visitor Logs Watch

Matt Apuzzo writes for the Associated Press: "A federal appeals court sought compromise Monday between a liberal group demanding the names of White House visitors and the Bush administration, which says releasing the names would erode the president's power. . . .

"On appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, government attorneys said the president has a well-established right to seek advice privately.

"Releasing lists of visitors would trample on that right, said Justice Department lawyer Jonathan F. Cohn, and the logs should be treated like other White House documents.

"The judges were skeptical. They said they wanted to find a way to protect the president's rights without broadly prohibiting access to information that should be public.

"'What in the documents are so quintessentially presidential?' asked Judge David S. Tatel.

"'The name of the person going in to visit,' Cohn replied.

"'That's a public building,' Tatel said. 'You can stand out on 17th Street and watch who goes in and out.'

"'The Secret Service might have some qualms with that,' Cohn responded.

"'They might have some qualms but they couldn't stop you from doing it,' said Chief Judge David B. Sentelle.