Posted on 11/04/2004 5:15:23 PM PST by JustaCowgirl
US Vice-President Dick Cheney is set to become even more powerful in the second Bush administration than he was in the first.
And that is likely to be good news for Australia.
If the speculation is right, and some of the senior Bush cabinet members move on – in particular Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell – Australia could lose some of its best friends in the administration.
Powell has become a good friend of Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, but his deputy, Richard Armitage, is the most pro-Australian influence at a senior level in the Bush administration.
Armitage is affectionately referred to as the State Department's Australian desk officer.
He has a long association with Australia and a deep appreciation of the US-Australia alliance.
However, the two most important friends of Australia are Bush and Cheney.
Bush is deeply bonded to Prime Minister John Howard over Australia's troop commitment to the Iraq war, as well as their shared political outlook.
But in some ways Cheney is the under-reported pro-Australian.
If Powell and Rumsfeld do leave, then Cheney, a former Defence Secretary, will increase his already formidable sway.
He will be, along with Bush, the most senior continuing member from the first administration, although it is also possible that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice could become Secretary of State.
Cheney's power comes partly from his influence with Bush but also from his decades of government and congressional experience and his vast and labyrinthine network of contacts throughout the Washington power structure.
Cheney is the first vice-president to be a principal in the national security apparatus of an administration.
He was defence secretary under the first President Bush, and occupied that office during the first Gulf War in 1991, which expelled Saddam Hussein from Kuwait.
The depth of his Australian connections, and his quiet affection for Australia, have been under-appreciated.
Cheney attended the first meeting of the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue in Washington in 1993.
By far the most important person in the room, he was perfectly happy to spend an entire day considering Australian strategic perspectives.
I have had half a dozen conversations with Cheney over the years and always find him the soul of quiet geniality and consideration. He never raises his voice, everything is always calm, yet there is an unmistakable hardness there.
Cheney is no neo-conservative and the New Republic once argued that his ideology was simply that America doesn't take any crap from anybody.
His views are infinitely more sophisticated than that but the publication did capture the essential hard-headed quality of Cheney.
You can imagine him shaking hands with an adversary, looking him straight in the eye, and whispering quietly: "I'm now gonna break both your legs."
It's a good thing he's on our side.
Wait, wait--since when was Rumsfeld going to leave? I've heard the rumors about Powell and Ashcroft, but nothing on Rumsfeld. Losing him would really be a blow to the WOT.
As everyone knows, it was GWB's policy on Australia that tipped the election in Ohio.
Just Kidding. Love the Aussies, good people, good beer, good wine.
Gotta love Dick Cheney.
Where a good place in Australia to visit? I'd like to go there sometime, but I want to make it count.
Absolutely. So nice to see that the Aussies have an appreciation for this man. Sometimes there is no honor in your own country, it takes outsiders to see the real perspective.
Loved the anecdote about him sitting happily through an entire day discussing Australian political issues, even though he was by far the most important person in the room.
I believe that it has been speculated that Rumsfeld might leave in the middle of the 4 years, because of age and being tired of it all. But I think not immediately.
I hope he stays on, at least until the bulk of what he wants implemented is done.
Richard 'Stone Cold' Armitage
bump
ping...in case you've not see the lead article
Ping for a FRiend down under.
Gotta have an experienced young officer corps....keep rotating younger ones thru the fire...
Then again, if he stays, he's also still a winner.
Agreed, but I'd rather he stay in than leave. I just can't imagine another SecDef as appropriate as him right now.
Plus, the press conferences are classics. I remember watching them after 9/11, and Rummy really reassured me that we were going to kick Taliban ass.
You like big cities? Sydney.
You like Metropolitan cities? Melbourne.
You like beaches? Gold Coast.
australia.com has a lot of tour packages.
So that's why I like him so much!
Sums it up well.
Melbourne's great if you like restaurants and shopping. Sydney's harbour is sensational, Queensland and Tasmania both have sensational, but very different, natural beauty.
Armitage is one of my favorites. I'd like to see him in a ring with Lard Arse Kennedy!
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