'Frontline' takes a look at the influence of Cheney

Vice President Dick Cheney may possess the most picked-apart psyche of any politician since Richard Nixon. Famously secretive, often openly contemptuous of those who do not agree with him, he has been seen by some to have a Faustian relationship with President Bush, and not in the Faust role. The subject of books, pundit commentary, stand-up routines and practically every comic strip save "Family Circus," Cheney still remains something of a psychological enigma: If he really is calling the shots in the White House, what is it he wants?

In the season premiere of PBS' "Frontline," titled "Cheney's Law," writer-director-producer Michael Kirk and producer-reporter Jim Gilmore spell it out right up front: For 30 years, Dick Cheney has dedicated himself to expanding the power of the presidency, at the cost of just about everything else, including, it would seem, the Constitution. And in George W. Bush and the post-9/11 anxiety, he found his perfect storm.

When Congress voted down a request for unlimited presidential power in the war against terrorism, Cheney -- the man who told President Reagan he did not need congressional approval to fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua and the first President Bush that he could enter the Gulf War on his own authority -- went directly to the Justice Department. In the Office of the Legal Counsel, he found John Yoo, who was more than happy to draft a memo giving the president authority to do anything to anyone anywhere as long as the nation was at war. Yoo, who is interviewed extensively here, stands by his decision.

"The Justice Department had long thought that Congress cannot limit the commander in chief's power," says Yoo, whom U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft came to call Dr. Yes because of his continual acquiescence to the vice president. "The laws as they were written and the Constitution that we have give the president a lot of power."

There is no breaking news in "Cheney's Law," which uses an assortment of journalists and former politicos to narrate the various steps Cheney took to circumvent congressional intervention after 9/11. But having the dots connected so clearly and convincingly is both disturbing and helpful.