White House Makes Another Attempt To Minimize Cheney

As I noted last week, BushCo is re-writing some history in an effort to soften the blow of an imminent Cheney departure. More such re-writing occurred today.

Wolf Blitzer's "The Situation Room" had a segment on how Bush and Cheney have been drifting apart as of late. Blitzer had Thomas M. DeFrank of the Daily News on the show. DeFrank wrote this article. Here are the opening paragraphs:

The CIA leak scandal has peeled back the veil on the most closely held White House secret of all: the subtle but unmistakable erosion in the bond between President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Multiple sources close to Bush told the Daily News that while the vice president remains his boss' valued political partner and counselor, his clout has lessened - primarily as a result of issues arising from the Iraq war.

But it was this part of the article that made me laugh:

"The relationship is not what it was," a presidential counselor said. "There has been some distance for some time."

A senior administration official termed any such suggestion "categorically false."

The reason I laughed is because I'm willing to bet that this "senior administration official" who denied everything was probably the guy who came up with this "let's minimize Cheney" strategy in the first place.