Rupert Cornwell: Out of America - Independent Online Edition > Commentators

Rupert Cornwell: Out of America - Independent Online Edition > Commentators:

"Last week Americans were shown in astonishing detail the hitherto unseen yet unshakable grasp on the levers of power held by George Bush's deputy Dick Cheney
Published: 01 July 2007

Thus the stage was set. Over the past six years I've often run into old journalist friends who, like me, covered the Kremlin in its sealed Communist heyday. Invariably we were struck by the similarities between Moscow then and Washington now - how the adage about rule by general secretaries applied equally to life under George W Bush: you knew nothing, but understood everything. So it was here. Just as there were factions in the Politburo, there were factions in the Bush administration. We further knew that not only was the hardline faction led by Cheney but also, thanks to Cheney, it prevailed.