Dick Cheney, again in Chicago and this time to sycophantic interviewers, Don and Roma Wade, WLS 890-AM --
Q What can you tell us about the war czar position? We understand the White House is thinking about establishing a war czar. Is there anyone whose name we should recognize being considered?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, what it is, it's really a coordination role. The basic chain of command is going to continue to run, obviously, from the President, the Secretary of Defense, and down to our commanders in the field. But there are a lot of activities with respect to what we're doing over there that require coordination between various agencies -- State and Defense and a lot of our domestic agencies that have roles over there in trying to help establish, for example, a good judicial system for the Iraqis. And pulling all of that together we think requires somebody here in Washington who would report directly to the President, and then have the authority to make certain everybody is delivering what they promised to deliver on time, and in effect, sort of ride roughshod, if necessary, over the bureaucracy to make sure we get the job done.
There's not much reading between the lines to see that a dispute that has rumbled since the middle of 2003 -- who's actually of charge of US operations in Iraq -- has not been resolved. In the fifth year of the war. The job description sounds like something that needs to be done either by the President himself, or his National Security Adviser. It's thus a dispute that was supposed to have been settled with Condi Rice as the answer. The rest is history.
UPDATE: Similar thoughts on the "war czar" via Dan Froomkin. And [final update 16 April] a damning assessment from one person who was asked if he was interested in the job.
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