Reagan/Ford = Bush/Cheney

Bart Gellman, writer of the WaPo series on Fourthbranch, gave another little nugget today on Hardball, suggesting that the Bush-Cheney deal for the Vice Presidency in 2000 was very similar to the near-deal between Reagan and Gerald Ford to operate what amounted to a "co-presidency" in 1980. In fact, Cheney, Ford's former chief of staff, was apparently very involved in those discussions. Ultimately, the Ford camp overreached and asked for too much and the Reagan camp wouldn't give enough and it all fell apart. But clearly that wasn't the case with Cheney.

People do forget that Cheney was seen as a good choice for the VP slot in terms of his experience and credentials, and that Bush needed him to a certain extent to burnish his national security bona fides. I recall many people, after the 2000 VP debate, saying that they were upset that those two weren't running for President (try thinking about who those two candidates were without punching yourself repeatedly in the throat). Sadly, I think we're learning that one of them was.

Bush apparently promised Fourthbranch something pretty big, and he has used that power to work within the cracks of the Constitution and subvert it. So I don't know if it's blackmail, but it's certainly about a man who knows how to play Bush like a Stradavarius. He knows the guy's weaknesses and how to push his buttons. I think it's more like body snatching, really. Fourthbranch has colonized an unused part of George's brain. In other words, George's brain.

UPDATE: Gellman confirms this in print in a sidebar to today's installment:

Pollsters spoke of a "dream ticket" after Ronald Reagan won the 1980 Republican nomination and talk turned to Ford as his No. 2. Aides to both men tried to negotiate arrangements that might lure a former commander in chief into a secondary position.

Contemporary accounts said Ford was represented by former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger and others. But at a 2000 conference of former White House chiefs of staff, Cheney disclosed that he had been deeply involved. He recalled an intense debate about how to shape expanded lines of authority in a job often ridiculed as largely ceremonial.

Ford "made a number of requests in terms of his influence over the budget, personnel, foreign policy, et cetera," Cheney said. "I can remember sitting in a session with Bill Casey, who later became CIA director. Bill had a list of items that in fact the Reagan people were prepared to discuss. They went a long way toward trying to accommodate President Ford."

Tempted, but wary of splintering presidential authority, Ford finally withdrew his name. Quayle, looking back on it, said Cheney appears to have accepted much the same deal.