Mystery: Why did Cheney make himself VP and not Chief of Staff? [View All]

[HamdenRice]

This question just occurred to me, as I was reading one of the declassification threads relating to the Plame scandal.

On its face, the idea that the VP has the authority to declassify documents should be absurd. But so is all the power and influence wielded by this VP absurd. The job of the VP historically has been to do nothing at all, unless the president died in office. It was because FDR kept Truman so uninformed, and that the cabinet members were worried that Truman could not step into the middle of WWII and the Manhattan Project, that subsequent presidents began to keep VPs more informed and involve them in policy. But still, VP were largely ceremonial officials, attending funerals of foreign dignitaries and such.

The second most powerful person in the executive in the modern era has always been the Chief of Staff.

It is widely known that Cheney was in charge of selecting Bush's VP, and selected himself. But if his goal was to assume the power behind the throne, why did he select himself as VP, and not as chief of staff? Was it mere opportunism, since he was not asked to choose the chief of staff, but the VP, and only later decided to transform the VP's office? Or did he have as his plan all along to select himself as VP because he wanted to transform the office.

It's quite bizarre, isn't it, that the VP is so powerful when he really has almost no statutory or constitutional duties.