(Don't miss our interview with John Nichols on Friday at 5:00PM EST)

"John Nichols' compact, scathing book on Richard Cheney takes as a given that the Vice President controls the Bush White House....In Nichols' portrait, Dick is a power-obsessed, conniving, not particularly competent, and generally nasty fellow....Nichols, The Nation's Washington correspondent, describes a Vice President who has benefited hugely from his man-behind-the-curtain persona. Dick is a frightening and witty book that does much to reveal the inner Cheney." Anna Godbersen, Esquire

Publisher Comments:
When a lone gunman started shooting outside the White House on a weekday morning two years ago, Secret Service agents rushed to secure the leaders of the free world. They found Dick Cheney in his office talking on a speakerphone, reviewing material on a computer screen, and directing aides who were gathered around his desk. President Bush? He was in the gym. Dick Cheney, says John Nichols, runs the country. He sets energy policy. He guided the nation into war with Iraq, and, working closely with Karl Rove, he oversees the political infrastructure that allows corporate interests and the religious right to control lawmaking.

Dick: The Man Who Is President draws on groundbreaking reporting-including exclusive interviews with Cheney himself, as well as with Nelson Mandela, Gore Vidal, members of Congress, and others who have tangled with Cheney. Timed for the fall election campaign, the book will open debate on a key, unasked question: Do Americans really want Dick Cheney running their country?

Review:
"That George W. Bush is a bumbling 'president in name only' and that Dick Cheney holds the real power in the administration is a familiar position, and Nichols, Washington correspondent for the Nation, takes it with an unsubtle, repetitive hammering of its main features. Righteousness colors otherwise compelling, in-depth considerations of matters such as Cheney's evasion of military service during the Vietnam War and his archconservative voting record as a congressman. Nichols has a lot of cogent and well-collated material about his subject's 'hustling for power,' both in Washington and as the CEO of Halliburton, but he occasionally overreaches, as when he suggests that then-secretary of defense Cheney's pressure to maintain military spending levels after the end of the Cold War shaped the rise in terrorist activities leading up to 9/11. In addition, overlong sidebars derail the main argument, at times adding little more to the debate than petty sniggering over the future vice-president's poor college record and his wife's lesbian romance novel. But at his best, Nichols asks tough questions that went largely unanswered during the last presidential election. (Sept. 22) Forecast: This book is like a Fahrenheit 9/11 for Cheney, who barely appears in that movie; expect some sales on the title's lowbrow chutzpah alone." Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:
"[I]n this campaign season, many readers will appreciate the light Nichols has shed on Cheney, a self-described behind-the-scenes player who has enormous influence on the President." Library Journal