Insight on the News is an online weekly run by the same Moonie corporation as the Washington Times. Their "insights" may be counted on to reflect the latest in right-wing spin, and their top item of "breaking news" this week is an unsigned article titled "Bush takes Cheney out of the loop on national security."

I can't let another minute pass without sharing this one—

Over the last two months Mr. Cheney has been granted decreasing access to the Oval Office, the sources said on the condition of anonymity. The two men still meet, but the close staff work between the president and vice president has ended.

"Cheney's influence has waned not only because of bad chemistry, but because the White House no longer formulates policy," another source said.

"There's nothing to input into. Cheney is smart and knowledgeable, but he as well as Bush are ducking all the time to avoid the bullets."

The "policy" referred to here is surely foreign policy, since the administration's only domestic policy is to favor the wealthy at every turn and to reassert the Divine Right of Kings.

Anyone paying attention knows that Georgie Boy has as little to do with formulating policy as the grown-ups can contrive. So if it be true that power has slipped from Cheney's hands (a questionable assertion), inquiring minds would like to know just who the hell is running the country. If making the policy decisions of the United States hasn't been contracted out to a private entity such as the Club for Growth, the implication can only be that policy is now under the control of either the State Department or the Pentagon.

The article goes on to say,

The sources said Mr. Bush has privately blamed Mr. Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for the U.S.-led war in Iraq. They said the president has told his senior aides that the vice president and defense secretary provided misleading assessments on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, as well as the capabilities of the regime of Saddam Hussein.

If you believe this crap, you'd have to conclude that Condi Rice and Karen Hughes are in charge of foreign policy. Don't bet on it.

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