Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency is a 2008 book by Washington Post investigative reporter Barton Gellman. Presenting information in a narrative fashion, Gellman asserts that United States Vice President Dick Cheney misled Republican leaders about the threat of Iraq before the invasion of Iraq by the United States. The book levels several allegations against Cheney and his administration. The book is based on hundreds of previously unpublished interviews with high-ranking government officials.

Background

Barton Gellman, a staff writer for The Washington Post, participated in a lengthy series of Pulitzer Prize-winning stories about Vice President Cheney published in November 2007. Angler is the conclusion of that investigation, and arranges the findings in a narrative fashion. Throughout the course of the interviews, Gellman spoke on record to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley, White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten and his predecessor Andrew H. Card Jr., senior presidential advisers Dan Bartlett and Karl Rove, and numerous high-ranking Justice Department alumni, including John Ashcroft and James B. Comey. Cheney and President Bush declined Gellman's requests to be interviewed. Of the title of the book, Gellman said in a television interview: Cheney's Secret Service codename. They have a wry sense of humor about the way they give codenames, and a lot of times they have a double meaning. Obviously, Cheney is an avid fisherman. I thought it was a nice metaphor for the way that he works. He tends to approach the levers of power obliquely. He doesn't like to—like you to see him coming, doesn't like to have an overt public role. He finds his way to the place where decisions are made and often doesn't leave many signs of his presence.

Contents

From news sources about the book, with quotes of the book itself: Armey said he reversed his position after Cheney told him that the threat from Iraq was actually "more imminent than we want to portray to the public at large."

Reception

Critical book reviews have been positive. Time magazine stated that "while Gellman's book feels more like a collection of set-pieces than a cohesive whole, this look at this second most powerful office in the land couldn't be timelier." The Christian Science Monitor calls the book a "meticulously researched, highly readable new biography" that "tells the story of a man who has left a powerful imprint on American government." The Los Angeles Times calls the book a "carefully reported and vigorously written" book that "creates immensely valuable clarity and perspective."