Hey Cheney,

How long ago did you decide?

I bet it was last Halloween - the same day Lewis Libby was indicted for perjury.

You chose right then and there to spring him from whatever sentence was imposed, assuming a conviction could be obtained and upheld.

While we followed the trial, you planned the jailbreak. That was why you didn't testify - you didn't need to. In fact, better all around that Libby was convicted. It helped to have a fall guy to absorb the scandal.

Through the whole trial, you plotted. While the witnesses sat in the dock. While the jury deliberated. You smiled that thin-lipped smile and drew up plans.

I bet you told the defense to keep you off the stand. They wouldn't have got you in a courtroom for the world. You would have had to answer questions. You would have been under the power of a judge. You would have had to lie under oath or tell the truth, so help you God.

To hell with that. The justice system was your enemy here. It opposed your calculus of loyalty and power. Like electric and magnetic forces, power and loyalty are fundamentally connected, and governed by simple equations - you wield power by exerting people to do your bidding. To carry out orders. To project your will. To break the laws. To fix the laws. To secure more power.

You won't get such blind loyalty unless your power backs it up with rewards and security. Which you did. Your decision last Halloween wasn't more a policy detail than a conscious decision. You just followed the textbook. The same one Nixon followed, and the Genovese. You ran the calculations and got a clear answer.

The message is clear too. You protect your own. It's another page in that textbook of human rule, for future leaders to commit to memory. Protect and reward your loyal barons. Bend every institution to your goals. Never forget your enemies.

And call it "public service."