Sorry, that's classified: even Cheney's pliant hagiographer can't find the vice president's inner human.(Book review)

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Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President by Stephen F. Hayes HarperCollins, 304 pp.

Prognostication is a fool's game, but I would bet the farm that in 2009 and 2010, the best-seller lists will be frequently crowned by tell-all books about the Bush presidency. The administration's fervor for secrecy has ensured that there will be a large inventory of stories for the newly loose-lipped to share. More importantly, the debacle in Iraq and what is certain to be its long tail of repercussions ensures that there will be plenty of people with reputations to salvage who will zealously sidestep responsibility and aim to pin the tail on the most convenient and credible donkey in the corral. Perhaps this donkey Hill be President Bush; it would certainly make for riveting reading if we were to learn that behind his mask of peevish irritation, there was actually a thoughtful leader who was decisively trapping us in a quagmire from which there is no easy escape.

But that is not the smart way to bet. Clearly the superbly credentialed group of grownups who steered Bush onto the shoals will have to pay the price for their miscalculations. (In the …