When Scooter Libby had that little perjury problem in 2005, Vice President Cheney appointed his former legal counsel, David Addington, to replace him as the Vice President's chief of staff.
The appointment wasn't surprising; Cheney and Addington had worked together since the 1980s. Addington — who carries a copy of the U.S. Constitution with him at all times — subscribes to an unusual interpretation of the document, known as the "New Paradigm," which believes that it allows the President almost unlimited powers during times of war. Addington has put increasing amounts of power in the hands of the executive branch by helping to formulate the Bush Administration's legal defenses of torture, secret detention, and warrantless surveillance.As Cheney's chief of staff, Addington refused to answer questions during a June 2008 House Judiciary Committee hearing on Guantánamo Bay interrogation tactics, saying "I can't talk to you, al-Qaeda may watch C-SPAN." He doesn't give interviews, allows no photos to be taken for news stories, and he keeps the door to his office locked at all times (national security, you know). U.S. News and World Report once declared him "the most powerful man you've never heard of."