Former Cheney Chief of Staff Lands at Heritage

David Addington, a longtime top aide and lawyer to former Vice President Dick Cheney, has kept a low profile since his boss left public office in January 2009. Now, he is taking a job with the conservative Heritage Foundation.

The Heritage Foundation noted Addington’s hire in the middle of another announcement Aug. 27. It has received relatively limited attention since then, despite his influence on national security policy during the George W. Bush administration. A Heritage spokesman referred all questions today to a voice mailbox with Addington’s name, indicating that he may have already started at the foundation.

Addington, who did not return a message, will have the title of vice president for domestic and economic policy studies, according to the announcement by Heritage Foundation President Edwin Feulner. He is succeeding Stuart Butler, a policy analyst who is starting a new “think tank within a think tank” at Heritage.

The path from government service to policy think tanks is a well-worn one, though Addington had practiced law and served as general counsel to the American Trucking Associations Inc. before joining the vice president’s office in 2001. He worked at Holland & Knight and at Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz.

Addington served as Cheney’s counsel from 2001 to 2005 and as his chief of staff from 2005 to 2009, succeeding I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in the latter role. He worked for Cheney when he was secretary of defense in the George H.W. Bush administration, ending up as Defense Department general counsel in 1992.

Comments

[Sidney Gendin]

You may refer to Addington as an "aide" but the reality is that he was the ruthless boss of bosses, the man who loved waterboarding and determined that presidents have almost unlimited powers in times of war. The latter doctrine actually meant he would be the person with unlimited powers. He is well exposed in Jane Mayer's excellent book, "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals."