Biden seen as following Cheney VP model

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By Matthew Mosk

Shortly after he took office, Joseph R. Biden Jr. invited a handful of experts on the vice presidency into his residence to seek their advice.

"He essentially said, 'Look, previous vice presidents seem to leave office somewhat diminished from when they come in,' " recalled Jody Baumgartner, a professor of American politics at East Carolina University, who flew in for the gathering. "He made it clear, this is not necessarily a thing of protecting my legacy, but more, 'What is the job, and how could I do it better?' "

What has emerged after nine months in office, Mr. Baumgartner and others agreed, is a powerful version of the vice presidency that bears its most striking, if unlikely, resemblance to the one that immediately preceded it - that of Republican Dick Cheney.

In short order, Mr. Biden has, like Mr. Cheney, turned the office into a central hub for a dizzying array of political and policy decisions, ranging from advising President Obama on Iraq and his Supreme Court pick to helping devise strategy on the economic recovery, on relations with Russia and, most recently, on the approach to war in Afghanistan.

Call it "Cheney Lite" - a vice presidency that has retained much of the power, while so far escaping the role of lightning rod for partisan critics and avoiding any whiff of ambiguity about who is really running the country. Much like the man who came before him, Mr. Biden has dipped repeatedly into a deep reserve of Washington experience to help the president push his policies.

"I would say that Dick Cheney and Joe Biden have brought the vice presidency to a new level," said Les Gelb, the former president of the Council on Foreign Relations and a close friend of Mr. Biden. "It's unusual for vice presidents to play as big a role as Cheney did for Bush, or that Biden is playing for Obama. It's up a notch from [former Vice President Al] Gore, for example. They're playing bigger roles and gaining much more public exposure."

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That exposure was on full display last week, when Mr. Biden hustled to Eastern Europe after the administration had botched its announcement of a major shift in the missile-defense installations championed by President George W. Bush. Trading on long-standing friendships built during his years as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Biden quickly defused the flap, providing the precise reassurance that Poland and the Czech Republic needed to feel comfortable with the new approach.

Specialists on the region said they can think of few figures in Washington who would have carried into office the trust of so many foreign leaders.