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Now, as the White House appears ready to ignore subpoenas in the investigations over wiretapping and U.S. attorney firings, FRONTLINE examines the battle over the power of the presidency and Cheney's way of looking at the Constitution.

"The vice president believes that Congress has very few powers to actually constrain the president and the executive branch," former Justice Department attorney Marty Lederman tells FRONTLINE. "He believes the president should have the final word -- indeed the only word -- on all matters within the executive branch."

After Sept. 11, Cheney and Addington were determined to implement their vision -- in secret. The vice president and his counsel found an ally in John Yoo, a lawyer at the Justice Department's extraordinarily powerful Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). In concert with Addington, Yoo wrote memoranda authorizing the president to act with unparalleled authority.

The essence of "Cheney's Law" is the vice-president's breathtaking disregard for Constitutional niceties and his aggressive pursuit of highly-parsed, highly self-serving legal opinions. Opinions supporting a broad expansion of executive power in favor of the current administration, with little or none of the required congressional oversight.

There has never been a vice president as powerful as this one. When thinking back over the last few years and the important decisions made, we should ask ourselves who really has been making the decisions, a president who had only mediocre grades and failed businesses under his belt? or a successful businessman who is a seasoned Washington insider?