Cheney's shadow government

From the testimony of David Lesch, biographer of Syrian President Bashar Assad (بشار الأسد) in a Senate hearing last week.

The Syrians tend to discount Secretary of State Rice, rightly or wrongly.
They consistently tell me -- both Bashar, as well as the Syrian foreign
ministry, that after that particular meeting, Arab officials -- probably foreign
ministers -- informed the Syrians that Vice President Dick Cheney's office or
himself had called these foreign ministers, saying to dismiss everything that
Rice had said, because she does not speak for the administration.

Of course, that's why his daughter Liz Cheney effectively acts as a spy within the State Department. Shadow government, anyone?