As the smoke clears from the Vice Presidential ceremonial office, Dick Cheney is getting more (indirect) attention because of a ruling that says Secret Service records of White House visits from nine conservative Christian leaders should be released.

While the issue in the ruling was really about whether the Secret Service's visitor records are subject to the Freedom of Information Act (and the court ruled that the requested records are), Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)'s objective is to look into "the influence that conservative Christian leaders have, or attempt to have, on the President [of the United States]."

"The White House doesn't want to talk about how much influence these leaders have, and we want to talk about how much they do have," CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said.

CREW wants to see records of visits by nine leaders of particularly activist (lobbyist) organizations:

• James Dobson of Focus on the Family. CREW was one of the organizations that instigated a 2006-2007 IRS audit of the organization for electioneering as a nonprofit.

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