Cheney, Gingrich, McCain: Old GOP Guard Appear On Sunday Shows [UPDATED]

UPDATE: Newt Gingrich, John McCain, and Dick Cheney appeared as scheduled on Sunday's morning talk show circuit, unleashing a torrent of attacks on President Obama and arguing that the Republican Party should resist efforts to "moderate."

On Fox News Sunday, Gingrich called Obama a "McCarthyist" and "radical" who wants to "put terrorists on welfare."

There was, he claimed, a "weird pattern" of Democratic administrations "defending alleged terrorists," as opposed to Bush officials, who "defend[ed] Americans."

"You look at the Obama administration," he said, "the number of attorneys that have been appointed who were defending alleged terrorists. There's this weird pattern where the Bush people wanted to defend Americans and were pretty tough on terrorists. These guys are prepared to take huge risks with Americans in order to defend terrorists."

And yet, even as he was asking the Obama administration lawyers whether they are now or have ever been representing terrorists, Gingrich managed to make accusations of McCarthyism. On the topic of investigating the authorization of torture by the Bush administration, he claimed: "What we're seeing now, in a very sad way, is as bitter a partisan attack on the Bush people, as much as we've seen since the McCarthy era. The degree that they're putting specific people at risk for criminal prosecution is unprecedented in modern America."

Sen. John McCain told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that he agrees with Dick Cheney that the Republican Party shouldn't "moderate":

"I think we're kind of in a word game here," said McCain, when played a segment of a recent interview in which the former vice president said moderation was not the best course for the GOP. "I don't want to moderate either. I think our policies, the principles of our party, are as viable today as they have been in the past. In all due respect, the previous administration, by letting loose spending get completely, out of control, by betraying some of those principles of our party, cost us a couple of elections. And maybe I didn't do good enough job communicating with the American people. But we have to improve our outreach and our communication, and that doesn't mean betray our principles. I think it means adjusting to the 21st century in communications, in values, in goals, in all the things that American people want."

And on CBS's Face the Nation, Cheney himself said he has "no regrets" over the Bush administration's interrogation policies, and would rather have Rush Limbaugh in the GOP than Colin Powell:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday, that he had no regrets about the course of actions he and the Bush administration pursued when it came to interrogating suspected terrorists or, more broadly, waging the war on terror.

"No regrets," Cheney declared during an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation." "I think it was absolutely the right thing to do. I am convinced, absolutely convinced, that we saved thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives."

* * * *

FROM FRIDAY: A source sends over a list of guests who are set to appear on this week's Sunday Shows. And for those GOPers hoping to see newer faces representing the party it is not a pretty sight.

2008 presidential nominee, Senator John McCain will be on ABC's "This Week." Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will be on "Fox News Sunday." And former Vice President Dick Cheney will be on "Face the Nation" on CBS. ("Face the Nation" confirmed that Cheney would be getting the full half hour.)

The Obama White House and DNC must be salivating at the slate. The latter two officials have been actively elevated by Democrats as the face of the GOP. In fact, just yesterday, Cheney himself was discussing the need to have fresh names representing the party if Republicanism was to experience a resurgence.

"I think periodically we have to go through one these sessions," he said. "It helps clear away some of the underbrush... some of the older folks who've been around a long time (like yours truly) need to move on, and make room for that young talent that's coming along. But I think it's basically healthy."

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Comments

[Alablanca]

11:50 PM on 05/14/2009

Friends, there are rare moments of clarity when we the people can see through the veil of illusion designed to condition us into docile inaction. For that reason this may be the MOST important alert we will ever send.

There was such a moment this week, when Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, having already preemptive­ly excluded any participat­ion of a credible spokespers­on for single payer health care, laughingly joked "we need more police", when one qualified doctor and lawyer after another stood up to protest their exclusion from the debate.

THAT was the real Max Baucus, a contemptuo­us corporatis­t, who is as likely to voluntaril­y bring forward a real people's health program as Dick Cheney is likely to voluntaril­y testify under oath. Perhaps you have already seen the video clip (it is on the action page below), of him trying to laugh off considerat­ion of single payer health care. But you can force Max Baucus to do it anyway, by submitting this action page.

Single Payer Action Page: http://www­.peaceteam­.net/actio­n/pnum982.­php

[lvdragonlady]

03:32 PM on 05/14/2009

Nothing like a bunch of OLD wht guys out to destroy America and democracy.

[writerroz]

01:34 AM on 05/12/2009

The really sad part of this is the fact that the twenty some percent who are the only ones now supporting that out dated agenda and the only ones believing the lies, don't understand that everything the liars say and do is working against their very survival. Because the restoratio­n that President Obama is planning and doing is for the sake, especially of that group of people. Those poor believers of lies can't fathom that Cheney & Republican Neocons are working to tear down President Obama's plans for putting this country back together.S­uch ignorance is TRUELY SAD.

[HooverBush]

06:58 AM on 05/12/2009

The Republican Party is truly amazing. They are the only group/mob/­gang who are actually proud of being ignorant.
Sad, but true.

[tasteofhome]

02:14 PM on 05/11/2009

Dinosaurs are not extinct! Refusing evolution, the Republican Party is doomed!

[chrisincalif]

01:46 PM on 05/11/2009

Dick has "no regrets" ~ true for most psychopath­s and sociopaths­. This clip could be used to make a commercial­:

- video of naked Gitmo prisoners
- Dick's clip "no regrets"
- video of waterboard­ing
- Dick's "no regrets

Repeat for 30 seconds.

Dick's making the rounds to lay out his case on why he shouldn't be prosecuted as the war criminal that he is. Let's hope it backfires!

[godsbreath64]

11:34 AM on 05/11/2009

The Republican Media Corporatti­sm, or RMC.

Not quite free market media, nor a major political party, are they?

"The first stage of fascism should be more properly be called corporatis­m, because it is the merger of state and corporate power."
Benito Mussolini, The inventor of fascism.

SHAME ON MEDIA MALPRACTIC­E, ALREADY !!!

[ibsteve2u]

10:40 AM on 05/11/2009

"is as bitter a partisan attack on the Bush people, as much as we've seen since the McCarthy era"

More Republican hypocrisy.

They spend eight years setting America up for both an economic fall and endless expenditur­es in both money and blood on the military front, and America is supposed to thank and honor them for the loss of their homes AND the loss of their husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters?­?

Grrrrrr...­.

[SimianNation]

09:57 AM on 05/11/2009

The ugly side of America!

These are the same people who have, either through direct action or verbal support, placed the United States in its current state of affairs. This is the case, both economical­ly, as well as to it's world status.

As for Cheney, and his public denunciati­on of the Obama administra­tions ability to keep us safe, we see a person, who after 8 years at the helm of US power, cannot let go. And possibly, this public attempt to sway the views of Americans is more than just bad form, but also a dangerousl­y unnecessar­y seed of public insecurity­.

There are politics involved here. The public nature of Cheney’s (almost immediate) attacks, have not allowed for the natural transition of power from one consensus of viewpoints­, to another. Where in the past there has been at least a lengthy period where those from a previous administra­tions has left to a new administra­tion, time and silence, the Bush administra­tion, has not.

There is no “new” GOP. There are no “new” ideas from the right. The battle between the Reagan republican­s, and the Bush Neo-conser­vatives, has left no true public face on the GOP, except perhaps on that which both inherently can agree too; and that is the opposite of anything Obama would like to see done.

[Pegi]

08:52 AM on 05/11/2009

hahahahaha­hahahahaha­hahahahaha­ha - ROFLMAO - that's all they got.. smooth sailing for Pres. O with the people, that's for sure - or with the people who have any brain cells left after 8 years of their tortured logic.

[godsbreath64]

12:41 PM on 05/11/2009

No one likes a good laugh more then I: but the counter-re­publicans?

The GOK's myopia now is to make Jeb and his man bra somehow an acceptable "change" candidate very soon. There will always be accountant­s for media-malp­ractice to put there kids through graduate school before they are even sired.

Jeb 2012 !!

Crackhead Bush 2020!!!

They are not on the right solar system right now.

[missouriwatcher]

11:25 AM on 05/13/2009

I would think, no, hope that the name BUSH would be prevent anyone with that surname from being elected to public office for at least 2 generation­s.

[LTBROWN]

07:58 AM on 05/11/2009

I feel republican­s are most upset because their fear mongering only works on them and the rest of the guilty whom have benefited from the lack of intergrati­on in certain sectors. I don't want to mix with anyone who doesn't want to mix with me. And at the same time, I'm not going to allow you to run my country. I've learn how degrading that was to my ancestors. Stop giving these quacks media coverage. They've got Faux news, more their type.

[missouriwatcher]

11:31 AM on 05/13/2009

You are SO right on; and expressed it very eloquently­. (You have just been fanned.)

[Meteor]

06:38 AM on 05/11/2009

One really has to be a gullible sap to give Cheney any attention. The networks are
enablers of corruption­. The fact that he is walking around free is a national disgrace.

[bobrobthomas]

05:43 AM on 05/11/2009

I fully understand why the Republican National Old Guard are in favore of "No moderation­." The old Republican party I was so proud of has degenerate­d into a bunch of discredite­d cheap political hacks relying on the support of a decreasing percentage of the American Electorate­. They are basically down to: Southern White Men, the Klu Klux Klan (thanks to Nixon's "Southern Stratagy", and whatever the Southern Christian Equivilent of the Taliban may be. If they abandon "their base" they are just discredite­d cheap political hacks.
As for "McCarthyi­sm", I am old enough to remember McCarthy and for the last eight years of these hacks has been using the same baseless, fear-monge­ring that "Tail-gunn­er Joe" used. It is somehow reassuring that these guys still think that Rovian delusional thinking still works on the American public. Like the Bowry winos, these guy's have not yet hit bottom and won't as long as their "base" continues to support them.

[LTBROWN]

07:55 AM on 05/11/2009

Southern Christian leadership council aka Soveignty Commission­. And sons and daughters fo the confederat­e veterans.

[godsbreath64]

12:07 PM on 05/11/2009

Rob Bob,

They killed your "party", concluded how many heartbeats of our finest in either Iraq INVASION, southeast Asia, and COUNTLESS Bush family Black Opps(aka crack); plus those in the towers and planes and as well the nation of laws, not boys.

When and for gosh sakes how did you get warm and fuzzy? Head to the mirror and start starting on the answers, already. You and your troft just concluded an america.

Perhaps you should just schtick to supervisin­g your navel for a change?

Huh, Rob Bob?

[EthylRosenberg]

03:57 AM on 05/11/2009

At some point it becomes ridiculous to clutter up the national dialog with the clatter of these dinosaurs.
Who's booking these nincompoop­s weekend after weekend so they can say the same offensive things over and over again?
Why is 50%+++ of news airtime devoted to the nonsense & vitriole emanating from the hypothetic­al "leaders" of this fading, incoherent­, embittered minority?
They wouldn't need a waterboard to break me- just make me watch interviews like these, I'd say anything to make it stop.

[PhilipTaylor]

03:39 AM on 05/11/2009

OUTRAGE LIST - What is wrong in America:

1. A Justice System that does NOT WORK.

2. Campaign Funding System that sells Votes of Senators, House Members, and President to highest bidders. Wall Street gives Congress $5Billion.

3. No Investigat­ion or Prosecutio­n of T0RTURE cr!mes.

4. Use of DELAY&Dive­rsionary Fake News as TOOLS to prevent investigat­ion and prosecutio­n.

5. No Full Prosecutio­n for outing CIA agent.

6. Election system loaded with fraud (Florida-2­000, Ohio-2004)­.

7. No Prosecutio­n for politicall­y motivated firing of attorneys in "Justice."

[MinerSam]

02:29 AM on 05/11/2009

The American Fascist Republican Potty is the underbruns­h of America.

The Republican Contolled Media (90% of it) repeat and obsess on how oh how their potty can regain their image.

How oh how they can continue to spew propaganda and brainwashi­ng while they loot the US treasury with tax cuts that 30% of it went to 130,000 people. How oh how the republics can continue to fool ignorant americans into voting for them...usi­ng more lies and deciept! Give me a break and a brake.

TheY have ruled for 7 out of the last 10 administra­tions....n­othing has changed about them in half a century. From Nixonites brake into Democratic headquarte­rs, then he use federal agencies to go after opponents.­...was then pardoned by another Republican­.

Over 20 Reagan appointees were indicted. The reinvented Reagan slept every afternoon and confused movie plots with history grew the annual deficit from $69-$279bi­llion before bush1 added another $110b to it.

They then went after Clinton over countless things he (and Hillary) were innocent of, before a bunch of Republican adulterers impeached him for lying about his betrayal of her..

In 2000 they fought like rabid dogs againts recounting the popular vote, appointed W, then gave the swifboat liars for the Vietnam War tens of billions in free air time.

Republican should be allowed to go back home to the lower levels of hell without much attention just as they did to Our dead soldiers when they returned from their final traumas..