Dick Cheney Heckled: CPAC Speech Interrupted By Protesters Calling Former Vice President 'War Criminal'

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney says Donald Rumsfeld may have more influence on President Barack Obama's national security policies than his current aides.

Cheney surprised a gathering of conservatives on Thursday to present the former two-time defense secretary an award. The vice president joked that Rumsfeld twice served as defense secretary and added that "maybe if we give him a third term, he might get it right."

Cheney also drew laughs when he wondered aloud if Rumsfeld may have more influence on Obama than his current advisers.

Obama campaigned against the Bush White House's national security policies and yet has continued many of the tactics now that he is in power.

Protesters interrupted Cheney, calling him a "draft dodger" and "war criminal."

Comments

[MuscleJockTX]

04:12 PM on 02/13/2011

I feel so sorry for Shrub & Chumley, they get heckled so unfairly... in fact, I'm ready to pitch in $100.00 towards a one way ticket to Switzerland for the two of them. I hear it's a lovely place for war profiteers to get away from it all. Do them both a world of good.

[juancapez]

01:23 AM on 02/14/2011

can we route that plane via the hague?

[MuscleJockTX]

02:34 AM on 02/15/2011

Excellent plan, by all means.

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

12:26 PM on 02/13/2011

A related video advances the possibility Cheney could have a heart transplant. Can they put in some morality, ethics, and compassion, too?

[beyondliberal]

04:07 PM on 02/21/2011

That all assumes he had one to start with.

[ebanks84]

12:13 PM on 02/13/2011

Well, this story didn't stay on front page but a hot second. Head honchos didn't like Cheney getting ragged I guess!

[onasphere]

11:47 PM on 02/12/2011

How does a man with no heart spend the spoils of two wars manufactured for his profit?

[Jarret Boisvert]

10:56 PM on 02/12/2011

If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck....

[onasphere]

11:46 PM on 02/12/2011

More like The Penguin, actually.

[myrtle1909]

04:57 PM on 02/12/2011

Mr. Chenney looks very confused. Is it past his bedtime?

[Neets101]

04:39 PM on 02/12/2011

Link to Rachel Maddow with clip from CPAC speech:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#41542621

[myrtle1909]

04:38 PM on 02/12/2011

Sorry Mr Cheney about the hecklers. However sometimes hecklers just can't help themselves.

[getoffmedz]

04:01 PM on 02/12/2011

Here we go, again. Valid Progressive talking points from four and five years ago now emerge from the far-right as though they originated them. Except twisted to suit their agenda.

LOL

[Brooklyn Red Leg]

04:54 PM on 02/12/2011

Really? Care to explain Ron Paul's votes on Iraq, USA PATRIOT ACT and so forth? Considering it was Ron Paul supporters who were the ones booing Rumsfeld and heckling Cheney. I mean, its OBVIOUS that no Republican could EVER have a disagreement with Bush/Cheney that's part of the Congressional Record, amirite?

[getoffmedz]

05:39 PM on 02/12/2011

The tiniest minority of the GOP and in fact, isn't Ron Paul a Libertarian? A third party similar to the Tea Party, a very far-right assembly.

[xanas]

11:06 PM on 02/12/2011

Being anti-war is an old-right position. But even longer than anti-war has been an old-right or a leftist position it's been a libertarian position. Any libertarian who isn't anti-war isn't a libertarian at all.

[getoffmedz]

10:53 AM on 02/13/2011

Libertarian, yes. Most are registered as Republicans but old-right like General/President Eisenhower and extend the Vietnam War Richard Nixon?

And then we have the current right-wing George H.W. Bush and the Gulf War and his shrub and Afghanistan and Iraq, the current Legacy Wars for the Natural Resources of Others.

Attempting to rewrite history is not nice.

[FreetoBme]

03:51 PM on 02/12/2011

I find it interesting that HP gave it so little coverage.

[Jean Crawford]

06:56 PM on 02/12/2011

You and me find it interesting, however, very predictable.

[1jurisdiva]

03:34 PM on 02/12/2011

I saw "heckled" and read "handcuffed"...wishful thinking.

[FTracy3]

03:17 PM on 02/12/2011

Considering his medical history, I'd call wearing a grim reaper mask and jumping out from behind corners and yelling "Halliburton!" a little bit more than just heckling.

[watcherreader]

03:05 PM on 02/12/2011

war criminal

[carolina919]

02:47 PM on 02/12/2011

What a truncated farce of a story. This passes as journalism? WHO were the hecklers? When did this happen? What was the crowd's reaction.....There is brevity and then there is insufficiency...

[Brooklyn Red Leg]

04:56 PM on 02/12/2011

Hecklers: Ron Paul supporters
When: Right after Rand Paul's speech (which begs the question of why CPAC organizers would schedule something so blatantly opposite of one another...unless they meant to do that).

[jafsie]

12:00 PM on 02/13/2011

It doesn't "beg the question." It raises the question.

Begging the question is a logical fallacy in which a proposition that requires proof is assumed without proof. Example: "How come conservatives have absolutely no sense of humor?"

[RBLRDR]

02:36 PM on 02/12/2011

We need a video. I would like to see the look on his face.

[watcherreader]

03:07 PM on 02/12/2011

check out Maddow, it was shocking that it would happen at cpac of all places.