Can We Please See Less Dick Cheney?

Dick Cheney insists on inserting himself into our political discourse in a very creepy, strange, and unaccountable way. Every time he appears he reminds us how terrible the last eight years were. With his unyielding assertions and tone of infallibility he seems to be one of the only prominent rightwingers left in America who has yet to figure out that the real world has made a shambles of his ideology. Cheney cannot accept that he is no longer in power, hence his ubiquity on the public airwaves. He had a golden opportunity to participate after serving two terms as Vice President. He could have run for president in 2008 as the natural standard bearer for George W. Bush. Or he could position himself for a run in the Republican primaries in 2012. He'll have no problem raising money and look at all the free exposure the corporate media give him. The way Cheney savors the idea of returning to power he reminds me of one of those "dead enders" in Iraq he talked so much about.

So why does Cheney spend his time cowardly throwing darts at President Barack Obama from a "non-disclosed location" no one cares about via friendly journalists instead of stepping up and challenging President Obama's re-election?

Maybe it's because he would face a drubbing. Americans have notoriously short attention spans -- but not THAT short. Bush and Cheney promised us a free market path to "prosperity" and "security." We got neither. Everything they touched turned to failure. Unless you were on the receiving end of the cash that changed hands (which means you were part of the problem) nothing the Bush Administration did over the course of eight long years -- NOTHING -- helped our nation become more prosperous or secure. And here's Dick Cheney on Face the Nation in all his vainglorious arrogance asserting that if he were still in power and the Republicans were even more extreme we'd be in much better shape today!

Wow!

Sometimes powerful people need to see the inside of a prison cell for a while to come to terms with the consequences of their actions and the suffering that resulted from their malfeasance and misrule. Richard Bruce Cheney is one of those people.

A few commentators have compared Cheney's rehabilitation project to Richard Nixon's revival but nothing could be further from the truth. We have all heard Nixon's criminal intent loud and clear on those White House tapes but he had real accomplishments to point to. The country applauded his opening of diplomatic relations with China and his signing the legislation that formed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

What accomplishments can Dick Cheney point to?

He "kept us safe?"

Remember September 11th, 2001?

More Americans died as a result of Cheney's negligence and misguided policies than died in any two-term presidential period since the Vietnam War era. Feel safer?

And "prosperity?"

Handing the federal machinery over to a collection of corporations, industry associations, free-market ideologues, lobbyists and profiteers and then plundering whatever you could through deregulation, privatization, no-bid contracts, and appointing corporate hacks to head key regulatory agencies and departments, like Elaine Chao at the Labor Department and Chris Cox at the Securities and Exchange Commission, did not bring the United States of America "prosperity." On the contrary, Cheney's recklessness brought this nation to its knees.

And that's why Republicans like Colin Powell and Arlen Specter have jumped ship. They do not want to be associated with these jackals when the history books are written. Bitter, twisted people who destroyed the Republican party and nearly took down the country with them.

Comments

[panamarine]

I wonder if Chenney or anyone who reads the news for and to him ---HAVE been reading these anti-Chenney bloggs, postings and the unflattering editorials plus all the cable show talking heads that just: WANT HIM TO GO BACK TO HIS UNDISCLOSED LOCATION and stop gripping, whining and trying to look good. After the disastrous reign of his 8 years in the Executive Branch of Government, sounds to me like he is just making up stuff to cover some misteps and misdeeds; and making smoke screen excuses for himself, which no one seems to be buying or sympathetic with. A WTF moment: He (Chenney) says that he holds The Rush Limbaugh in higher esteem than Colin Powell we now know where his head and soul is at. There is NO comparison between those two, yet Chenney picks the lesser of them as his "go-to guy" shameful and unbecoming of an ex Vice President---no class. But it looks like pandering to most of us.

[Joseph A. Palermo - Huffpost Blogger]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/nancy-pelosi-torture-and_b_202910.html

[Yermammy]

Sorry Joe, but I want to see MUCH more of Dick Cheney. In a docket sweating and worrying what federal prison he's heading to. I want to see him crack live on TV telling us "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!". I want to see him on C-SPAN with his army of lawyers fighting desperately for his freedom from penalty of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. I want to see Dick Cheney like you wouldn't believe!

[Joseph A. Palermo - Huffpost Blogger]

Yeah, I think they did win the "War Against the Middle Class" since almost everyone who was already rich took a pretty big hit after these guys got done -- I think his brittle arrogance is the most unappealing and he -- as was his love-buddy Rummy -- is an "unbalanced" human being -- and what I mean by "unbalanced" is that he has spent so much time pursuing money and power that other aspects of his life are shriveled and dead, hence, is sociopathology -- no conscience, just a human corporation operating on what's best for his bottom line over the next 90 day quarter with no regard for the society that gave him the opportunity to achieve all his wealth and power in the first place -- he's cut from the same cloth as the men who ordered Pinkertons to fire into crowds of striking workers, or police commissioners who ordered fire hoses on to peaceful protesters in Birmingham, etc. No wonder the rest of the world hated our guts and might continue to hate us for years and years to come. Looking at Cheney we see America's ugliest side -- in his face is slavery, the genocide against the Native Americans, imperialism, bombing, death. The sooner he leaves us alone the better the country will be.

[Macready]

totally agree with you . . . cheney, rummy, bush . . the ugly underside of American life . . . and values . . . they have to be broght to trial for torture . . . I am so tired of our cowardly congress and our cowardly press . . .

[Macready]

Thank you Joseph . . . . great article . . . cheney, bush, et al should be behind bars . . if congress had not been so weak . . they should have been impeached . . . there was no lack of evidence . . . just cowardice and complicity . . . the legacies of the bush/cheney years were moral and economic bankruptcy for the US, the death of Iraq . . .and failure failure failure . . .

[ncmom54]

Let him be a curmudgeon 'at large'...
Everytime I see his face I think of Haliburton.
With everything the country is facing... we need to be reminded of what/who brought us here.
We tend to forget to easily.

[Yermammy]

He wins if he goes free. You want an extremely rich war criminal to be able to wander loose? That's not very wise or ethical.

[trisha08]

I really believed that after the Bush/Cheney administration was over that they would just go away. I can't even believe that Cheney has hit the airwaves in this non-stop fashion. Please, someone....make him go away.

Here is an idea. Journalists----do your job and ask the tough questions instead of pandering to Cheney. If he wasn't treated with such kit gloves, maybe he wouldn't want to be in the spotlight as much.

[trisha08]

Great post. Thank you.

I am so sick of hearing his voice and seeing his face on this self-promotion tour. The man should be in jail not on TV.

Journalists are a sad lot these days. They continue to give Cheney, Rove and the rest of Spanky's gang a platform to continue to spew their lies. Not one has the balls to ask the tough questions.

[andycan]

CHENEY'S CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE

Cheney should at the very least be sued for criminal negligence for shooting his Texas hunting buddy and electoral benefactor with birdshot in the face. In a fair, uninfluenced trial that should result in something like five years of jail, at the very least.

Then there is the sellingof the Pentagon to private contractors on the auction block - for which Rumsfeld is also accountable - that is infinitely more consequential. The penalty for that should be much higher.

[CanadianView08]

Don't ever forget that Bush / Cheney did have one amazing achievement, namely their very successful "War on the Middle Class". They sure scored on that count.

Also, Cheney wants documents released? Well, ok, fine, lets open ALL documents concerning his dealings in the past 8 years, not just the ones he wants to cherry pick to make himself look better. That should stop him in his tracks.

He could begin by releasing papers related to his secret energy meeting with oil companies executives in 2001 or 2002. Those papers would make for great reading.

[digeridoo]

Why stop at imprisoning Cheney? Frankly, Republican ideals are outright criminal (hate, torture, discrimination, misogyny) - ergo, being beholden to such ideals is also a crime. We should go through the registration records and convict all republicans - maybe we can put a wall around Texas and exile them to there...

[Mintcondition]

Thank you corporate media for all that you do. What a sham America has become. We are now controlled by big business now and forever. The rights have it in the bag.

[Joseph A. Palermo - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you for the comments -- I actually like it when Cheney comes out of his lair to scare us about Arabs and to throw bombs at a very popular president -- like I wrote, he could have run for president if he's so civic minded he wants to educate the public and enter the debate -- he is responsible for our nation being despised for eight years -- in fact, we don't know if Obama's charm offensive and commitment to multilateralism is capable of undoing the damage Cheney and Bolton and Kristol and their attitude toward the rest of the world caused. It's really retrograde: at a time when the globe was becoming "smaller" in that nations are more interconnected and interdependent than ever - - as the financial crisis, and swine flu, and terrorism, and climate change -- all show us -- these backward arrogant men were trying to impose a unilateral America first do what we say set of rules on the world -- it failed. And the Biggest Failure of Them All, Cheney, gets air time??????????

[Emerald1943]

Hi Professor! I have replied asking you for a favor, but so far, the heavy hand of the mods at Huffpost have not seen fit to let it come through. No obscenity, no profanity! I hope you get to read it.

[Emerald1943]

I'm going to try this again. Thanks for your article! But while the MSM gives Cheney all the air time he can handle, they completely ignore the rest of the story about missing detainees and prisoners that have been killed at military-run prisons as a result of Cheney's interrogation policies.

I believe the American people would not support this "enhanced interrogation" if they knew the rest of the story. It has been difficult to get the word out. The media has been so hung up on waterboarding, but, IMHO, has missed a much bigger story. No one has mentioned "extraordinary rendition" at all...nor have the missing detainees been accounted for by the Red Cross.

Meanwhile, Dick Cheney is given air time on every talk show, to defend the indefensible! We need to keep posting and letting people know about the deaths that have occurred. You are highly respected and I hope you will be able to write about this. I believe it might help bring this issue to a head sooner.

Thanks, professor! I always look forward to reading your articles. Keep 'em coming!

[HeevenSteven]

Not just Cheney, but Bill Kristol, Tom Delay, John Yoo, et al.

Sunday's Philly Inquirer had an op-ed by John "torture memo" Yoo about why Obama needs to pick a "centrist" for the Supreme Court. Obama needs advice from that guy?

Why does the MSM bend over backward to give these discredited sophists a platform? If any Democratic administration had screwed up as badly as these guys, they'd be banished to the media wilderness forever. Why are they welcomed with open arms?

[johnie2xs]

When are we going to catch on to the fact that there is absolutely NO way; I reiterate; No way to reason with these (Rethuglicans) people. They are beyond logic and rational thought.

Once they gained the Presidency, through nefarious and duplicitous means, their tactics were validated in their minds. The Reagan administration was just the dress rehearsal; the shake down cruise (Pun intended), as it were. They had the eight years of Bush to harden their ideas and tactics, to a degree that by use of the MSM, and their operational organizations like the RNC, AEI, and an assortment of right wing think tanks, Evangelical puppets, and Rethuglican wags, they would put out their talking point via the much touted "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy", they have forever sullied political discourse in this country. By using the basest prejudices in people, they have forever made hate an indispensable factor of Legislation. You cannot find a stance , of the Rethuglican Party, that when dissected does not have an element of hate factored in.
And when confronted with their hate mongering, they feign to SHOCKED...­SHOCKED... that anyone could be so audacious as to impugn, or ascribe, such vile intent as being theirs. After all, they are the Christian party...the party of wholesome family values...the party of Lincoln, and T Roosevelt, and Reagan, (Morning in America; shining city on the hill, and all). What a steaming pile of ......fill in your own blank.

[Emerald1943]

Agreed! It would seem that Hillary Clinton with her "vast right wing conspiracy" was not so far off base after all! Ah, sweet vindication! LOL

[TRYKER]

Why does the MSM bend over backward to give these discredited sophists a platform? " HeevenSteven

B ecause MSM is owned by Rethuglicans.

[HeevenSteven]

'zactly!

[trisha08]

Don't forget Rove.

[mommadona]

Ditto with Tom Delay, any kinda Bush.