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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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?
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.
B ecause MSM is owned by Rethuglicans.