Dick Cheney - The Republican Gift that Keeps Giving

During the early part of this decade, Dick Cheney redefined the role of vice-president as he took on unprecedentedly large amounts of responsibility, particularly with regard to foreign policy. Today, Cheney seems to be redefining life after the vice-presidency. In the past vice-presidents, in some cases after unsuccessfully seeking the presidency, either took on a position as an elder statesperson in their respective party, like Al Gore or Walter Mondale, or relatively quietly retired and joined corporate boards like Dan Quayle. The Cheney model for the post-vice presidency seems to be to become the party's lead attack dog. It is difficult to fathom why Cheney has chosen to do this, but supporters of President Obama should not be ungrateful.

One of the major concerns many supporters of President Obama had at the beginning of his term was that Obama would almost certainly not be able to solve the myriad problems he inherited from the Bush administration; and over time people would begin to blame Obama for what had been the failings of the Bush administration. In other words, people would begin to hold Obama responsible for not solving Bush's mess quickly enough while forgetting just how the big that mess was when Obama came became president. As the early, heady days of the Obama administration, become memories, and the weeks turn into months, it would be only natural for voters to begin to see the problems as increasingly belonging to Obama.

One can easily imagine Obama's top political aides wrestling with the problem of how to remind voters of how bad things were, and how nasty, incompetent and divisive the previous administration was, without the White House being seen as passing the buck and laying the blame on its predecessor. In a best case scenario, a prominent Bush era official, perhaps somebody trying to salvage their own political future, would position him or herself as the chief critic of the Obama administration, thus inadvertently serving as a constant reminder to voters of the previous administration.

Obama didn't get lucky and have this best case scenario. He got even luckier and got Dick Cheney. It is unlikely that even in David Axelrod or Rahm Emanuel's most hopeful moments during the transition, they thought that well past the first hundred days of his presidency Barack Obama would still be able to use Dick Cheney as a foil.

Cheney is not just any former Bush official. He is, of course the former vice-president, but more importantly he is even less popular than President Bush was and viewed as closely associated with all of the negatives of the Bush administration and with none of the positives, whatever those might have been, of President Bush. Cheney is nastier, more vituperative, more vengeful and possesses more of a tin ear for politics than almost anybody in public life today. He is a walking and, almost constantly, talking reminder of why, by the time they left office, almost three quarters of Americans disapproved of the Bush administration

Cheney is also continues to be wedded to the worst of the Bush years. The excesses of the War on Terror from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo, the haze of corruption and malfeasance surrounding Halliburton and other security contractors and the hostility around any regulation or government intervention in the finance sector are all closely connected to Dick Cheney. Cheney does little to change this perception with his unapologetic defense, which continues to this day, of Bush era policy on most of these issues. He stubbornly refuses not only to recognize the mistakes his administration made, but continues to cling to the most offensive elements of the Bush presidency.

Now that Rush Limbaugh has offered to move aside as the titular leader of the Republican Party, Dick Cheney appears to be stepping into a vacuum in the Republican leadership that sends the precise backward looking message that is most destructive to that party.

Cheney's presence on the current political scene seamlessly blends unpopular and unsuccessful policy approaches with an unpleasant demeanor in a way that amounts to an enormous political gift to an already extremely popular president. Every smirk and hostile aside from the former Vice-President makes President Obama's job just a little bit easier. As long as Cheney continues to loudly, and bellicosely defend the previous administration, the American people will not forget just how bad things were when Bush was in office. The belligerence, accusations that any disagreement over any aspect of the Global War on Terror was at best undermining our safety and at worst close to treason, unwillingness to question the efficacy of any of Bush policy and overall hostility towards questioning and debate which continue to characterize Cheney's public statements serve as almost daily reminders to the American people of why they were so ready for a change last November.

Comments

[SteveDenver]

Dick Cheney is fishing for a book deal. That's what all his gumflapping is about.

[Jazzman323]

I wish Dick Cheney was out speaking for the Republicans every day, countering the left's lies and characterizations about the war on terror and enhanced interrogations. You should read his speech at the American Enterprise Institute last week. An honest statement of what he and Bush did following 9/11 and why. Contrast that to Obama's campaign speech at the National Archives. A lawyerly speech about and Obama and his family and lofty constitutional theories.

People are worried about the safety and security of our country, no attending a lecture at Harvard.

[StillIRise]

Do you ever question why Cheney was not "out speaking for the Republicans" during the last year or so of the Bush administration after President Bush had also ended the practice of enhanced interrogation techniques (torture) and was in the process of closing GITMO, the very issues that Cheney is speaking out on today.

Do you ever wonder if Cheney would have been "out speaking for the Republicans" on these issues if John McCain had won the presidency? Like President Obama, John McCain also said that water-boarding is torture, and also wanted to close GITMO. Do you think Cheney would have suggested that the country is less safe under a President John McCain, a Republican who espoused the same beliefs as President Obama?

Cheney's motive for speaking out is clear, and it has nothing to do with Republicans or the safety and security of our country. It is an inappropriate and unprecedented effort to save himself.

Had Cheney been concerned about the safety and security of our country, we would never have invaded and occupied a sovereign nation that had nothing to do with 911, ignored the war in Afghanistan allowing for the Taliban to re-emerge and Al Qaeda to find refuge, betrayed the Geneva Convention and our own Constitution, or initiated the unsustainable indefinite detention of "enemy combatants" in Guantanamo. All of these things made America less safe and secure, yet all of these things were done under the leadership of Dick Cheney.

[edtheengineer]

Cheney is loudly proclaiming "I am a criminal" every chance he gets. Torture is a CRIME! It violates a TREATY which we signed. All of the John Yoo twisted, erroneous thinking cannot hide that fact. You need to read some honest law, not just repeat Faux talking points.

[ThatOne4Me]

Jazzman, Honest and Bush don't belong in the same sentence. That's not a possibility.

[SteveDenver]

Jazzman323: I REALLY WISH Cheney was out speaking for Republicans every day, because he is such a cantankerous liar with a water-tight history of misleading and misdeeds, that it would be a pleasure to see him shoot the GOP in the foot every dang day. His litany of grumbling, mean words meant to divide and poison are exactly what the DNC needs from him in order to secure the demise of the GOP.

We're in the information age and Cheney keeps spouting lies, half-truths and statements with gaping omissions... and there are plenty ready to straighten out the record as soon has he has lied.

[Acidic]

Sounds great but as of now he is wrong. Cheney's approval ratings are steadily on the rise, which I find uncomfortably amazing. Given it's probably people on the right, now coming forward because of his previous unpopularity, none the less it is rising.

[Exexecution]

He is not only defending his 'legacy' but tainting the jury pool. I read that Lynn Cheney appeared on 12 talk shows in nine days. Desperate much?
Next month the much-anticipated Justice Dept. IG report gets released, unless Obama gets cold feet again. This could be very bad for Cheney's 'legacy'. This tour is to pre-empt the impact of that as well as the already released OLC memos along with past and future torture photos and video both released and leaked.
Cheney's time is running out.

[Jazzman323]

That would be Liz Cheney, his daughter, smarter than all the liberal cable news commentators conbined.

[leonel]

THIS ARTICLE HAS VERY GOOD POINTS ABOUT HOW CHENEY IS HELPING DEMOCRATS.
ANOTHER POINT THAT CAN BE BROUGHT UP IS HOW OTHER COUNTRIES ARE SEEING THE US COME TO TERMS WITH THE HORRIBLE BUSH CHENEY YEARS, AND SEEING CHENEY AS CAUSE.

The rest of the world has been in general disappointed with how the US in the past few years lost its way in the way it engaged in a selfish foreign policy in the Middle East. Cheney refusing to let go is bringing added attention to how the Bush administration was so bad. In addition, the rest of the world is probably waiting to see how things turn out. They know it was blatant torture and abuse of prisoners and they are probably enjoying seeing the US finally having to debate and decide what should be done.

[Jazzman323]

CHENEY IS THE ADULT HERE, NOT THE HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR OBAMA.

[offred]

Obama attended Harvard and was editor of the law review, a very prestigious position. He served as a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago law school. Got the facts straight now?

Your facts are about as screwed up as Cheney's logic in saying the Bush regime kept us safe. How safe did Bush and Cheney keep the almost 5000 combat casualties in Bush's vanity war? How safe did they keep the 80,000 injured and disabled soldiers in that war? How safe did they keep the deaths that aren't included in official war casualty reports: people injured by substandard contractor work on electrical wiring? People exposed to toxic fumes from the fire pits contractors/cronies used to dispose of toxic materials? Women exposed to sexual abuse and sometimes killed by contractor­s/cronies? People who have intractable intestinal diseases because cronies/contractors hauled dead bodies one moment, then hauled ice for food and drink the next?

[wesinohio]

Cheney's torture increased recruits to Al Queda and caused the deaths of more American soldiers. Cheney broke the law. Cheney is a liar. Cheney is a greedy war profiteer. Cheney will either be convicted of treason or war crimes, or war profiteering or, at least, people will read forever about his shameful legacy in history classes. His deferred Haliburton income doesn't let him off the hook for war profiteering either. He was still motivated to maximize Haliburton's profits, notwithstanding the insurance policy he took out - that was just a cover for his real goal which was to make as much money as possible. Bush won't be let off the hook either, nor will the mid-level enablers of the Bush/Cheney administration.

[Bongborg]

It really is the gift that keeps giving. I know it is unpleasant to hear him keep talking, but not as unpleasant as, say, being waterboarded, and only the Republicans can't see that he will talk the GOP into dissolution. Let a guilty man keep talking long enough, and you get a confession. Without torture.

[Haitiana4Obama]

What I find disturbing are the 2 or 3 RepublicanTs who've called into C-Span and post all over the web in defense of Cheney. They filled with illusions are bleating that Cheney has to stand up and "defend the Bush administration", some even saying he's doing this for the sake of America. Uhhh...NO! Cheney only cares about HIS LEGACY, the main reason Cheney is out there lying about Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and torture is because he wants to protect himself. President Obama has consistently stated that those who showed disregard for the Constitution will be forever on the wrong side of history, this is Cheney's bid to keep the lies alive and distort history as he and his daughter have been doing. Sadly for them, and fortunately for the nation, the majority of the American people we not asleep these last 8 years.

[LooktotheLeft]

For anyone falling into Dick Cheney's complete obliteration of history trap, I remind you (once again) Cheney never kept us, or anyone else, safe...and neither did his boss. If not for him and his actions as Defense Sec. stretching all the way back to our invasion of Iraq in '91, and subsequent repression and b*leeding of Iraq that ensued, and the "standing up" of U.S. Forces from operational locations in Kuwait, UAE, Jordan, Bahrain and on the sacred grounds of Saudi Arabia (can anyone say Mecca?), 9-*1*1 wouldn't have happened in the first place. And from that point until recently, all we did was fan the flames of the already well established hatred of America thruout the world. Dick Cheney never protected anyone. Perish the ridiculous notion. Now, as our new President attempts the monumental task of maneuvering thru the "m ine fields" in his own country, no less, to began the long, long and arduous process of righting many wrongs, we have this guy (Cheney) out front and center actually being given a forum in which to speak...and, basically, just making the aforementioned process of our new President more lengthy and much more painful. I mean, basically, America will never be able to get on with its life until Dick Cheney is no longer around to keep beating the drum of 9*1*1

[MarkBoston]

Why won't this tired old man just GO HOME already !! He had eight years to ruin the country. He scares the bejesus out of most people and his party was voted out of most of its power nation wide... GO HOME.. work on your boat. retire ... and wait until the Men in black come after you one evening soon, to stand for the War crimes you committed.

[vascopyjama]

Cheney's a floater just like Palin. You keep thinking they are gone and they pop right up again.

[BarryChamplain]

Why must everyone, even those who are highly critical of Cheney, buy-into this frame that we "can't ftahom why" he's doing what he's doing? Many of us are fathoming just fine, thank you. Two big reasons:

1. He is attempting to create in the conventional wisdom a "side" of an "argument" that has never existed, and the MSM can then have this argument with itself daily; namely, that torture, while nominally illegal, really shouldn't be (corollary: anyone who even calls it "torture" during this manufactured argument is "libelling" our fine, decent, patriotic spooks);

2. Having created this phony-baloney "debate" over settled law, he is using his famed Gravitas to stare-down the Belway elites of whom he is an opinion leader, in an effort to intimidate them against conducting so much as one criminal investigation against the Bush Crime Family.



... because Guy #1 who goes down is: Dick Cheney.

[DoTheMath]

I'm convinced. In fact, Cheney's all-out defense of the worst abuses of the Bush administration suggest that he knows if there are any trials, and if the LAW determines the outcome, he's toast.

He's like one of those fictional attorneys on prime-time TV trying to persuade the jury to ignore the law because the law is wrong - except of course the real reason they're making that argument is that the law and the evidence are pointing straight to prison.

[hyjanks]

The Bush/Cheney credo: Repeat a lie often enough and a large percentage of people see it as gospel. Thus eight long, long years of Edgar Bergan and Charley McCarthy.

[lafrance]

Oh, I think it's a boon to Obama. And democrats.
Having the sociopathic Cheney out skulking around and fear mongering will only serve to remind people that the republicans are usless these days. And that he is the reason for that and for all the problems Obama has had to clean up.
8 years of arrogant incompetence has left the president with the worst disaster on his hands. Domestic and International.
And it's not just policy differences or letting some areas become neglected like with other administrations. It is a monumental mess in all departments and in all areas.
the one thing that annoys me is how the republicans and press complain about Obama bringing up these things once in awhile, saying he can't blame Bush forever, blah blah.
Yet, to the end, Bush blamed Clinton for everything and no one said a word.
double standard much?

[zendem1]

As helpful as it is, he's still doing some damage. Somebody needs to take the bark off him, and it's not hard to do:
He voted against the banning of cop killer bullets as a Congressman.
he got five deferments to avoid conflict.
He is a war profiteer.

[RRG64]

Someone posted this earlier today.....­recommende­d viewing for anyone wanting to know the truth about the NeoCons.

Cheney/Rum­sfeld/Wolf­owitz/Perl­e

http://www.documentarywire.com/the-new-american-century

[kiwi777]

im watching it right now. thank you!

[SteveDenver]

I'm going to watch it. THANKS for turning me on to this site, they have a big library of stuff and I'm stoked!

[Chbronze]

Cheney knows what he is doing, Cheney was making friends and enemies before Obama was born. Obama started this by calling out Bush / Cheney in front of the rest of the world. Truman did not criticize Roosevelt in front of the world for putting Americans (Japanese-­Americans) in concentration camps, nor did Eisenhower criticize Truman for dropping the bomb. What Obama has done is air our disagreements to the rest of the world. We are on the same team regardless of our disagreements. What the rest of the world thinks dosen't matter, we can argue at home, but outside the house we defend our family.

[RRG64]

Your going to minimize War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity as political disagreements?

LOL....

Cheney knows what he is doing....

yeah...trying to save his la$$ and family fortune and stay out of SuperMax or Fort Leavenworth, better yet trying to stay out of GITMO.

[Chbronze]

Why didn't we hear this "war crimes" mantra when Clinton was bombing Bosnia into the stone age?

[zendem1]

Everything Cheney has done in over 40 years of public life, has been either dishonest or wrong.

[Amalek]

That is a bit harsh. He did shoot a lawyer in the face. What is wrong or dishonest about that?

[neocon666]

Harry Truman dropped an atomic bomb on Japan in an attempt to end a war America entered after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor -a clear reason. Dick Cheney and George W. Bush manufactured bogus reasons to invade iraq. It was made very clear during Condalezza Rice's confirmation hearing that the ONLY reason that the US invaded Iraq as because of George W. Bush's claim of WMDs, AND NOTHING ELSE. The argument that Barack Obama should not have called out Bush/Cheney for war is beyond absurd. The world had already seen this country invade another which did not attack or threaten us and kill its leader along with several hundred thousands of its citizens. Not to mention the billons that went to no-bid contracts for Haliburton, who were still paying Cheney while he was VP. So should we have not gone after Nixon for the Watergate tapes?

"The republican party -we got nothing."

[Chbronze]

Almost like when Clinton bombed Bosnia, they were a huge threat to us.

[Brooklyn49]

I don't see the analogies. At all. The two examples you cite, as unspeakable as they were, were finite actions. (And please bear in mind that Roosevelt ordered the insane internment AND rescinded that order. Truman didn't have to try to figure out what to do.) And Obama "started" nothing: the disasters he has to undo ARE the work of Bush and Co's dedicated efforts to essentially redefine what it means to be an American -- here, and around the world. I think that such things as allowing torture, instilling a sort of terror in all Americans, alienating most of the world, encouraging rampant greed, willfully lying millions into a war, etc., are more than mere "disagreements": these issues conflict with some of the defining elements of this country, and they deserve to be loudly proclaimed as contrary to what America is about.

[Chbronze]

Bush made the decision to close Gitmo, Bush made the decision to stop the waterboarding, so I guess being finite actions they don't count either.
Obama "started" the criticism of a previous administration, using rhetoric to appease the left, as he took pretty much the same course as Bush/Cheney. We are starting to see some outrage as the left is figuring this out.
As for your points above I think we can also say the left was pretty much complicit if not to blame in some of the instances. It was Clinton who ended many banking regulations, which encouraged "rampant greed" Plus as we are finding with Pelosi, our congressmen and women will not necessarily give us all the facts when it may interfere with what they want us to believe.

[Kakistocrat]

Sorry, I cannot agree with you. Our country has a rich history of airing our differences very publicly, including two presidential impeachments and a resignation over the very public Watergate lawbreaking.

Cheney is performing a public service by forthrightly stating the issue that the entire MSM ignores, and thus keeping it in the public eye. He states that what he and the administration authorized (an admission at law) was legal. While the MSM tries to divert our attention, Cheney keeps drawing us back to the essential question, "Did the Bush administration break the law?" There are many fronts on which the Bush administration is subject to public scrutiny, but on the question of torture and the lead-up to the Iraq war, the question of felonious behavior is central.

This is NOT a matter of policy differences. The former vice president presents a prima facie case that the Bush administration authorized torture. There is plenty of evidence that the administration committed massive fraud in presenting their case to support attacking Iraq. This includes forgery of the Niger yellowcake documents as well as (plausibly deniable) rigging of intelligence. These are crimes. In my view, they are monstrous crimes.

Our democracy will fail if those in positions of public responsibility can, without any repercussion, commit crimes to fulfill their own policy aims. Without the law to control those in power, the executive knows no bounds. There can be nothing more important, or more public, for the survival of our country.

[Brooklyn49]

Wow. You had me at "Sorry ...". Fan you.

[edtheengineer]

What Cheney is arguing is "legal" is the violation of a treaty which was signed by Saint Ronnie The Ray-Gun himself. According to our Constitution, a treaty has the same status as a law passed by Congress and signed by the President. This simple fact is being lost (deliberately) by all of obsfucation put up by Cheney, Limbaugh, et. al.

[stevespelling]

I love Dick Cheney. The more we hear Dick Cheney speak directly to the public without the Obama media filtering what he says and smearing him as they do all conservatives the more the public will come to appreciate his reasoned, rational and realistic point of view and the more his popularity rises. Please Mr. President keep engaging former V.P. Cheney in debate so the public can hear both sides of a complicated argument and decide for itself. You do us justice Mr. President when we can hear all sides of the debate and decides for ourselves!

[RRG64]

Why would anyone or any entity need to smear Cheney when the facts do the job themselves....

----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­-----
"During former defense secretary Richard Cheney's five-year tenure as chief executive of Halliburton, Inc., his oil services firm raked in big bucks from dubious commercial dealings with Iraq.

Cheney left Halliburton with a $34 million retirement package last July when he became the GOP's vice-presidential candidate.

Of course, U.S. firms aren't generally supposed to do business with Saddam Hussein.

But thanks to legal loopholes large enough to steer an oil tanker through, Halliburton profited big-time from deals with the Iraqi dictatorship.

Conducted discreetly through several Halliburton subsidiaries in Europe, these greasy transactions helped Saddam Hussein retain his grip on power while lining the pockets of Cheney and company.

According to the Financial Times of London, between September 1998 and last winter, Cheney, as CEO of Halliburton, oversaw $23.8 million of business contracts for the sale of oil-industry equipment and services to Iraq through two of its subsidiaries, Dresser Rand and Ingersoll-Dresser Pump, which helped rebuild Iraq's war-damaged petroleum-­production infrastructure.

The combined value of these contracts exceeded those of any other U.S. company doing business with Baghdad."

http://uruguay.indymedia.org/news/2008/06/66667.php

[RRG64]

Halliburton and its former subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), pleaded guilty Wednesday to five-counts of violating federal bribery laws and will pay the federal government $402 million to settle a decade-long criminal investigation into claims the company paid off intermediaries of the notoriously corrupt Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and some of his subordinates to win a lucrative construction contract for a natural gas liquefaction plant while former Vice President Dick Cheney headed the corporation, the Justice Department announced.

KBR entered guilty pleas to a five-count criminal information in federal court in Houston before U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison.

KBR pleaded guilty to conspiring with its joint-venture partners and others to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by authorizing, promising and paying bribes to a range of Nigerian government officials, including officials of the executive branch of the Nigerian government officials and others in exchange for securing construction contracts.
http://www.zimbio.com/KBR++/articles/104/Halliburton+KBR+Plead+Guilty+Cheney+Era+Bribery

[RRG64]

----------­----------­----------­---
"Halliburton came under fire in the early '90s for supplying Libya and Iraq with oil drilling equipment which could be used to detonate nuclear weapons. Halliburton Logging Services, a former subsidiary, was charged with shipping six pulse neutron generators through Italy to Libya. In 1995, the company pled guilty to criminal charges that it violated the U.S. ban on exports to Libya. Halliburton was fined $1.2 million and will pay $2.61 million in civil penalties." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/articles/halliburtonprimer.html

3.8 million in fines for a $25 BILLION dollar contract from Libya.... Nice return on investment DICK, even criminal.

[CREDULATOR]

I agree with you. Cheney is a breath of fresh air that has been putrified by so many politicians. Obama is trying to rewrite history and someone like Cheney will not permit that. Philosophical opinions are not facts. They are opinions that have no basis in reality. Obama needs to get off philosophy and onto reality. Waterboarding of three terrorists saved our lives. Thank God for the Dick Chaneys of our country.

[SteveDenver]

What stunning denial and ignorance.

[marignymitch]

Obama is Vice's most devout protector. Vice should be more grateful.