The Vice President of the United States is the center of attention lately, and he doesn’t respond well to being in the limelight.
I have to say that I have been sidetracked this week from many of the issues I usually follow. There has, however, been a common thread running through many of them..it can be identified by one word, that brings fear and loathing into the hearts and minds of many a liberal-minded person.
Cheney.
Like some of our most famous public figures, just one word identifies our current Vice President. Prince, Roseanne, Streisand, Nixon, Reagan…You only have to say one part of their names and you know who someone is speaking or writing about.
Deadeye Dick Cheney is one man that, thank God, isn’t in a position to push the nuclear button. I fear that if something happened to Bush, Cheney wouldn’t have a problem with nuking first and answering for it later. I am sure his mentality pleases the war-mongering crowd, but it just sends shivers down my screwed up spine. His willingness to play dirty, lie his ass off and divide our nation for his own agenda never ceases to amaze me. He is contemptuous of anyone that questions or does not agree with him. It’s the “daddy syndrome” in many ways. His interview with Wolf Blitzer this week at CNN was a shining example of how he bullies people and stretches the truth to fit his POV. He is always confrontational when not in front of a flag-waving Neocon crowd, military organization or speaking to someone on his favorite propaganda channel..Fox News. Blitzer must have been ready to tear his hair out when he found out he was tasked with interviewing everyone’s favorite hunter last week. Some excerpts from this weeks “Situation Room” interview with Cheney:
When Blitzer asked whether the administration’s credibility had been hurt by “the blunders and the failures” in Iraq, Cheney interjected: “Wolf, Wolf, I simply don’t accept the premise of your question. I just think its hogwash.” Funny, but even the President himself has seen fit to admit to failures in Iraq in his two most recent speeches this month. But not ol Dick, no sir..Dick ain’t admitting to anything. Wait..Dick did admit this gem during the interview:
“Bottom line is that we’ve had enormous successes and we will continue to have enormous successes.”
I almost bit off the edge of the glass I was drinking out of when I heard that line coming out of his piehole. I sat there and thought a bit about what he could be alluding to with regard to enormous successes…and I thought..and I thought some more. Nope..no “enormous” successes came to mind for me, my dear reader. Unless of course you count the money Halliburton, Blackwater, CACI, and all the other contractors have made off the war in Iraq. His cough*intelligent* cough response when asked why Hillary Clinton wouldn’t make a good President really impressed me; “Because she’s a Democrat.”
Nothing partisan there right? Just a nice narrow-minded assessment without one word based in factual reality. Being a democrat does not automatically make one a lousy President, I don’t care what this fuckwit says. The lack of any substance was downright maddening. I would really like to hear him verbalize what exactly is wrong with Hillary in his view. Give us something to ponder, don’t expect the rest of society to buy your bullshit based on her party affiliation you pathetic old gasbag. Try to use a little deductive reasoning when telling us why a democrat wouldn’t make a good president. Is it too much to ask? To me, this statement smacked of a partisan political attack, something Cheney excels at. If he thinks the world revolves around party affiliation, I got news for him then: over 65% of American’s must now be registered Democrat since they no longer support the war in Iraq as part of the Global War on Terror. The vast majority of American’s also do not think the current administration is worth squat when it comes to doing the job we elected Bush and Cheney to do. That is the universal “we” btw..I didn’t vote for either of them personally. As one writeup about Cheney notes this week: As least Dick didn’t tell Wolf to go “fuck himself”, a favorite comeback of Cheney’s when pressed for answers or responses on given subjects.
Another article, over at E&P likened Cheney to “Baghdad Bob”. Its an amusing read, giving you quotes from Bob and asking you to visualize them coming out of Cheney’s mouth..its not a stretch believe me.
Now, we also saw Cheney’s name in the news repeatedly for another issue..PlameGate. With the beginning of Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s trial this week, Cheney would be a rich man if he were handed a buck for each time his name was bandied about by the defense, the prosecution or the witnesses in this case. Already, witnesses are tossing Dick under the bus by stating Cheney personally directed the effort to discredit Joseph Wilson by having calls made to reporters in 2003. Catherine J. Martin, who was the vice president's top press aide at the time, testified that Cheney dictated detailed "talking points" for his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and others on how they could impugn the Wilson’s credibility. Cheney outright lied about Wilson’s trip to Niger and who instituted the trip and why, on the failed hunt to tie Saddam to uranium purchases. Scooter has no intention of going down for PlameGate quietly. His lawyers made that abundantly clear during their opening argument. Ms. Martin testified as a prosecution witness, so both sides are interested in what Cheney said and directed others to say when the war against Joe Wilson was declared after his infamous NYT OpEd piece shortly after Bush’s SOTU speech in 2003. Cheney was evidently the one to spearhead the movement to discredit Wilson, which shows one of two things. The man needed more important and reality-based work to do..or he was pissed off that he couldn’t personally ask Joe Wilson if he wanted to go hunting one weekend in the near future. An LAT article on the trial has the following summation on Martin’s testimony with regard to Cheney’s role:
“The vice president ordered press aides to start tracking press coverage closely, while Libby was directed to contact reporters. At one point, the vice president gave a note card to Libby with information to give to a Time magazine reporter covering the case, while Cheney and Libby were returning on Air Force Two from the christening of an aircraft carrier.”
Joe Wilson did not lie in his OpEd piece. The man told the truth. He and his wife have continued to speak truth to power since that fateful SOTU speech in 2003. Cheney has been caught in so many half-truths and down right specious lies..it would take another article to set them all before you. How this man has one scintilla of credibility is beyond me. To have the brass balls to sit in his office, on taxpayer time, and plan a smear campaign to discredit Joe Wilson is a political move that rivals Nixon’s attempt to spy on the Democrats at the Watergate Hotel. It was all about hiding the truth from the American public at ANY cost. Outing Valerie Plame did not cost her life..and for that Cheney and the rest of us should be thankful. It’s against the law to do what was done to Valerie Plame and for good reason…as an employee of the CIA, nasty people could be pissed and wish to kill her, as witnessed by what happened to former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in England last year. His death was a horrible, painful one. It’s hard to say if that was Cheney’s intent. The man has no conscience and no moral compass as many in the West Wing of the White House have exhibited over the last 6 years. To spend their time trying to find ways to discredit the TRUTH is disgusting on every level. It’s an act that should not be tolerated in a civil and democratic society.
We should not be watching Libby’s trial, we should be watching the trial of the individual that perpetuated this bullshit, who started the ball rolling in the race to make Joe Wilson look like a liar and a fool. To spend hours and days in the employ of the citizens of the United States, spinning lies and innuendo is enough to show me that Cheney is an underhanded sumbitch. He will stop at nothing to further his agenda of deceit, including sacrificing Libby to save himself and Karl Rove, and telling Wolf Blitzer that a valid question is nothing more than “hogwash”. I might actually have a twinge of respect if Cheney had actually told Blitzer to go “fuck himself”. At least that can not be construed as anything more than what it is..a childish taunt when you have no other comeback or defense of your position.
Tags: Politics, Cheney, Iraq, Plamegate
Cross-posted @ Bring it On and The Blue Republic
