by the Guys from the Annex| We're all caught up in holiday activities at the moment, but who could resist all these cherishable final moments of the Cheney Administration? Certainly not us. It's just the right time for the Anti-Claus!
As Jon Stewart has so rightly said, we don't know Dick. Yes, he's still a douchebag wrapped in an enigma and dipped in a mystery! And---in the immortal words of the Turtles, c. 1960-something---the more we see, the more we see there is to see!
So it seems Dick Cheney, Man of Mystery, had quite the little gabfest on Fox News:
WALLACE: Did you tell Senator Leahy, “bleep yourself”?
CHENEY: I did.
WALLACE: Any qualms, second thoughts, or embarrassment?
CHENEY: No, I thought he merited it at the time.... (Think Progress)
The joy of this interview---which can be viewed here---would admittedly be somewhat marred by Cheney's mentioning that they've "patched it over" since then if we believed for a minute that Leahy considers it all patched over.
Steve Benen muses:
Let's remember, then, that if Joe Biden approaches, say, Arlen Specter or Orrin Hatch on the Senate floor, he tells them to go "f*ck themselves," and then brags about how appropriate his conduct was, as far as some on the right are concerned, this is completely appropriate behavior for the vice president to engage in.
George W. Bush admitted the other day that he's disappointed he wasn't able to "change the tone" in Washington. If he's curious where his White House went wrong, he may want to reflect a bit on his VP's conduct.
Let us hope that Joe Biden takes the hint. It badly needs saying.
Speaking of Joey B., Cheney also took some potshots at the incoming VP on the subject of the constitution and the CHENEY BRANCH that has evolved during the Bush administration. Good times! As Ana Marie Cox said, we could all sleep better "knowing that Dick Cheney ANSWERS TO NO ONE."
Cheney hit back hard.
“He also said that the — all the powers and responsibilities of the executive branch are laid out in Article I of the Constitution,” the vice-president said of Biden. “Well, they're not. Article I of the Constitution is the one on the legislative branch. Joe's been chairman of the Judiciary Committee, a member of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate for 36 years, teaches constitutional law back in Delaware, and can't keep straight which article of the Constitution provides for the legislature and which provides for the executive so I think I'd write that off as campaign rhetoric. I don't take it seriously and if he wants to diminish the office of the vice president, that's obviously his call.”
Cheney was referring to comments Biden made in the same debate where he said the current vice president “doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States. That's the executive.”
Article I defines the legislative branch, but does state in Section III: “The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.” .(Politico)
Cheney's interpretation of the Vice President's powers was of course a novel one, but he's right---why SHOULDN'T Biden assume the same powers as Cheney and Obama the same powers as Bush?
“I think that President-elect Obama will decide what he wants in a vice president and apparently from the way they're talking about it, he does not expect him to have as consequential a role as I have had during my time,” Cheney said.
Asked if he had any advice for Biden, Cheney replied with a chill.
“Well, he hasn't asked for any, so I won't go beyond where I've been,” Cheney said.(Politico)
Unitary executive Obama! We don't approve of this IN THEORY of course, but in practice it would make us laugh out loud. Fox News really should be careful how it taunts Obama and Joe Biden on their refusal to follow Bush's lead in expanding the executive branch beyond even Nixon's fondest dreams.
Anyway, Joe B. "fired back," saying "Cheney “has been not healthy for our foreign policy, not healthy for our national security, and it has not been consistent with our Constitution, in my view.... His notion of a unitary executive, meaning that, in time of war, essentially all power, you know, goes to the executive, I think is dead wrong. I think it was mistaken.""
Too bad Obama didn't choose Rahmbo to be his VP. Rahm would know how to work the Cheney branch. We could have called Obama's presidency the Orahmbo administration.
Anyway, John Amato is NOT amused, causing us to be somewhat abashed that we are not focusing on the real core problem here.
Dick Cheney goes on his favorite network, FOX, to close out his career. There's nothing to be gained going on Meet the Press since there aren't any talking points needed to be pushed on the American people, like starting an illegal war and all so Wallace gets the interview. And as always his hubris is shocking. Cheney and his Band of Neocons lied this country into a war with Iraq as they created Bush's Doctrine. (Preemptive war.).(Politico)
Though Amato had a good idea for a Cheney-based comedy sketch.
And he sits there with the rest of BushCO., trying to create a new narrative to cover their tracks about the war. It's the fault of "The Intelligence". I can see Stewart now talking to a big floppy-eared College Football mascot named Intelligence and asking him why he f*&ked up Cheney. Dick created the intelligence that was used to bring us to war..(Politico)
You can read the transcript here....but the transcript is of course not nearly as enthralling as HEARING CHENEY SAY IT ALL OUT LOUD.
He can still make a chill run up and down our spine. How about yours?
In an interview with ABC News last week, Cheney suggested that the administration would have gone to war with Iraq even without erroneous intelligence showing that Saddam Hussein had developed weapons of mass destruction. Cheney also said in that interview that he approved of the administration's use of coercive interrogation tactics, including a type of simulated drowning known as waterboarding....
Cheney expressed few regrets in yesterday's interview and said he was untroubled by opinion polls showing that he and Bush are among the most unpopular White House occupants in modern times....
Brrrrrrrrr!
The only real difference between Dick Cheney and Ted Bundy is that Bundy felt a twinge of remorse at the end.
Oh. And Bundy never shot a friend in the face while drunk. So score one for Ted.
Read more here at Memeorandum.
If you're in a reminiscent mood....RIDE THE WAYBACK PONY---favorite Cheney moments!
John Stewart onthe Dick Cheney Interview: "A Sunny Guy"
Today, House to Debate Whether to Freeze Cheney's Funds
Cheney Abandons Claims that He's not Executive Branch Material
Naming the Cheney Branch.
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