A post by Pat
Dick Cheney had a lot to say this morning during his interview with Chris Wallace on Fox Sunday. He says the investigation of CIA personnel is political and a bad idea. It “offends the hell” out of him.
In the intelligence arena, we ask those people to do some very difficult things. sometimes that put their own lives at risk. they do so at the direction of the president. they do so with the — in this case, we had specific legal authority from the justice department, and if they’re now going to be subject to being investigated and prosecuted for the next administration, no one’s going to sign up for those kind of missions. it’s a very, very devastating, I think, effect that it has on morale inside the intelligence community. If they assume that they’re going to have to be dealing with the political consequences, it’s clearly a political move.There’s no other rationale for why they’re doing this.
I guess the other thing that offends the hell out of me, frankly, Chris, is we had a track record now of eight years of defending the nation against any further mass casualty attacks from al qaeda. The approach of the obama administration should be to come to those people who were involved in that policy and say how did you do it? What were the keys to keeping the country safe over that period of time? Instead, they’re out there now threatening to disbar the lawyers who gave us the legal opinions, threatening contrary to what the president originally said, they’re going to go out and investigate the cia personnel who carried out those investigations. I think it’s an outrageous political act that will do great damage long-term to our capacity to be able to have people take on difficult jobs, make difficult decisions without having to worry about what the next administration’s going to say about it
If you look at the constitution, the president of the united states is the chief law enforcement officer in the land. the attorney general’s a statutory officer. He’s a member of the cabinet. the president’s the one who bears this responsibility. for him to say, gee, I didn’t have anything to do with it, especially after he sat in the oval office and said this wouldn’t happen, then holder decides he’s going to do it, so now he’s backed off and is claiming he’s not responsible,…I think he’s trying to duck the responsibility for what’s going on here, and I think it’s — I think it’s wrong.
On the Democrats and Obama:
CW: Do you think the democrats are soft on national security?
DC: I do. i’ve always had the view that in recent years anyway, that …they didn’t have a strong advocates on national defense as they used to have. i worry about it. i think things have gotten so partisan that the — sort of the pro defense hawkish wing of the democratic party has faded and isn’t as strong as it once was.
CW: Now that he’s been in office for 7 months, what do you think of barack obama?
DC: Well, I wasn’t a fan of his when he got elected. and my views haven’t changed any. I have serious doubts about his policies, serious doubts, especially about the extent to which he understands and is prepared to do what needs to be done to defend the nation.
On President Bush:
CW: There was a story in the “”washington post”” a couple weeks ago that in the process of writing your memoir, you have told colleagues about your frustration with president bush, especially in his second — your second term. Is that true?
DC: No, that story is wrong.
CW: The report says that you disagreed with the president’s decision to halt waterboarding. you agreed with his decision to close the secret prisons. You disagreed with his decision to reach out to iran and north korea. Is that true?
DC: Well, we had policy differences. no question about that, but to say that I was disappointed with the president isn’t the way it ought to be phrased. The fact of the matter is he encouraged me to give him my view on a whole range of issues. I did. Sometimes he agreed, sometimes he didn’t. That was true from the very beginning of the administration.
CW: Did you feel that he went soft in the second term?
DC: I wouldn’t say that. I think you’re going to have to wait and read my book, Chris, for the definitive view.
CW: It sounds like you’re going to say something close to that.
DC: No, i’m not going to speculate on it. I’m going to write a book that lays out my view of what we did. it will also cover a lot of years before I ever went to work for george bush.
CW: Will you open up in the book about areas where you disagreed with the president?
DC: sure, sure.
On Iran:
CW: The fact you knew that barack obama favored not only diplomatic engagement, but actually sitting down with the iranians, why would you leave it to him to make this decision?
DC: It wasn’t my decision to make.
CW: Would you have favored military action?
DC: I was probably a bigger advocate of military action than any of my colleagues.
CW: Do you think it was a mistake while you were in power, while your administration was in power, not to go after the nuclear infrastructure of iran?
DC: I can’t say that yet. We don’t know how it’s ultimately going to come out.
CW: But you don’t get the choice to make a 20/20 hindsight. in 2007-2008, was it a mistake not to take out their program?
DC: I think it was very important that the military option be on the table. i thought that negotiations couldn’t possibly succeed unless the iranians really believed we were prepared to use military force. and the date, of course, they’re still proceeding with their nuclear program and the matter has not yet been resolved. we can speculate about what might have happened had we followed a different course of action. as i say, i was an advocate of a more robust policy than any of my colleagues. but … the president made the decision and obviously we pursued the diplomatic avenues.
CW: Do you think it was a mistake to let the opportunity, when you guys were in power, go knowing that here was barack obama and he was going to take a much different —
DC: If I address that, I’ll address it in my book, Chris.
CW: It’s going to be a hell of a book.
DC: It’s going to be a great book.
I’ll bet it will be a hell of a book.
Palin-Cheney 2012. Because the VP isn’t term-limited (look it up) and it would truly make the left’s heads explode.
I saw liz Cheney getting ganged up on on ABC. She did great just like her father. When is the media going to ask even one of the questions that Glenn Beck has been asking all week? I would like the actions of FDR during world war II to be investigated next. Which would you rather have your president do? Waterboard three terrorists, or firebomb civilians in Tokyo causing 100,000 civilian deaths? Now I do not necesarily disagree with what Roosevelt did during the war since he was defending the country against the same type of people that George Bush and Dick Cheney where defending us against when they enacted a much more measured approach yet are critizcized while FDR is lauded. What about the 100,000 americans Woodrow Wilson imprisoned during world war I? Nobody has heard of that because he was a progressive Democrat.
We’ve elected the enemy. It’s pretty obvious.
Why not have a Sarah Palin , Liz Cheney ticket?
Liz Cheney is incredibly impressive. Love the idea. 🙂
Watched the interview and wondered if Cheney and Sarah have communciating about different issues and working on a plan. Just wondering.
You know we are in deep when the critical position held by Dick Cheney was filled with a buffoon like Joe Biden.
Just Saying…. how humiliated folks must feel now to have voted for Obama.
Dick Cheney speaks with the clarity, the authority and the logic of someone presenting absolutely correct information. The Left has no counter to his arguments, so he is vilified and slandered.
Our apologizing President is naive and out of his depth when it comes to defending America.
And his vice president is laughable. They could get us killed.
I miss Dick Cheney.
I miss Dick Cheney a lot more than I miss George W. Bush. Cheney would’ve made a much better President.
What causes the left to be so brain dead? It is difficult not to sound as arrogant as the left when commenting upon them, but can they really be so clueless?
Last night, Geraldo on his Fox Show had a segment about the Dick Cheney/Chris Wallace interview. I think Geraldo is very effective when fighting crime. And, he looks very macho when covering a natural disaster (he insisted on covering Hurricane Gustav from the midst of the downpour). He also seems like a nice enough guy, but when he comments on politics, he sounds like an idiot.
Geraldo referenced the following exchange on his Sunday night progam — Wallace to Cheney: “Do you feel less safe under Obama?” Cheney” “Yes.” Geraldo said that Cheney’s response was “creepy” and “immature.”
Oh so Geraldo doesn’t feel less safe with the CIA being dismantled, Holder (talk about creepy) in charge of national security and Urkel inviting our enemies to barbeques?
Fortunately, Ann Coutler was on the panel to set everyone straight. That would be Geraldo and Kirsten Powers, another brain trust who was also present, whining about how the Democrats should push deathcare through on their own, blaming the Republicans for obstructing reform, and swearing that the Dems were not trying to nationalize healthcare. “There is so much misinformation, ” she whined. I usually mute the sound when she is on.
Can someone (Tammy) explain where the left (and Geraldo) get their distorted perspective on the world?????? They claim they feel safe under Urkel — either they are crazy or they are lying.
Tammy delves into that a lot in her books, but I don’t recall her getting in-depth into their pathology. Although, on her show, she’s discussed their mental deficiencies, and how they’re mentally damaged people, etc…. and in her very entertaining style! You’ll gain a lot of insight from her books, but I don’t expect to ever understand how they can think the way they do. It’s obvious there’s something sick about someone who calls good evil and evil good (i.e. hates America and loves our enemies).
Quote Of The Year:
“I sincerely hope that when the president goes in for his annual check-up, the doctors at Bethesda will do a brain scan. Surely something must be terribly wrong with a man who seems to be far more concerned with a Jew building a house in Israel than with Muslims building a nuclear bomb in Iran.”
–columnist Burt Prelutsky
Hey IslandLibertarian, Your comment above is SPOT ON!! It’s RIGHT ON! It’s fantastic! Cheney has always been the one I’ve admired for his cool head, calm confidence in his positions, and complete command of himself. Communicating the facts, instead of the pantywaste emotionalism of our current leaders. He was for America first. He made us safe. The policies of the Left endanger all of us and I fear, may indeed get us killed if they are not stopped!