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Cheney Reveals Frustration With Bush In Upcoming Book
Former Vice-President Dick Cheney is notoriously tight-lipped. We know from years of reporting that he often prefers to listen rather than speak. As a result, when he does speak people tend to listen.
According to The Washington Post, Cheney will be doing quite a bit of speaking in his upcoming memoirs.
In his first few months after leaving office, former vice president Richard B. Cheney threw himself into public combat against the "far left" agenda of the new commander in chief. More private reflections, as his memoir takes shape in slashing longhand on legal pads, have opened a second front against Cheney’s White House partner of eight years, George W. Bush.
Cheney’s disappointment with the former president surfaced recently in one of the informal conversations he is holding to discuss the book with authors, diplomats, policy experts and past colleagues. By habit, he listens more than he talks, but Cheney broke form when asked about his regrets.
"In the second term, he felt Bush was moving away from him," said a participant in the recent gathering, describing Cheney’s reply. "He said Bush was shackled by the public reaction and the criticism he took. Bush was more malleable to that. The implication was that Bush had gone soft on him, or rather Bush had hardened against Cheney’s advice. He’d showed an independence that Cheney didn’t see coming. It was clear that Cheney’s doctrine was cast-iron strength at all times — never apologize, never explain — and Bush moved toward the conciliatory."
The two men maintain respectful ties, speaking on the telephone now and then, though aides to both said they were never quite friends. But there is a sting in Cheney’s critique, because he views concessions to public sentiment as moral weakness. After years of praising Bush as a man of resolve, Cheney now intimates that the former president turned out to be more like an ordinary politician in the end.
Time Magazine reported last month on Cheney’s anger over President Bush’s refusal to grant Scooter Libby a full pardon. Cheney claims he will detail the heated exchanges he had with Bush on that issue in his book.
If the above quotes are any indication, his book should prove a fascinating read. I always take heat when I say this, but I think Dick Cheney was a great Vice President — maybe one of the greatest.
I do think he bears a significant portion of the blame for Iraq turning into the disaster it did, and the history books will rightly reflect that.
Besides Iraq, I think his steely resolve on national security issues and total disregard for his own popularity were a great asset to the Bush presidency and to our country as a whole.
Vanity Fair Manages One More Bush Hit Piece
Vanity Fair has just released its latest and hopefully final Bush administration hit piece. It claims to be an “oral history” of the Bush White House. Sadly, it’s pretty much the same regurgitated talking points the far left has been puking up for the last eight years.
Some of the highlights include such classics as “Bush ignored 9/11 warnings,” “Bush lied about Iraq,” and of course “Bush shredded civil liberties.” I still can’t figure out what civil liberties I’ve lost over the last eight years, but if Vanity Fair says it then it must be true.
-Chris Jones
Video: Cheney Takes A Shot At Joe Biden
Bush Approval Rating 72% Among Conservative Republicans
The media never misses an opportunity to mention president Bush’s low approval ratings which are at a historic low for any president. However, not everyone suffers from chronic Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) :
George W. Bush remains popular among conservative Republicans (72% approve of him) despite his low overall approval rating. Meanwhile, moderate and liberal Republicans are as likely to disapprove as to approve of the job he is doing, and Democrats of all political orientations hold Bush in low regard.
This from Gallop :
Report: Gonzales Aides Did Break Law In Hiring Process at DOJ
A report by the Justice Department’s inspector general’s office concluded today that aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales did violate the law by politicizing the DOJ.
The report singled out former Gonzales aide Monica Goodling for damaging the department’s credibility by bringing politics in to the hiring process at DOJ.
The inspector general’s investigation found that Ms. Goodling and a handful of other senior aides to Mr. Gonzales developed a system of using in-person interviews and Internet searches to screen out candidates who might be too liberal and to identify candidates seen as pro-Republican and supportive of President Bush.
…In her position as White House liaison for the Justice Department, Ms. Goodling was involved in hiring lawyers for both political appointments and non-political, career positions. Regardless of the type of position, the report said, Ms. Goodling would run through the same batch of questions, asking candidates about their political philosophies, why they wanted to serve President Bush, and who, aside from Mr. Bush, they admired as public servants. Sometimes, Ms. Goodling would ask: “Why are you a Republican?”
Such questioning was allowed for candidates to political appointments, but was clearly banned under both civil service law and the Justice Department’s own internal policies, the inspector general said. Ms. Goodling’s questioning also generated complaints from one senior official who believed it was improper, long before the issue became a public controversy following the firings of nine United States attorneys. The inspector general concluded that Ms. Goodling knew that questioning applicants to career positions about their political beliefs was improper.
In one case, for instance, Ms. Goodling slowed the hiring of a prosecutor in the United States attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., for a vacancy because she said she was concerned that he was a “liberal Democrat.” After the United States attorney, Jeffrey Taylor, complained to her supervisors, he was allowed to hire the candidate anyway.
I can understand why Goodling and her colleagues would want to keep “liberal Democrats” out of key positions, who wouldn’t?
Having said that, I think one of the major failures of the Bush Administration was to put friends in high places instead the most qualified people.
This was evident not only at DOJ, but at FEMA, and numerous other places. The vast majority of allegations leveled at the President by liberal Democrats are totally baseless, but the charges of ‘cronyism” are unfortunately pretty accurate.
Rove Refuses To Testify, Democrats Cry
It was hard to keep from laughing this morning when a placard with Karl Rove’s name sat in front of an empty chair where the former Presidential aide was supposed to testify. Democrats have tried unsuccessfully to tie Karl Rove to some kind of scandal for the last seven years.
They tried to blame him for the Valerie Plame leak case, the attorney firings, and most recently the Don Siegelman case. For Democrats to suggest that Karl Rove engineered Siegelman’s bribery charge and subsequent conviction just to get him out of the way politically is absurd in the extreme.
It really speaks to the irrational paranoia that exists in the Democratic party. It’s not possible that Alabama just had a corrupt Governor, it had to be part of the legendary “vast right-wing conspiracy.”
So there’s a certain amount of perverse pleasure in watching Rove give Congress the middle digit instead of participating in an election year dog and pony show.
Red faced Democrats stomped their feet and threatened to have Rove arrested if he did not appear, but still his chair remained empty.
The only testimony Democrats received today from Karl Rove was in the form of a letter from his attorney. The letter reminded the Judiciary committee that threatening Mr. Rove won’t clear up the situation any faster. The letter also noted that Rove has a letter from the Justice Department declaring him “constitutionally immune from compelled congressional testimony.” Which roughly translated means the only thing Rove is compelled to give Congress is the middle digit.
The Democrats haven’t said how they plan to get around that little inconvenient fact, which makes all their threats and chest thumping ring all the more hollow.
The President decided long ago that Rove didn’t have to testify, citing executive privilege. The Justice Department agreed, which is how Rove got that letter.
You’d think by now the Democrats would’ve learned that once “The Decider” decides something, it’s decided. Seeing Karl Rove taken away in leg irons is the ultimate fantasy for Democrats, but unfortunately for them it’s going to have to remain just that—a fantasy.
President Bush Says He Regrets His Legacy
In an interview with the Times Online, President Bush makes some pretty unusual admissions. He said he regrets the bitter divisions over the war in Iraq, and how America has been perceived around the world. The President blames his tone and rhetoric in the past as the cause for some of the misperceptions that exist about him.
He said in retrospect it was a mistake to use rhetoric like “dead or alive” and “bring them on,” because it left the impression with some that he was a man hungry for war.
Phrases such as “bring them on” or “dead or alive”, he said, “indicated to people that I was, you know, not a man of peace”. He said that he found it very painful “to put youngsters in harm’s way”. He added: “I try to meet with as many of the families as I can. And I have an obligation to comfort and console as best as I possibly can. I also have an obligation to make sure that those lives were not lost in vain.”
In my opinion his using the phrase “bring them on” in response to the rising insurgency in Iraq was definitely inappropriate, but not his use of the phrase “dead or alive.” He made that statement in reference to the hunt for Osama bin Laden in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. He said bin Laden was “Wanted: Dead or Alive” which was quite appropriate and still holds true today.
I think the media has been incredibly unfair to President Bush and I believe history will be kind to him. There are plenty of people willing to criticize, but no one in the media is ever willing to acknowledge that President Bush’s aggressive strategy of combating terrorism has kept America safe. We have not been attacked since 9/11 and that’s a direct result of the United States kicking ass and taking hyphenated names around the world.
Instead of worrying about approval ratings and poll numbers, President Bush made the tough decisions, and did whatever was necessary to keep America safe.
A real leader does what he thinks is right even when it’s not popular.
-Chris Jones
McClellan Set To Tesify Before House Judiciary Committee
It looks like Scott McClellan isn’t quite finished promoting his Bush administration hit piece. According to the Huffington Post, Scotty’s grand finale will be in the form of sworn testimony before the House Judiciary committee on June 20th. Mark your calenders!!
Fallon Resigns As CENTCOM Commander
The top U.S. military commander for the Middle East resigned Tuesday amid speculation about a rift over U.S. policy in Iran. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that Adm. William J. Fallon, whose area of responsibility includes Iraq, had asked for permission to retire and that Gates agreed.
Fallon was the subject of an article published last week in Esquire magazine that portrayed him as opposed to President Bush’s Iran policy. The article had a very nasty tone and described Fallon as a lone voice against taking military action to stop the Iranian nuclear program.
Obviously the Esquire magazine article was the final straw. Fallon has refused to be a team player from the beginning and has made inappropriate comments to the media on several occasions.
His job is to implement whatever policy President Bush (The Decider) determines is the right one. Offering your point of view to the President is fine, but running to the press and making statements counter to the President’s policy is outrageous. I’m actually surprised he wasn’t shown the door several months ago.
Fallon says he sensed growing anger at the White House after the Esquire article was published, and felt it was the right time to retire.
His resignation was applauded by Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“I support Secretary Gates’ decision to accept Adm. Fallon’s letter of resignation and request for retirement. I also respect the reasons for which Adm. Fallon submitted it and applaud his ability to recognize the responsibility before him,” Mullen said in a written statement.
Adm. Fallon is a patriot who served his country honorably for 41 years, but it’s just time for him to step aside. Unfortunately, I’m sure we’ll see Fallon appearing on a variety of left-wing talk shows and in print criticizing the President and his policies in the very near future.
-Chris Jones
George McGovern Calls For Bush Impeachment
Former Senator and Democratic Presidential Nominee George McGovern wrote a rambling Op-Ed in Sunday’s Washington Post calling for a Bush/Cheney impeachment.
McGovern goes on a nonsensical tirade throughout the article, alleging a whole host of supposed crimes committed by the President and Vice President.
Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world. These are truly “high crimes and misdemeanors,” to use the constitutional standard.
It looks like McGovern basically used far-left websites as his guidebook for the piece. He even repeats some of Rosie O’Donnell’s bogus civilian casualty numbers for Iraq.
The man is 85 years old and like Jimmy Carter, he may not be in control of all his faculties. Therefore, if someone close to McGovern will simply tell the old codger to pipe-down, we’ll just pretend this never happened and move on.
-Chris Jones
McClellan Publisher Deflates Tantalizing Snippet on C.I.A. Leak, Liberals Cry
Just as I suspected, the snippet released yesterday from Scott McClellan’s book turned out to be a misinterpretation. Although, clearly it was done on purpose to generate buzz and of course it worked.
From the NYT:
A 151-word excerpt from the memoir of Scott McClellan, chief spokesman to President Bush in 2006, was not meant to be as tantalizing as it sounded, according to the publisher of the book.
After a day of wide coverage and swift reactions on the Web, the publisher, Peter Osnos of PublicAffairs, told MSNBC that Mr. McClellan “did not intend to suggest Bush lied to him” about two senior aides’ roles in leaking the identity of Valeria Plame Wilson, a C.I.A. operative, to the conservative columnist Robert Novak and others in 2003.
How does that square with the book excerpt, where Mr. McClellan wrote that “the President himself” was “involved” in his offering false information to the press about the leak? Mr. Osnos offered an explanation to Bloomberg News:
“He told him something that wasn’t true, but the president didn’t know it wasn’t true,’’ Osnos said in a telephone interview. “The president told him what he thought to be the case.’’
When we wrote about this yesterday, that was clearly one of the possible outcomes, although one that will disappoint opponents of the president who were hoping for him to be directly tied to one of the biggest scandals of his administration.
“Sorry, suckers,” Greg Sargent wrote at The Horse’s Mouth, “It looks like McClellan will actually exonerate Bush for his role in Plamegate.”
What this means is that the far left still has no proof that Bush did anything wrong in this matter. We also know that Valerie Plame and her douchebag husband are both publicity whores and left-wing loons.
-Chris Jones
Ex-White House Spokesman Writes Tell-All Book
Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has written a 400 page book about his time in the Bush inner circle. The book is called What Happened and it chronicles among other things the Valerie Plame leak case.
His publisher released a little taste of what you can expect in the book:
The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.
There was one problem. It was not true.
I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the Vice President, the President’s chief of staff, and the President himself.
Scott McClellan has been a close friend of the Bush family for around 15 years, so I have my doubts that he’s gonna drop any bombshells. It should still make for an interesting read.
-Samantha Giles
