It’s been almost a week now since President elect Obama’s victory on November 4th and not much has surprised me since then. There are definitely some things of concern that need to be addressed. While I would really like to talk about Obama’s plan to be a uniter and how that won’t happen without putting his foot down, so to speak, on the misdeeds of the Bush administration in general, tonight I’m going to focus on Dick Cheney while the contents of the book “Angler,” by Barton Gellman, are still fresh in my mind. I could also talk about the continued vile rhetoric of the extreme republican right – the people like Limbaugh, Hannity, O’reilly, Palin, and others – people who are still making disgusting, dishonest, and divisive comments imbedded in their own racial prejudices as our next president tackles possibly the most extreme “mess” any president in history has inherited. However, I’ll save that one for another day, because I’m convinced that Obama must overturn the abuses perpetrated by Dick Cheney and his lawyer David Addington (well, that’s not to discredit “Scooter” Libby before he was convicted of 4 felonies) as one of the first things he does once he takes the reins of this great nation on January 29th.
Make no mistake, I believe with all my heart that Cheney and Addington belong in jail. They have operated as if they were mobsters in manipulating the policies of the Bush administration to the point where I believe they thought that our constitution was just an annoying impediment to what they thought was “right.” Bush is not innocent here, and he deserves to spend some “time” thinking about the inhumanity he has perpetrated, but, in my opinion, he’s no match for Cheney. From the beginning many people have surmised that this was really the Cheney/Bush administration – and in many ways that is exactly what it was. Bush allowed Cheney more latitude and power, by far, than any vice president in history. Cheney was not about to be stymied by the president, the constitution, or even the members of his own political party. Most of the “testimony” in Gellman’s book comes from former Bush administration surrogates who have finally decided to start speaking out on what actually was going on during the first 6 years of their tenure in the White House.
For starters, Cheney was Bush’s “vettor” of potential VP’s once he had garnered the Republican nomination back in 2000. Cheney collected extensive “dossiers” on many of the leading republicans, telling each he was on the short list of 3 – 5 candidates for the selection. They were to give every bit of information, even the stuff that might prove embarrassing, to prevent surprises should they be selected by President elect Bush. I believe he collected info on about 20 or so leading republicans which included Bill Frist, Lamar Alexander – two key senators – several governors and just a wide array of republican leaders. Then after Cheney selected himself – he leaked info that basically ruined the political career of the governor of Oklahoma, info that had been included in the info provided for the vetting process. That left a lasting impression on all the others about what information Cheney had and what he would do with it should they decide to disagree with any of the Bush policies. A heckuva way to create unity, wouldn’t you agree – you betcha!
When I read that I thought, even for republicans, that was sicko. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This guy really is evil. I could talk about 9/11 and what that did to Cheney’s psychi, but his garbage started long before 9/11. The invasion of Iraq started, I’m sure, well before Bush became president – at least the plans for it – but Cheney’s so-called energy task force which was highly secret (and still is to this day) was mapping the Iraq oil fields well before the Al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Also, the philosophy behind the warrantless wiretapping didn’t start on 9/11 either. Cheney had felt that FISA was a mistake since it was instituted in 1978. He was willing to initiate a program of illegal wiretapping without a second thought. He put lawyers in place who were willing to tell him that wiretapping, and just about anything else he wanted to do, was legal. To me, these lawyers were almost worse than Cheney because they were supposed to take an oath to support the constitution, not find ways to “get around it.” 9/11 just gave Cheney more of an excuse to attempt to expand the presidency to a role that approached what we traditionally would call a fascist dictator. In conjunction with large corporate interests the attempt was to gain complete unfettered control of our system of government.
Bush was complicit in all of this because he gave Cheney the power. In most cases I believe that Bush was aware of what Cheney was doing, but not in all cases. And Cheney was actually making some of the presidential decisions himself, even without the Bush “rubber stamp.” During the 9/11 Crisis Cheney actually ordered the Air Force to shoot down any more planes which might be potential “weapons” after he was scurried into the bomb shelter beneath the White House. Logs of phone converstations between him and the President prove undoubtedly that Cheney usurped the President’s authority – when constitutionally he’s not even in the chain of command. The Vice President’s job is to prepare to take over the Presidency should something untoward happen to the incumbent and to break ties in the Senate. That’s it! He is absolutely not to be in the chain of command regarding national policy – anything more than an advisory role. Now I don’t think this action would have been unforgiveable seeing as how Bush was in an elementary classroom and proved somewhat incapable of reacting as if he was the President while all this was going on, but both Bush and Cheney lied – outright – to the 9/11 commission about this, presumably to avoid the embarrassment that would go along with the action – probably more pointedly toward Bush’s lack of leadership in the time of crisis. Both Bush and Cheney refused to testify to the commission under oath – I guess because they knew they were going to lie (making it pre-meditated) – and they refused to testify without being there together. These people proved over the last 8 years that lying is just part of their persona’s, but it is incredible to me how little reaction this obvious, easily provable lie, about an attack on our nation received fromt the national press.
Bush allowed Cheney to fill all of the positions during the transition from the Clinton White House. This explains the hijacking of the justice department. Cheney put loyalists to him from his many years in Washington, and their aim from the beginning was to use the justice department to further their agenda, not giving a hoot about the damage done to the part of our government that needs to be non-partisan more than any other. I believe if we find the extent of what was done by the justice department – the truth – it will, or at least it should, rock this nation. In actuality there were some members of the department that couldn’t go along with the extremes set out by Cheney and Addington. Even attorney general John Ashcroft – no friend of the ACLU – couldn’t go along with the warrantless wiretapping. And Jim Comey appointed Patrick Fitzgerald as a special prosecutor in the CIA leak scandal, leading to Scooter Libby’s conviction as he took one for the “Gipper” (Cheney). Well, Cheney and Addington were not too happy with these (Comey, Fitzgerald, and Ashcroft) traitors to the cause. I’m sure in his mind it was kind of like what Nixon said back in the 70’s about the president, although this time it referred to the vice president – “If the Vice Presient does it, it must be legal!”
Cheney was directly behind the outing of Valerie Plame – Libby covered up for him – in fact, Cheney was the architect behind the policy that anyone who disagreed with the administration would be “slimed” and ruined. I’m convinced that even the democrats were fearful of his slime machine – probably still are. Cheney initiated the warrantless wiretapping program, he was behind the torturing of “enemy combatants” and the secret prisons all over the globe that have ruined the United States moral authority in the world (although this garbage has been going on since the 70’s – or maybe earlier – just not so outwardly sanctioned by the White House), he was the driving force behind the taxing policies that funneled billions to the rich and left this country in virtual bankruptcy as he leaves office, he led the lie machine that got us into Iraq (Dick Armey – the republican majority whip in the house at the time – claims Cheney lied to him, right to his face, in order to get Armey to support the invasion – which Armey now feels he could have stopped had he known the truth), and we would be in Iran right now if Cheney hadn’t worn out his welcome with Bush at about year 6 of his presidency. I believe it took Bush that long to realize how poorly served he had been under Cheney. I even think that when Bush reads this book, he’ll find out some more reasons to be disgusted with his Vice President.
There is much more. Cheney even went behind Bush’s back when Bush didn’t agree with him on legislation. Cheney would just go to his contacts in the house and get them to manipulate bills so that by the time they reached Bush’s desk the bills resembled what Cheney wanted and the president had no idea that Cheney had manipulated the system to go around him. Cheney has probably destroyed most of the records that will provide us with the truth about his goings on in the last 8 years. He has claimed incredible secrecy powers, he has been the driving force behind Bush appointees refusing supoenas in Congress and in an interview about a year ago, when a reporter pointed out how much the public disagreed with his positions, he was finally honest when he said, “So?” More than anyone I’ve seen in my lifetime, Dick Cheney believes he is above the law. This is why it is so important that he be answerable for ALL of his transgressions – along with Addington and Libby and the others who perpetrated this incredible abuse of power. This is no longer about him. This is about our nation and whether we truly are a nation of laws. I am writing to Obama to encourage him to empower his justice department to investigate EVERYTHING that was done in this White House, especially Dick Cheney. I really did gain a bit of compassion for President Bush after reading this book. While Bush went way over the line, his motivation was entirely different than Cheney’s. Cheney was operating as some kind of professional criminal – I’m sure there is going to be a movie about his Vice Presidency and it will be Godfather like. Those that think like him, I’m sure, believe that Obama is just a bump in the road, and it is imperative that President Obama eliminate any thoughts that a future administration might go there again. The way to prevent another Cheney, is to prosecute the one we’ve got!