I’m just about finished with my second time through “Angler” by Bart Gellman about the Vice Presidency of Dick Cheney.  I guess I have to read books twice to really get an idea of what I think – I also just finished “The Family” by Jeff Sharlett a second time.  The result of all this is that I’m more convinced than EVER that the present day republican party needs to come to an unceremonious end.  The EXTREME right influence on this party is beyond the “pale” and the simple fact that Cheney is still allowed to even speak publicly tells me either the rank and file republicans have no idea what Cheney did as Vice President, or they still support him and, like him, have no conscience.  Either way, America needs to purge Cheney, those in the “Family,” and people who think like these guys from the “mainstream” of politics.  These people believe in authoritarian government that has a foundation built on fear and despises (secretly, of course) our representative democracy.

Even tonight, I happened to watch a show on MSNBC and there was Cheney, in a little blurp pulled from CNN (I think) showing Dick Cheney being asked his view as to whether Joe Biden should challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president.  First of all, of course he would encourage that, because the last thing Cheney or any republican wants to see is Hillary Clinton running as the Democratic nominee for president in 2016.  Secondly, why would what Dick Cheney thinks be important to anyone.  The man should, by all measures, (reinforced as I read through “Angler”) be in JAIL!  The list of his CRIMES is long and, as I’ve stated on this site many times, President Obama’s refusal to allow accountability to fall on Cheney (and others in the GW Bush administration) was a paramount BLUNDER.  I’m guessing that Cheney is smart enough to avoid travel in places like France, Spain, and other European countries who actually respect the rule of law when it comes to “leaders.”  According to the Geneva Conventions (not to mention our own laws and international laws) Dick Cheney is clearly a WAR CRIMINAL.  (And, I suppose, you’d have to include GW Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, David Addington, and others in that category)  This does not even consider the UNLIMITED felonies committed as Bush/Cheney PURPOSELY violated the FISA law – each violation being a FELONY.  Really, for my republican friends out there who say, “prove it” – read this book, among others.  There’s a boatload of evidence supporting just these two areas of criminality – the authorizing of TORTURE, and the illegal wiretapping of UNTOLD millions of American citizens.  (and, to that I say, if you think I’m wrong, let’s have the investigations that should have taken place shortly after President Obama moved into the White House and took the oath of office to FAITHFULLY UPHOLD THE LAWS!)

As I’m reading “Angler” I do get more of a sense of sympathy for “the decider” – ie GW Bush.  Although, as he himself was quoted as saying, “The buck stops here.”  The reality is that Dick Cheney was DEFINITELY working on the “Dark Side” – with much of his misbehavior done behind Bush’s back – Cheney was quoted as saying he didn’t want to burden Bush with some of the decisions (that Bush evidently didn’t care to be involved in – YIKES!).  When you read this book and realize that Cheney, after vetting almost every important republican in the country – telling each one they were on “The short list” of 3 or 4 in consideration of the Vice Presidency he would soon claim himself – then “threw” Governor Keating of Nebraska “under the buss” in effect ENDING the governor’s political career – and, at the same time, sending an unwritten message to all the other “candidates” that “I’ve got your deepest secrets” as a way to gain unanimous backing of the Bush/Cheney agenda – well, you get the point (I hope).  The man is RUTHLESS (and, that’s the nicest way I can put it).

Cheney was not only dishonest with the republican leaders who he “vetted” for the VP job, dishonest with the American people as he strong-armed this nation into Iraq, dishonest in issues like the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame, (and I could go on, but you get the point) but Cheney (most deviously – and disgustingly) was TOTALLY dishonest with George W Bush.  I’ve NEVER been a “fan” of Bush, but, as I’ve stated many times on this site, (despite the republican creed of wanting our present president to “FAIL”) I truly wanted President Bush to succeed.  When they left the White House I believed (and still do) that George W Bush was the WORST president, certainly in my lifetime, and very likely ever.  I believed then, and believe today (and, history is regrettably proving me correct) that the invasion of Iraq was the most disastrous decision made by a president in the history of this nation.  Who knows what the final toll of the damage caused by that decision, and the number of people killed, uprooted, and who had their lives totally destroyed – in so many almost incalculable ways.  Additionally, Hurricane Katrina has left a legacy of lives destroyed that could have been possibly saved that will probably never be fully calculated; the lax regulation that led to the financial meltdown in the final days of Bush/Cheney also has left damage that, while somewhat correctable, will probably never be measurable as far as the true number of people who had their lives completely turned “upside down” due to that fiasco.  During Bush/Cheney there was one “fiasco” after another.

As I read “Angler” it’s easy to see why so many people were assuming it was “De-fact o” President Cheney as that administration “unfurled.”  George W Bush really did consider himself “the decider” and he relied on a hierarchy of “underlings” that was pretty much the brainchild of Dick Cheney himself.  Incredibly, we had a Vice President “stocking” all the important positions of government with his own “cronies.”  Once the Bush/Cheney regime was “up and running,” there wasn’t much to get in the way of what Cheney wanted.  Incredibly, even in instances where President Bush was not in agreement with Cheney (ie, the second tax cut), Cheney slyly went behind the President’s back, and through his connections in the House, manipulated the process so that in the end he got what he wanted and President Bush had no idea he’d been “snookered” by his own Vice President.  As I’m reading this book again, I keep saying to myself, “incredible” that there would be someone so self serving and arrogant that he could manage to get himself to such a position.  And, it’s even more incredible to me NOW that, with all the evidence out there (for anyone willing to find it) that actual “news” outlets would give this guy ANY kind of platform to spew his venom.  Seriously, the “media” is supposed to be “The fourth estate” – meaning, the final “check” for “we the people” in our constitution’s plan of “checks and balances” to prevent people like Cheney from gaming the system.  The idea that we should be a WAR MONGERING nation is a view held be a few Americans (clearly Cheney is one of them), but “we the people” should be informed as to the reality of people like him before we’re asked to take his word as something that has ANY credibility.  I’m actually guessing that, by now, George W Bush is aware of what Cheney was doing (I’m pretty sure he can read – he should read “Angler”) and I would be surprised if they are still even on speaking terms.

I’m convinced that the TORTURE, the illegal wiretapping, the outing of a CIA agent, the obscene tax cuts (aimed at the wealthiest among us), the politicizing of the Justice Department, just to name a few of the places Bush/Cheney et al went over the legal “lines,” were essentially due to the “leadership” of Dick Cheney and his lawyer David Addington.  I believe they felt that “if the president does it (or authorizes it – even if he doesn’t know what he’s authorizing) it must be legal.”  Those are the famous words of Richard Nixon that were proved UNTRUE during the Watergate era – and, Barack Obama, by blocking the investigations into the illegal activity of Bush/Cheney et al, set the groundwork for future presidents who are as arrogant as Cheney to believe in the “unitary executive” to the point of some form of authoritarian government that is anathema to the way MOST of us every day Americans think.  I mentioned the book “The Family” above, and I can assure you there is a small and very RICH and POWERFUL faction in America who believe almost exactly as Cheney and, to me, they are even scarier because they make their claims in the name of Jesus Christ.  As I read about Cheney and the “Family” I’m reminded of a book I read about Dietrich Bonhoffer, a great German who gave his life trying to rid Germany of Hitler during WW II.  In the early part of the “Socialist Democratic” takeover of Germany (The Third Reich) it was the conservative Christian community that provided the “blind” support of the Nazi movement.  Many think it couldn’t happen here.  Personally, I’m not so sure.

That is the very reason, I believe, that I’m so passionate about encouraging my Christian brethren to abandon their “blind” loyalty to a republican party which is anything but Christian.  I’m now re-reading “Chain of Command” by Seymore Hersch which pretty much corroborates what Gellman wrote in “Angler.”  It simply throws in Donald Rumsfeld and some of the Generals who were involved early on at Gitmo into the “TORTURE” picture.  I’ve read several books that have focused on the American’s treatment of “enemy combatants” (many simply people in the wrong place at the wrong time) since 9/11, and it’s clear that the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Addington et al “regime” chose to ignore the laws of human rights as they led our nation into TWO “open ended” conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Most people know by now that the invasion of Iraq was simply a manifestation of the desires of those involved in the so-called “Project for a New American Century.”  This group of right wing “conservatives” was pressing for an invasion into Iraq during the Clinton years.  9/11 was used as the “excuse” (the “Shock” in the words of Naomi Klein) allowing them to proceed in their quest for Iraq’s oil (and, whatever else they had in mind).

The end result of all of this is a much more unstable world and a United States that is more divided than, certainly, any time in my lifetime (and I’m a WW II “baby”).  Today is the 14th anniversary of 9/11 and I remember George W Bush having a united nation behind him as he sent our forces into Afghanistan to eliminate (one way or the other) Osama bin Laden and his cohorts in Al Qaeda.  I even remember nations around the world standing behind us and offering support (including Iran).  Bush/Cheney chose to throw all that good will away and take a disastrous course (into Iraq) that has turned Americans against each other even more-so than, in my view, during the Viet Nam era.  Regrettably, as mentioned above, untold PEOPLE around the globe suffered, have suffered, or are suffering because of this disastrous decision and the United States “image” has suffered possibly irreparably.  (Certainly, if “we the people” elect another “right winger” in 2016 the damage could be permanent – and, remember in today’s world the economy is global)  It should be clear that I don’t believe we need anyone affiliated with the Bush/Cheney administration involved with present day decision making, but, the last thing we need is Dick Cheney giving his voice on national TV regarding today’s foreign policy issues.  The only time Dick Cheney, the “Angler,” should be publicly defending his record is before a judge.