Posted on 01/11/2009 3:35:10 PM PST by NCjim
Cheney pushed for expanded presidential powers. Now that he's leaving, what will come of his efforts? The new president won't have to wait long to tip his hand.
Dick Cheney, who will step down as vice president on Jan. 20, has been widely portrayed as a creature of the dark side, a monstrous figure who trampled on the Constitution to wage war against all foes, real and imagined. Barack Obama was elected partly to cleanse the temple of the Bush-Cheney stain, and in his campaign speeches he promised to reverse Cheney's efforts to seize power for the White House in the war on terror.
It may not be so simple. At a retirement ceremony recently for a top-level intelligence official, the senior spooks in the room gave each other high-fives. They were celebrating the fact that terrorists have not attacked the United States since 9/11. In the view of many intelligence professionals, the get-tough measures encouraged or permitted by George W. Bush's administrationincluding "waterboarding" self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammedkept America safe. Cheney himself has been underscoring the point in a round of farewell interviews. "If I had advice to give it would be, before you start to implement your campaign rhetoric, you need to sit down and find out precisely what it is we did and how we did it, because it is going to be vital to keeping the nation safe and secure in the years ahead," he told CBS Radio.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Wtf? Maybe in those comic books that pass for the popular press. Among the remnant of rational people, the idea is preposterous.
Exactly. I will miss Dick Cheney
>> I will miss Dick Cheney
I will miss Dick Cheney more than I will miss George Bush.
Sure, in rags like NewsWeak.
My guess is that Cheney might have been a student of Churchill.
“We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence to do us harm.”
If this administration had no other accomplishments, it kept us safe.
what gack material.
Nobody tramples on the constitution like Democrat administrations.
Yup. It wasn’t mostly Bush that the libs hated, it was Cheney’s no-BS approach to war instead of getting down on all fours like a typical spineless liberal. Hail Darth Cheney!
You sure that's right?
FTA: “Barack Obama was elected partly to cleanse the temple of the Bush-Cheney stain...”
Dear Newsweak editors, where is the stain in taking the fight to the enemy, forming a huge political/warfighting coalition, and keeping the homeland safe for seven years?
The stain in the temple was what Clinton deposited on the blue dress!
you left out
“...on those who would.”
that gives Churchill’s words a whole other meaning.
WHO is the author of this???????????
I love that statement, always have and one of our sons is one of those men, God bless them all. The things he has done as his duty bring me to my knees, I thank them all.
The other half of the dilemma is that instead of a Cheney, Obama has a Biden from whom to draw, uh, strength. Bwahahahah, that’s hilarious until you think about what it means to the country and then I have to take back my laughter.
IIRC isn’t that quote or one like it, semi attributed to George Orwell?
Dick Cheney did indeed have “gravitas.”
Quien es mas macho?
Si! Dick Cheney!
Only by the moonbats.
>> Hail Darth Cheney!
I’m particularly fond of the way he could use that soft-spoken but intelligent and matter-of-fact delivery to completely gouge the eyes out of any libtard he chose to turn it upon. The beauty of it was, the victim didn’t even know Cheney had severed their optic nerve until they looked down and their eyes fell out.
That, and the way that he spoke truth to obscene ignorance when he whacked that SOB Leahy on the floor of the Senate.
Those of us who live in Red counties can rest easy. We won’t be targets. Instead, the bad guys know the easy pickings will be in the blue counties, where wussybama and weakness is the true religion.
The country will miss Dick Cheney. You need to look no further than the boob that is replacing him.
Need to add a couple of words....
We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who seek to do us harm.
...well four.
The Liberals agenda is to appease and be conquered.
That was first said by George Orwell, not Churchill. ""Men sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
As we speak...Joe Biden is in Afghanistan negotiating with Hamid Karzai. I expect it will take Karzai only one meeting with Biden to decide he needs to look for competent allies to replace the United States.
Interesting article. I will be curious to see how it shakes out. There is a definite conundrum that Obama faces.
Please have the writer put down the crack pipe and seek admission to a drug rehab facility STAT.
Newsweek is going under with the rest of the WarshPost propaganda machine. We won’t have long to read crap like this.
You are right! I should have noted it that way. Thanks...
;-)
How can President Karzai fail to ignore the fact that Biden has had unsuccessful brain surgery three times?
Yep, and it couldn’t have happened to a more vile bunch of human waste.
B4L8r
DITTO.
I worry that the whole country will miss Dick Cheney in the near future.
Pres. #43 took great pains today during his Brit Hume Fox News interview to explicate and justify his full use of the inherent powers of the presidency, including what it took to extract information from Khalid Sheik Muhammed, to protect the United States of America, its people and its Constitution.
Thus, both Bush and Cheney have taken pains to lay down some markers for their successors. Obamessiah/Biden have been notified, openly and clearly.
And what will they be writing when Joe -- once known by Newsweek itself as "The Dumbest Man In The Senate" -- Biden steps down?
Will he be "a creature of the dark side"? Or an embarrassing afterthought? "A monstrous figure"? Or an ineffectual imbecile?
‘...he could use that soft-spoken but intelligent and matter-of-fact delivery to completely gouge the eyes out of any libtard ....the way that he spoke truth to obscene ignorance when he whacked that SOB Leahy on the floor of the Senate...’
exactly! and, what I liked most, is that Cheney didn’t hesitate to say ‘yes, I said that....cause it was merited’... he didn’t backtrack when challenged by the politically correct whiners.
Of course. KSM was nothing but an inconsequential braggart who had nothing to with 9/11 (or the 1993 WTC bombing, for that matter).
These people lie with such ease, it's scary.
Fixed it.
Man it's a tough and scary world. We have no idea what Obama should do....it's just plain scary.
Excuse us as we retreat back into our fetal position under our desks..
There’s mno proof that Orwell said those exact words.
I will write proof read, proof read before posting 100 times.
I admit that I didn’t proof read. My mistake, glad that you’re on your toes.
No, It’s not. I didn’t proof read. Fingers were working faster than my mind.
correction=no
Brush, my son is one of those too. He is retiring from the U.S. Army at the end of this month. The worst part is whose signature will be on his retirement papers.
He has the greatest respect for his CIC, President Bush.
Thank your son for his service to our country.
Well, may God bless and watch over him. We mirror you only ours has 10 yrs. Army Infantry, probably coming out at the end of this hitch, enough is enough he says, but he’s said that before (2 deployments to Iraq) and he always feels an obligation to go “back in again” because he doesn’t want to let down his buddies.
I have said many times that the very thought of the Marine Band, the “President’s Band” playing honors for this POTUS-elect illegal alien (he hasn’t proven otherwise) after the 20th literally makes me ill, I can hardly bear the thought.
Meanwhile our son, like yours, has the greatest respect for W. He came from (like yours) a decimated Army (Clinton) into the “light” when W rebuilt the military, increased pay, benefits, the list is long but you know the drill.
God bless them all. We still pace the floors knowing quite a few soldiers still on deployment in Iraq and some waiting to rotate to Iraq after two deployments already. This younger generation (I’m 66, had my time in the Navy) of serviceman/woman defies description. The most selfLESS attitudes I’ve seen and yet, the other half of their generation run around like spoiled brats, whining and moaning if the A/C doesn’t work.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.