Free Republic

Dick Cheney is clearly enjoying private life, settling into his role as the foremost defender of the Bush administration and one of President Obama's fiercest sideline critics. But some people are asking: Is that all you got? As unlikely as it sounds -- and even though Cheney himself describes it as absurd -- a movement is afoot to "draft" Cheney into running for president in 2012. Some conservatives want the former vice president to do more than just beat Obama in the press. They want him to beat the president in the polls, too. Public discontent and anger toward Cheney...

The "question" Cheney is raising here is, more baldly stated, "Does Obama have the balls to be the President of the United States." The clearly implied answer is,well, "No, but maybe the First Lady does." If so that's a flaw in the current situation that needs to be corrected via some rapid implant surgery and about 250 cc's of testosterone on a daily drip feed until we've got something resembling a man behind the desk in the Oval Office."

Leave it to Dick Cheney to teach Tareq Salahi a thing or two about how to crash a big event. On the eve of Barack Obama's most important address as president, Cheney managed to (temporarily) grab the spotlight when he told Politico that the commander in chief was weak and letting politics affect his military decisions.... Just why the ex-VP keeps popping off remains full-time fodder for the media, but Cheney's looking more partisan with each headline that he makes. James Fallows is spot on when he notes the contrast with President George W. Bush, who has "maintained a dignified...

We waited three months for THIS? Gen. Stanley McChrystal recognized that the only way to make headway in the Afghan war – a war President Obama himself called “a war of necessity” before he stopped calling it a war at all and then returned to doing so tonight – was to bring 40,000 more troops to the front. So McChrystal put in the additional troops request. Instead of responding, Obama mulled things over. And mulled things over some more. He held a National Security Council meeting. And then another. Days passed. Obama attended more “man-made disaster” briefings (nine in total)...

Here is video of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs this morning saying he does not know what would qualify former Vice-President Dick Cheney to render an opinion on Afghanistan. Gibbs was responding to remarks by Cheney in an interview Cheney did with Politico.

Previewing the President's speech tonight, NBC's Matt Lauer invited on Karl Rove, on Tuesday's Today show, and pressed the former White House senior adviser if the reason Afghanistan still required the U.S.'s attention is because the previous administration "took its eye off the ball in Afghanistan," and "concentrated too heavily on Iraq." Rove hit back, accusing Lauer and Bush administration critics of "revisionism." And later, when Lauer questioned if there were enough "resources" to counter the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan Rove fired back that any one in the Obama administration was in no position to criticize: "Well look, first of...

I think we should be taking the possibility of a Dick Cheney bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 more seriously, for a run would be good for the Republicans and good for the country. (The sound you just heard in the background was liberal readers spitting out their lattes.) Why? Because Cheney is a man of conviction, has a record on which he can be judged, and whatever the result, there could be no ambiguity about the will of the people. The best way to settle arguments is by having what we used to call full and frank...

Hoyer on Cheney: 'They turned tail' By Mike Soraghan - 12/01/09 11:57 AM ET House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) accused the Bush administration of "turn[ing] tail," in Afghanistan during their term in office. Hoyer was responding to an assertion by the former vice president that President Barack Obama was projecting "weakness" on the international stage. It's former Vice President Dick Cheney and the Bush administration that dithered and showed weakness on Afghanistan, Rep Hoyer said Tuesday.

On the eve of the unveiling of the nation’s new Afghanistan policy, former Vice President Dick Cheney slammed President Barack Obama for projecting “weakness” to adversaries and warned that more workaday Afghans will side with the Taliban if they think the United States is heading for the exits. In a 90-minute interview at his suburban Washington house, Cheney said the president’s “agonizing” about Afghanistan strategy “has consequences for your forces in the field.” “I begin to get nervous when I see the commander in chief making decisions apparently for what I would describe as small ‘p’ political reasons, where he’s...

Yglesias opines: "I know some liberals who are excited about the prospect of a joke candidate like Sarah Palin or Dick Cheney getting the GOP nomination in 2012. Not me. The basic fact of the matter is that power tends to alternate between the two political parties. Ultimately, the nation’s interests require both parties to nominate the best people possible. So I hope the Republicans find someone who’s very smart and compelling and does an excellent job of identifying and explaining the flaws in Barack Obama’s approach. Cheney couldn’t possibly win a presidential election...unless somehow he could, in which case...

When making your pick, please explain how your candidate is better qualified in terms of experience, knowledge, resolve, dedication, public speaking, interview skills, political savvy and ability, conservative credentials, coolness under fire, etc.

A new group wants former Vice President Dick Cheney back in the White House....

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that President Barack Obama’s “inexperience” might be keeping him from making a decision on an Afghanistan strategy. Asked in an interview with Scott Hennen, a conservative radio host, if Obama's prolonged war strategy review was a “dereliction” of his duties as president, Cheney said: “Well, I haven’t gone that far, and it may in part be inexperience on Obama’s part. ... It may be that there’s confusion on the staff, but I’m not encouraged by it.” Cheney also called the administration’s decision to try the Sept. 11 terrorism suspects in New York City...

The White House announced that Vice President Joe Biden has been chosen with the task of hunting a fresh turkey for the White House Thanksgiving feast. President Obama asked the former Vice President Dick Cheney to join Biden in the hunt. “Contrary to the chatter out there, I am not trying to get rid of Vice President Biden,� said President Obama. “Dick Cheney has a significant amount of hunting experience, and it only makes sense that he join Joe in this important task. Two vice presidents going turkey hunting. I think it’s a great story.�Biden appeared a bit concerned...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney gave an interview to conservative talk radio host Scott Hennen today, in which he slammed President Obama's "fundamentally harmful" bow to the Japanese Emperor during his trip to Asia. In the interview, Cheney says that when the President bows to a foreign leader, "our friends and allies don't expect it and our adversaries perceive it as a sign of weakness." "I think it's fundamentally harmful and it shows in my mind that this is a guy, a president, who would bow, for example, who doesn't fully understand or have the same perception of the U.S....

November 23: Dick Cheney Exclusive Interview

Here is video of Liz Cheney on "This Week" saying that the lack of a decision on Afghanistan is "completely inexcusable." Liz Cheney said "I think it's just completely inexcusable that we've now had month after month of photo-op out of the White House and no decision." She said "the President is very fond of saying, "before I commit troops I'm going to think very carefully about it," somebody in the White House needs to remind him he's already committed troops. We've got American men and women in Afghanistan today." (Video)

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's gay daughter is a mommy twice over. Mary Cheney gave birth to a six-pound-14-ounce baby girl Wednesday morning at Washington, DC's Sibley Hospital. The newborn, named Sarah Lynne Cheney, is the second child for the 40-year-old Cheney and her longtime partner, 48-year-old Heather Poe. The couple welcomed Samuel David Cheney into the world back in 2007. His birth sent shock waves through the Republican party and rekindled the debate over gay marriage. Cheney is the birth mother for both children. The couple has not revealed who is the biological father of either child.

Washington (AP) - Former Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Mary Cheney has delivered a baby girl. It's the second child for Cheney and her partner of more than 17 years, Heather Poe. Sarah Lynne Cheney was born Wednesday morning at Sibley Hospital in Washington, weighing 6 pounds and 14 ounces. She is the seventh grandchild of the former vice president and his wife, Lynne. Mary Cheney and Poe had their first child, Samuel David Cheney, in 2007.

Top Ten Cheney 2012 Slogans 10. "Yeah, I'm a compassionate conservative. I let you live, didn't I?" 9. "The Secret Service's new job? Protecting other world leaders from me." 8. "I'll crush all enemies foreign & domestic. Then I'll figure out a goal for Week Two." 7. "I shot a guy in the face and he apologized to me." 6. "Democrats will need Universal Health Care after I'm through with them." 5. "Want to see world leaders bowing? Oh, they'll bow alright." 4. "Do what I say or I'll have my daughter kick your $*%." 3. "On my World Apology...

Dick Cheney is blasting Barack Obama for plunging the presidency to a new low - by bowing to the Japanese emperor. The White House deemed the weekend gesture a sign of respect. But Cheney chided it was downright wimpy. "There is no reason for an American president to bow to anyone," Cheney complained to the Politico.com. "Our friends and allies don't expect it, and our enemies see it as a sign of weakness." Maybe Cheney would prefer if Obama and Emperor Akihito had simply walked hand-in-hand, as former President George W. Bush did with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in 2005...

Two stories over the weekend have many wondering whether Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin are planning a run for the Presidency in 2012. Some are even suggesting the two would make a perfect pair to challenge Obama-Biden in the next general election...........

Former Vice President Dick Cheney chose not to run for president in 2008 but his daughter suggested that he might be a good candidate in 2012. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Liz Cheney dropped the former vice president's name as the panel was discussing President Barack Obama's decision to respect the Japanese Emperor by bowing during a formal greeting. Fox News felt compelled to cover Obama bow to Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko after conservative blogs attacked the president. "Sarah Palin would not have bowed to the Emperor of Japan. She wouldn't have even curtsied to him," said Bill...

These new reports, dated June 1, 2005 and July 12, 2005, contain some different information than the previously released report, dated June 3, 2005. Notably, the June 1, 2005 report concludes that "Detainee reporting accounts for more than half of all HUMINT reporting on al-Qa'ida since the program began..." This fact is missing from the other two later reports..... .....n March 31, 2009, Vice President Cheney personally issued a request to the National Archives Presidential Libraries section for declassification review of the June 1, 2005 and another detainee program report. The Archives then passed on the request to the CIA...

Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald famously declared in the Valerie Plame affair that "there is a cloud over the vice president." Last week's release of an FBI interview summary of Dick Cheney's answers in the criminal investigation underscores why Fitzgerald felt that way. On 72 occasions, according to the 28-page FBI summary, Cheney equivocated to the FBI during his lengthy May 2004 interview, saying he could not be certain in his answers to questions about matters large and small in the Plame controversy. The Cheney interview reflects a team of prosecutors and FBI agents trying to find out whether the leaks...

AP - Vice President Dick Cheney told the FBI he had no idea who leaked to the news media that Valerie Plame, wife of a Bush administration critic, worked for the CIA.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Brooklyn. Vinny. You're next. Hello, sir. CALLER: Hello El Rushbo, mmm, mmm, mmm. RUSH: Yeah, I love that. REPORTER: Listen, two days ago, and I only heard this once, ABC reported that President Obama did a midnight run to Dover airfield base. My first question to you is I've never heard of any other president doing that, and why would he go out to view the dead coming back from Afghanistan? I mean this seems like some kind of, look at me, I'm the president, you see how sorry I feel for our dead soldiers returning, but...

Rather than give the troops the reinforcements they need, Obama instead uses the dead for a photo op! What an ASS! Obama's one and only trip to the Dover Delaware Air Force Base which is the gateway for the bodies of all the nation's war dead was a photo op that almost didn't happen. 17 out of the 18 families refused their permission for the news media to cover this event. Instead of a row of coffins coming back from Afghanistan, Obama got to use only one as a prop. Readers may recall that President Bush met privately on numerous...

Former vice president Richard B. Cheney told a special prosecutor in 2004 that he could not remember playing any role in leaking the identity of Valerie Plame as a clandestine CIA officer, according to FBI records released under court order Friday. In his May 8, 2004, interview with Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, Cheney said he could not recall when he learned that Plame, the wife of Iraq war critic Joseph C. Wilson IV, worked for the CIA; could not recall telling his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, about Plame's employment; and could not recall telling Libby to disclose...

'I don't care what Dick Cheney thinks,' Biden says Posted: October 30th, 2009 02:40 PM ET From CNN Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry Washington (CNN) – Vice President Biden on Friday fired back at criticism from his predecessor, former Vice President Cheney, that President Obama is "dithering" over his decision about whether to send up to 40,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. "I like Dick Cheney personally but I really don't care what Dick Cheney thinks and I'm not sure a lot of Americans do," Biden said in an exclusive interview with CNN. "Look at the policy they left...

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) is brushing off former Vice President Dick Cheney's endorsement of Perry's primary challenger, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison -- saying he'd rather have his current support from Sarah Palin.

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) is brushing off former Vice President Dick Cheney's endorsement of Perry's primary challenger, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison -- saying he'd rather have his current support from Sarah Palin. Perry touted an upcoming endorsement from Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, as evidence of Republican support. Perry was then asked if he would rather have Cheney or Palin, who endorsed him back in February. Perry's response: "I think I'd stick with Sarah."

AUSTIN, Texas — Former Vice President Dick Cheney will throw his support behind U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s campaign for Texas governor. Hutchison’s campaign confirmed today that Cheney will endorse the Texas Republican’s March primary challenge of Gov. Rick Perry at a fundraiser next month.

This was broadcast as breaking news on WOAI at about 12:07 pm 10/28/2009. There's not yet a link to this story at their site.

The memorable scene from that day is the photo for this article What if George W. Bush had done that?"

If you want to witness a massacre on television, take at look at this debate on MSNBC’s Morning Joe between Joe Scarborough and Lawrence O’Donnell over Dick Cheney, Iraq, and weapons of mass destruction. Scarborough uses an avalanche of facts to bury O’Donnell’s contention that Dick Cheney lied about WMD and based the case for war on a “wild guess.” In addition to all the sources Scarborough cited and who claimed Saddam Hussein possessed WMD — including leading Democrats like Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, John Edwards, and more — you could add the intelligence agencies of...

“Obama hasn’t reset the American relationship with Russia. He was taken for a ride. Maybe his vanity won’t let him admit it. But, believe me, the Russians know they have taken him (and us) for a big ride, indeed.” Obama, he adds, gave the Russians what they asked for, in the hope that Putin would then agree to tough sanctions against Iran. Secretary Clinton then goes to Russia, only to be informed by Putin that his government does not believe sanctions are appropriate. As Peretz concludes: “Of course, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. In fact, with the...

Senator John McCain made clear that he and the Republican Party should send the message that they support whatever President Obama's strategy in Afghanistan ends up being, rather than send messages that the U.S. is "waffling" or "dithering." In response to former Vice President Dick Cheney's recent remarks, in which he said, "signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries," McCain said, "I wouldn't use that language." Speaking Wednesday evening while accepting an award from the conservative Center for Security Policy, Cheney said, "The White House must stop dithering while America's armed forces are in...

NEW YORK (CNN)– Controversial freshman Rep. Alan Grayson, who has become famous for attacking the Republicans' health care plan, went on the attack again Friday night, calling former Vice President Dick Cheney a vampire for his recent criticism of the Obama administration's handling of the war in Afghanistan. "I have trouble listening to what [Cheney] says sometimes because of the blood that drips from his teeth while he's talking," the Florida Democrat said on MSNBC's Hardball Friday night. "But my response is this: he's just angry because the president doesn't shoot old men in the face. But by the way,...

How many more US soldiers have to die before B. Hussein Obama does what only his generals—his most qualified voices—tell him to do regarding troop levels?! Dick Cheney is absolutely correct for decrying Obama as dithering while US troops are in battle because all you have to do is count the number of US war dead in Afghanistan from the time that Gen. McChrystal asked Obama for more troops, which was waaaay back on Aug. 30th! It is the opinion of this writer that less US troops would’ve died—so the ones that did die were preventable deaths—if Obama would’ve just...

For Democrats everywhere, Dick Cheney is the gift that keeps on giving. While Republicans are trying to distance themselves from the Bush era, Cheney is doing his damndest to keep that sorry legacy alive with television appearances and speeches before right-wing organizations nostalgic for the old no-compromise, neocon ways and paranoid about President Obama. The guy just won’t get off-stage, a pariah who could become the GOP’s image, for which Democrats daily offer prayers of thanks. [Snip] Cheney is a scowling, snarly, angry and unattractive figure whose history in the White House — the bungled pursuit of Osama bin...

Wednesday night, October 21, former Vice President Dick Cheney received the Center's Keeper of the Flame Award. He was introduced by Senator Jon Kyl and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Here are his prepared remarks:

If Obama and his Chicago thugs simply focused on the country's real enemies rather than American citizens and institutions which provide constructive criticism and honest discourse on the policies emanating from the White House, effective policy might be put in place which would advance an agenda supported by a true majority of citizens. But rather, we see an administration so focused on what, in its paranoid state, it perceives as enemies, that all of its energies are centered on discrediting Bush and Cheney, Fox News, talk radio, Rush Limbaugh, town hall attendees, tea party organizers, health insurance companies, Wall Street...

Dick Cheney, a man with a SPINE! I must say from the outset that I am on the side of those strategists who believe the best course in Afghanistan is to move to counter-terrorism … and not escalate in Afghanistan. But I bristled when I heard WHCOS Rahm Emanuel tell John King on CNN that questions on strategy had never been asked.

Is Chris Matthews feeling pressure to keep up with the Olbermanns when it comes to flinging invective at conservatives? On this evening's Hardball, discussing Dick Cheney's statement—-made at a dinner at which he received an award—that Pres. Obama is dithering on Afghanistan, an apparently incensed Matthews sputtered [unexpurgated in the original]: "What G-D award . . . are they giving these guys?"

Biden’s Response to Cheney Criticism: ‘Who Cares?’ By PETER BAKER PRAGUE — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had a blunt response Friday to the latest broadsides from former Vice President Dick Cheney: “Who cares?” In the latest exchange between old and new administrations, Mr. Biden rebuffed his predecessor’s criticism about President Obama’s handling of Afghanistan as “absolutely wrong.” And Mr. Biden rejected the last review of the war conducted by the White House under former President George W. Bush and Mr. Cheney as “irrelevant.” The dismissive reply came during in an interview here at the end of Mr. Biden’s...

More attacks on former VP Cheney? This clown has taken the Democrat party to an all time low. The only outlet out there that will give him a forum is MSNBC. More embarrassing is the fact that Matthews lets it slide right by. Remind me again which isn’t really a news organization.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday joined the battle between former Vice President Dick Cheney and Obama administration officials over the strategy of the war in Afghanistan. Pelosi chided Cheney for asserting Wednesday that President Obama is "afraid" to make a decision about whether to ramp up war at the request of his military advisers or scale back the effort and focus on going after Al Qaeda in Pakistan, as some of his political advisers are urging. "That's really not a dignified statement," Pelosi said Thursday. "The president has a very difficult decision to make. I don't think that's a...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney says that the Obama administration should stop blaming the Bush administration for failures in Afghanistan and that its indecision over a war strategy is endangering U.S. troops. "Half-measures keep you half-exposed," Mr. Cheney said during a speech Wednesday night at the Center for Security Policy in Washington. "It's time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war that he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity. . . . It's easier to blame the Bush administration than support our troops."

Responding to Vice President Cheney’s accusation that President Obama is “dithering” by taking time to assess a new strategy in Afghanistan, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs earlier today said “the vice president was for seven years not focused on Afghanistan. Even more curious given the fact that an increase in troops sat on desks in this White House, including the vice president's, for more than eight months, a resource request filled by President Obama in March.” Is that accurate? It’s a bit more nuanced than that. The troop requests to which Gibbs referred were made by then-Gen. David McKiernan....