Free Republic

Thank you all very much, and Arthur, thank you for that introduction. It's good to be back at AEI, where we have many friends. Lynne is one of your longtime scholars, and I'm looking forward to spending more time here myself as a returning trustee. What happened was, they were looking for a new member of the board of trustees, and they asked me to head up the search committee. I first came to AEI after serving at the Pentagon, and departed only after a very interesting job offer came along. I had no expectation of returning to public life,...

I admire former Vice President Dick Cheney. Why? Because he has a love for our nation that cannot be described. He also speaks from his heart and can communicate his message without the necessity of an electronic gadget. He doesn’t have to keep moving his head back and forth scanning a prepared text displayed on a screen or several screens within his reach and give the impression that he is speaking to those it appears he is looking at. Dick Cheney is no fraud and speaks not from scripts or prepared “here’s what you say when” pre-arranged and entered verbiage....

Yesterday, everyone on Air Force One was jacked about senior adviser David Axelrod's appearance on "Fox News Sunday." Big Guy has taken some heat the past couple of days for not performing well on the stump - not my fault, from where I stand - and Axelrod decided that instead of explaining Big O's performance, he'd just spend time ripping into former Vice President Dick Cheney. We absolutely hate Cheney. Not because he was a more than competent vice president, or because he could make a speech without sticking his foot in his mouth, or because he had better hair...

In a recent interview with Chris Wallace, Vice President Cheney made the following claim about a President's ability to launch a counterstrike if the U.S. came under nuclear attack: The president of the United States now for 50 years is followed at all times, 24 hours a day, by a military aide carrying a football that contains the nuclear codes that he would use and be authorized to use in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States. He could launch a kind of devastating attack the world's never seen. He doesn't have to check with anybody. He...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney, starting a visit on Saturday to try to push forward Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, said Washington would never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security. Palestinians accuse Israel of undermining the U.S.-sponsored peace talks by expanding Jewish settlements, refusing to remove West Bank roadblocks and mounting offensives against militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip who fire cross-border rockets into the Jewish state. "America's commitment to Israel's security is enduring and unshakable, as is Israel's right to protect itself always against terrorism, rocket attacks and other attacks from forces dedicated to Israel's destruction,"...

Preparing to hear oral arguments Tuesday on the extent of gun rights guaranteed by the Constitution's Second Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court has before it a brief signed by Vice President Cheney opposing the Bush administration's stance. Even more remarkably, Cheney is faithfully reflecting the views of President George W. Bush. The government position filed with the Supreme Court by U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement stunned gun advocates by opposing the breadth of an appellate court affirmation of individual ownership rights. The Justice Department, not the vice president, is out of order. But if Bush agrees with Cheney, why did...

Brattleboro Town Officials Harassed Over Bush-Cheney Arrest Petition BRATTLEBORO, Vt. -- Town officials in Brattleboro are being inundated with complaints from across the country about a decision to let voters decide whether arrest warrants should be issued for President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Town Clerk Annette Cappy said the "nastiness" of the calls prompted the town office to stop answering its phones Monday. One message from a Minnesota man said he'd like to see terrorists cut off the heads of some Brattleboro officials. Brattleboro police said they will prosecute anyone whose messages cross the line and...

SPARTANBURG, South Carolina (CNN)–At a campaign event saturday, Sen. Barack Obama called his distant cousin, Vice President Dick Cheney, "the crazy uncle in the attic." Obama was referencing the recent revelation by the Vice President's wife, Lynne Cheney, that he and the vice president are distantly related. "For the first time in a long time, the name George Bush will not appear on the ballot," he told the crowd of about 500 at Converse College in Spartanburg. "The name Dick Cheney, my cousin, will not appear on the ballot. We tried to hide the cousin thing. Everybody has a black...

Vice President Cheney may go down in history as one of the worst, if not the worst, ever to hold the job in the nation's proud history. President Bush should reflect on his decision to pick Cheney as a running mate as a dreadful move when he sits down to write his memoirs. In many respects, Cheney is running a rogue government with or without Bush's approval. Evidence is clear now that while Cheney refused to divulge the names of visitors to his residence, he wanted to wiretap private citizens in the name of national security. Even worse, he shut...

I suppose I should be pleased about the tough sentence handed down by Judge Reggie Walton, sentencing the vice president's former Chief of Staff Scooter Libby to serve 30 months in prison. After all, he's a Republican, and I'm a Democrat; I'm an opponent of the war, and he worked for one of its architects. I'm certainly no fan of his boss, Dick Cheney, one of the toughest hardball players to occupy the office of vice president. Former Ambassador Joe Wilson was practically gloating this morning when asked to comment on the sentence, declaring it a victory for the rule...

Most of the war hawks who stood with President George W. Bush on Iraq are gone or departing, leaving Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney increasingly without much company in trumpeting a steely resolve. And it is Cheney who stands out as the administration's foreign-policy heavy, as Bush combines his war rhetoric with overtures to Democrats who control Congress. Bush's top ally in Iraq, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, just paid a farewell U.S. visit. The supportive leaders of Spain and Italy are long gone. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigned under pressure. World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz - one of...

President George W. Bush still has to learn to say "the buck stops here" when it comes to presidential decisions. The "decider" and commander-in-chief seems to be trying to pass the buck, particularly if the war in Iraq implodes and he has to bring troops home from his disastrous invasion of Iraq. The president is counting on Gen. David Petraeus -- the top military commander in Iraq -- and Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki to take the fall if his troop "surge" fails. Bush is a long way from that mirage, even with an expected Pentagon buildup of U.S. troops to...

The resolution offered by the gentleman from Ohio reads sensibly. It alleges crimes high and low, misdemeanors galore -- all of them representing an effort to mislead the American people and take them into war. It is Dennis Kucinich's articles of impeachment directed at Dick Cheney. The vice president will, of course, deny being a liar. As long as Kucinich is at it, add that to the articles. The congressman's case is persuasive, although his remedy may be too radical. He calls for Cheney to be impeached by the House and tried by the Senate, just as Bill Clinton was...

Lost in all the coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy were the sobering words of Vice President Dick Cheney about a calamity facing America that will dwarf anything it has ever experienced as a nation. Characterizing it as "the greatest threat we face," Cheney once again raised the ugly specter of nuclear terrorism against the U.S. "It's a very real threat," he said, "something that we have to worry about and defeat every single day." Tying the warning to politicking over Iraq war policy, he said a precipitous withdrawal from that country by U.S. military forces would invite and encourage...

Delegates entering the California Democratic Convention hall in San Diego today have been greeted by 14 foot banners: "Investigations, Accountability, IMPEACHMENT Is On Our Table" and "Diplomacy, Not Warfare: DON'T ATTACK IRAN" and "Diplomacy, Not Warfare: END THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ" The PDA presence here is ubiquitous -- our green "End the Occupation" stickers are on most peoples' chests, no matter who they're supporting for President. One of the thorniest issues at the convention for the state party leadership is impeachment. It's clear to everyone that the overwhelming majority of delegates want Congressional leaders to move expeditiously toward impeachment of...

We sat around the dinner table, a group of 50-something progressive feminists, talking to a friend from England about presidential politics. We were all for Hillary, weren’t we, he asked. Hillary? We hated Hillary. He was taken aback. Weren’t we her base? Wasn’t she one of us? Why did we hate Hillary? Of course, a lot of people seem to hate Hillary. According to some polls, anywhere from 39 to 50 percent of respondents claim they’d vote against her no matter what; her “negatives” continue to be high. Many of these are Republicans and men. But many are not. According...

House Democratic leaders predict they will have enough votes to pass legislation requiring U.S. troops to begin leaving Iraq by Oct. 1 and send it on to President Bush for his promised veto. Several House members said they would go along with the bill negotiated with the Senate in a bid for party unity despite their desire for an earlier, binding withdrawal date. The House vote scheduled Wednesday would come as the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and other defense officials try to convince lawmakers that a timetable would push Iraq into chaos. Bush's promise guarantees a...

Deviation from liberalism gets labeled a disease. ``What is wrong with Dick Cheney?'' asks Michelle Cottle in the inaugural issue of the newly relaunched New Republic. She then spends the next 2,000 words marshaling evidence suggesting that his cardiac disease has left him demented and mentally disordered. The charming part of this not-to-be-missed article (titled "Heart of Darkness," no less) is that it is framed as an exercise in compassion. Since she knows that the only way for her New Republic readers to understand Cheney is that he is evil — ``next time you see Cheney behaving oddly, don't automatically...

His health is rough; he has been the most disastrous vice-president in history; he has lost two wars; he has lost every ally; he is despised in much of the country; he is now going to be the center of all the questions that the Libby guilty verdict raise. Why did he get so exercized about a two-bit critic during a critical time in the Iraq war? Why would he risk losing his most trusted aide by coordinating a media sting on a minor political opponent? Why would he risk committing a crime to pursue Wilson unless he had something...

Olbermann: Secretary Rice’s comparison of Saddam to Hitler is not accurate. On "Fox News Sunday" Feb. 25, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paralleled World War II with the state of Iraq when discussing what would happen if Congress were to revise the Iraq authorization: We already know about her suggestion that the president could just ignore whatever congressional Democrats do about Iraq.