Acting like a punching bag for the media/Democrats worked real well for Bush (extreme sarcasm). Glad Cheney isn't taking this crap lying down.
Posted on 05/13/2009 3:42:28 PM PDT by lewisglad
Enough, already. That's the reaction of many Republicans to Dick Cheney's surge of media appearances to defend the Bush administration, especially on national security issues. "I don't think anybody would call him and say, 'Shut up.' It wouldn't work," says a GOP strategist who formerly advised Ronald Reagan. "He obviously feels that his work as vice president is under attack. But he is not our best spokesman."
The concern among Republican strategists is that the public will think Cheney is speaking for the GOP, and this won't be helpful because the former vice president remains an unpopular figure across the country. Another prominent GOP strategist says Cheney should lower his visibility and give younger party leaders a chance to take the spotlight.
Meanwhile, White House officials are pleased that the abrasive Cheney is drawing so much attention. "The former vice president has made his views pretty clear, and the president has made his views pretty clear," an Obama adviser said today. "We had a big debate on this during the campaign, and the president sees it as a debate that has been resolved because the American people spoke so clearly [in the election]."
Cheney's reasoning for going public has become a favorite topic on the political circuit in Washington. Some of those who know Cheney well say he is motivated by a desire to defend his legacy as a principal architect of George W. Bush's national security policies that are under attack from the Obama administration and congressional Democrats—especially the waterboarding of suspected terrorists that President Obama has defined as torture.
Cheney is said to genuinely believe that Obama is taking the wrong approach on national security, leaving America weaker. He is also angry that former Bush advisers may be prosecuted or face disbarment or legal censure because of the advice they gave internally to justify waterboarding. Cheney is described as deeply disappointed that President Bush didn't pardon Lewis Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, after Libby's conviction for misleading prosecutors trying to investigate leaks. (Bush did commute Libby's 30-month prison sentence.) And Cheney doesn't want other Bush advisers to be punished for, in his assessment, simply doing their jobs.
The former vice president stirred the pot Sunday in a CBS interview, arguing that "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding did not represent torture. The former vice president said that such methods were legal and that they generated important intelligence on terrorist activities. He argued that Obama's reversal of some of those policies made America less safe. Yesterday, in an interview on Fox News, Cheney repeated his criticisms. A week from tomorrow, Cheney is scheduled to address the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. His topic: "Keeping America Safe."
Tagline update.
The republican party will lose even more in 2010 ‘cause they just don’t listen and they just don’t care.
I love Cheney but he was part of W’s administration as W worked hard to bankrupt the country and destroy the conservative party of Reagan.
BS article. Makes claims, but provides no names.
A major reason why the Pubbies are in deep trouble is that Bush never fought back, as Cheney is doing now. Not fighting back when the survival of the country and millions of innocent people are at stake is despicable.
LOL
Hah, as they taught us in science, “water seeks its own level” and “nature abhors a vacuum.” The Republican “leadership” is also rudderless.
Yeah, and that's why they've been squealing like pigs about to be roasted over an open pit. The Republican Party is completely brain-dead. You idiots - Cheney is saving YOUR ASSES and the American people overwhelmingly support him.
You’ll know they’re serious when the Bushes come to the microphone to denounce Cheney for being “hard-hearted”!
Acting like a punching bag for the media/Democrats worked real well for Bush (extreme sarcasm). Glad Cheney isn't taking this crap lying down.
God Bless Dick Cheney. I want to hear what he has to say, and appreciate him for being willing to speak out for those of us who want our party back. I am sick to death of the wishy washy GOP Rinos.
You are so right, starting on March 31, 2005, when Terri died, GWB hardly opened his mouth again, and he must have muzzled Cheney too.
The rambling from ‘Unnamed’ GOP Strategists don’t mean jack.
Are these the same GOP Strategists that gave us 2004, and are they the same GOP Strategists that gave us McCain that ultimately stuck us with Obama?
Sorry, but my faith in “GOP Strategists” is a bit shaken, especially by those that hide behind articles such as this piece of trash.
As for Cheney, thank God we have that patriot.
What is this maroon talking about? No wonder the GOP is losing every election cycle - with gilded and gelded "strategists" like this.
God Bless Dick Cheney! Don't shut up, Mr. Cheney. Speak up louder and more often!
By the way, has anybody heard from George Bush lately now that Obama and his thugs are ruining the country he tried so hard to protect and blaming everything on him? I guess that's no mystery. He never defended himself a peep for eight years. Why expect he will do it now?
Yeah. Nobody can shut former VP Alphonse Gore up, and his message is pure scam.
Go, Dick Cheney, AMERICAN.
Dick Cheney speaks for me.
They didn’t name any of these supposed Republicans.
Yes. Exactly.
Actually, we didn't have this debate during the election, because The Messiah lied to the American people, claiming he was a tax cutting moderate. Had he campaigned on what he's actually been doing since taking office, he probably would have lost, even to McLame.
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