What’s always bothered me most about Dick Cheney isn’t his dishonesty, it’s the ease with which he tells obvious and transparent lies. The VP seems to have an almost pathological disdain for veracity, and thinks so little of the public that he has no qualms about making ridiculous claims.
Take Cheney’s comments at a press conference yesterday in Iraq, for example.
“Well, this is no operational link. But there was, as I recall from looking at it, extensive links with Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Egyptian Islamic Jihad was the organization headed by Zawahiri, and he merged EIJ with Al Qaeda when he became the deputy director of Al Qaida, Osama bin Laden’s number two. Now, was that a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda? Seems to me pretty clear that there was.
“But it’s a question — I would urge you to go read the report. I know ABC reported on it. If you dig into the report in depth, I think you may find that there was an extensive relationship with a broad range of terrorist groups, that he was a state sponsor of terror. And I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.”
A reporter followed up, saying, “So, you think there was a direct link between Al Qaeda.” Cheney responded, “You heard what I said. I was very precise.” When the reporter noted that Cheney was not, in fact, precise, the VP ended the press conference.
We’re well past the point at which Cheney’s mendacity is surprising, but it’s nevertheless striking to see someone, anyone, be so brazen in trying to deceive people. Cheney still believes it’s “pretty clear” there was a “link between Iraq and Al Qaeda”? Just a few days after his own Pentagon proved otherwise?
It’s one thing to get this wrong before the war — as Cheney did — when there may have been at least some conflicting intelligence. It’s something else altogether for the VP to make demonstrably false claims five years later, when everyone with a pulse knows he’s lying.
The guy just doesn’t care. He never has.
On the same subject, during the same exchange, Cheney cited the work of Stephen Hayes at the Weekly Standard. Hayes, of course, is perhaps best known for arguing incessantly for the last several years that Saddam Hussein’s regime was directly connected to al Qaeda. It earned him a reputation for being a bit of a far-right oddball, but his constant and aggressive advocacy, resisting reality at every turn, made Hayes a favorite of Cheney, who offered the conservative writer unprecedented access for a flattering new book.
The problem, of course, is that Hayes’ work has been thoroughly debunked, and is no longer taken seriously by anyone outside the Vice President’s office.
But the circus continues. Yesterday, Hayes, traveling with Cheney, completed the incestuous conservative circle — Cheney cites Hayes to argue he’s right, and Hayes cites Cheney to argue they’re both right.
Sitting in the U.S. Embassy just blocks from the bombed out headquarters of the former Iraqi Intelligence Service, Vice President Dick Cheney said today that a new Pentagon study issued last week confirms Bush administration claims that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq supported a broad range of terrorists groups, including al Qaeda. But he dodged a question about why the Bush administration has failed to discuss the report in public, saying that the report was relatively new and that he hadn’t had time to talk to the press office about it. […]
The Pentagon report has been widely mischaracterized as refuting Bush administration claims that Iraq supported jihadist terror, including al Qaeda. Those reports are incorrect.
These guys have completely given up on the notion of shame. It’s kind of sad to watch.