Cheney’s in full campaign mode

January 4, 2006

Look out, everyone, Dick Cheney is angrily defending the administration’s warrantless-search program, and he’s not letting facts, context, reason, or logic stand in his way.

He said as the memory of September 11 faded, some politicians were “yielding to the temptation to downplay the ongoing threat to our country and to back away from the business at hand.”

Name one. Point to a single politician who’s downplaying the terrorist threat. Cheney names names all the time. Why not now? Because straw men don’t have names.

“The enemy that struck on 9/11 is weakened and fractured yet it is still lethal and planning to hit us again. Either we are serious about fighting this war or we are not,” Cheney said in remarks prepared for a speech at the Heritage Foundation think tank.

If someone can explain why we can’t fight the war by eavesdropping on terrorists with an easily-obtained warrant, I’d sure appreciate it.

“There are no communications more important to the safety of the United States than those related to al Qaeda that have one end in the United States. If we’d been able to do this before 9/11, we might have been able to pick up on two of the hijackers who flew a jet into the Pentagon,” Cheney said.

If we’d been able to do what, exactly? Eavesdrop on the terrorists’ conversations? We were able to do that before 9/11, just like we’re able to do it now. The warrantless-search program isn’t a new intelligence-gathering tactic, it’s the old tactic without a warrant.

Cheney said Bush was committed to protecting civil liberties and had made clear that “our duty to uphold the law of the land admits no exceptions in wartime.”

Funny, I thought that was our line.

there’s an interesting ongoing debate: are the right-wingers so essentially dishonest that they believe this crap or are they so consumed with power that they don’t care that they spew it?

in cheney’s case, i pick the first door: he’s so essentially dishonest that he believes this crap.

  • I wonder if he was around in August ’01 when they chucked that briefing telling them Al Qaeda was about to strike the US.

  • In re Howard’s choices, I’d go with door number 2 in regard to Cheney. He’s been consumed with the New American Century global domination through force of arms neocon putridity for so many years now, and many are starting to wonder if he’s truly sane any more.

  • Bush Adminstration is brilliant at this kind of spin: 2 choices that are painted black and white: do you want security and protection or do you want us to let the bad guys slide by because of a silly need for a warrant? If you say we need warrants, you support the terrorists. I hope America knows this is not about a trade-off between security and civil liberities; this is ALL about checks and balances and not being above the law. I think America needs a little History 101 to understand how and why this great country was born. King George was not popular then and he is not popular now.

  • Once again, the best defense against this crap is to tell the truth and spin it back in Cheney’s face: Our pre-9/11 problem was that our agencies failed to investigate available leads and failed to communicate with each other. If the Bush/Cheney doesn’t understand that, what confidence can we have that those problems are being fixed? Moussoui didn’t lead us to the hijacking plot because the FBI failed to use the legal investigative methods available to them. Not because a search would have been too slow or rejected by FISA.

    As for the armchair psychoanalysis, I think this goes back to their inability to admit mistakes. If they admit that 9/11 could have been prevented with the tools that they had available to them, then they deserve the blame. If they can convince themselves that any tools which they had would merely have been effective for “swatting flies” then their negligence can be overlooked. After all, Bush put Cheney in charge of his terrorism task force.

    It is long past time for Democrats to stand up and remind Cheney and the rest of the country of that fact. If he wants to start pointing fingers about downplaying threats, he can go look in a mirror.

  • OH…MY…GOURD!!!

    The doublethink required to wrap oneself around Cheney’s spin is astounding. The WarBuddha is pleased.

    The enemy is weak yet lethal

    We will break the law, yet our duty to uphold the law admits no exceptions in wartime

    You are safer while we are in power yet do not yield to the temptation to downplay the ongoing threat to our country, you have never been in more danger

    Trust us yet we trust no one

    There is no spoon, now use it to eat our bullshit

    GAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!

  • Is it possible that they are realize they are in so deep that they have a pool going to see how far they can go? Some kind of B.S. rich-kid Skull and Bones game? Let’s see how far we can twist America’s tit before it stops us! If we break it in the process it really doews not matter. We have enough money and power that we will be fine either way. Maybe the reason they talk down about blue-blood Northeast establishment types it that they are them and they know what they are capable of!

    BTW- Good struff Gridlock! hehehe

  • I’ve been practicing all day, but I am still unable to talk out of both sides of my mouth like Cheney. I guess a forked tongue would help.

  • I am not a politican, but I will downplay the terrorist threat. It is far more distant and less immediate than the threat from domestic totalitarianism.

  • RICE: I remember very well that the president was aware that there were issues inside the United States. He talked to people about this. But I don’t remember the al Qaeda cells as being something that we were told we needed to do something about.

    BEN-VENISTE: Isn’t it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6 PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?

    RICE: I believe the title was, “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.”

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Question:

    If they got a briefing that warned them in bold capital letters…and did nothing…

    And if they saw a Category 4 hurricane slowly approaching New Orleans… and did nothing….

    Does anybody really believe for an instant that subtle phone conversations will somehow make a difference in the future?

    Please…
    My gut is going to split with laughter….

    I mean really:

    This government couldn’t pray and chew gum at the same time… much less stop a terrorist attack.

  • A couple of thoughts. Has this “war” that Bush is using to justify his actions ever been declared?

    I know terrorism is a huge problem but even in Israel, traffic deaths far exceed terrorist murders. Just a little perspective.

    The vice-presidency is pretty much designed for some blathering idiot to occupy. Remember Spiro Agnew and the boy wonder? Clinton/Gore were the only ones to reverse that tradition. They made the job meaningful.

  • He is a deeply disturbed man who should be watched at all times. I hope he doesn’t have access to anything nuclear, etc.,

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