The Vice President seems to be on some kind of publicity tour, at least by Dick Cheney’s standards. On Monday, he chatted with CBS News for 14 minutes. Yesterday, he gave CNN’s Larry King a whole hour. I’m not sure what the point of the public-relations effort is, but the interviews offer us a reminder of just how far gone the ol’ VP really is.
The King interview was chock full of interesting tidbits and exchanges. Let’s dig in, shall we? Asked about his abysmal support among Americans, Cheney said:
“The polls are notoriously unreliable, in the sense that they change all the time, they bounce around all over the place.”
Actually, the polls have been surprisingly consistent — people don’t like Cheney, his boss, or their policies.
Q In retrospect you would still go into Iraq?
CHENEY: Yes, sir.
I’m afraid anyone who could look at the catastrophe in Iraq and, even with the benefit of hindsight, would do it all again, is suffering from some kind of head trauma.
Q Wouldn’t you like to be liked?
CHENEY: Well, up to a point. But if you wanted to be liked, I should never have gotten involved in politics in the first place. Remember, success for a politician is 50 percent plus one, you don’t have to have everybody on board.
In Cheney’s case, “50% plus one” is regrettably in reference to the Supreme Court.
Q Does it bother you that the Iraqi parliament is taking August off, while men are over there? And women.
CHENEY: It’s better than taking two months off, which was their original plan. Our Congress of course takes the month of August off to go back home, so I don’t think we can say that they shouldn’t go home at all.
And if the U.S. Congress were working on measures to bring some semblance of stability to a war-torn nation in the midst of a civil war and sectarian killings, Cheney’s comparison might even make sense.
Q To which branch of government do you belong? Are you executive or legislative, or both? We were a little confused over recent statements that you’re not in either.
CHENEY: An either/or — maybe —
Q This building seems to be —
CHENEY: — say both is better.
Yes, the Vice President continues to refuse to acknowledge which branch of government he’s in.
Q Were you surprised to see [Walter Mondale’s recent criticism of what Cheney has done to the Office of the Vice President]?
CHENEY: Not especially. I don’t have any personal difficulties with Walter Mondale. Politically, we disagreed a lot. He was part of the Carter administration that I thought, frankly, was one of the less effective administrations in recent history.
Ha, ha, ha. Cheney feels like he’s in a position to criticize a presidential administration as “ineffective.” What a comedian.
Q In that regard, The New York Times — which, as you said, is not your favorite — reports it was you who dispatched Gonzales and Andy Card to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft’s hospital in 2004 to push Ashcroft to certify the President’s intelligence-gathering program. Was it you?
CHENEY: I don’t recall — first of all, I haven’t seen the story. And I don’t recall that I gave instructions to that effect.
Q That would be something you would recall.
CHENEY: I would think so. But certainly I was involved because I was a big advocate of the Terrorist Surveillance Program, and had been responsible and working with General Hayden and George Tenet to get it to the President for approval. By the time this occurred, it had already been approved about 12 times by the Department of Justice. There was nothing new about it.
Q So you didn’t send them to get permission.
CHENEY: I don’t recall that I was the one who sent them to the hospital.
First, if the TSP was the point of the Ashcroft hospital visit, Gonzales is lying. Second, his sudden memory lapse is entirely implausible.
Q The Senate Judiciary Committee is subpoenaing Karl Rove in connection with the firing of federal prosecutors. Why shouldn’t he appear?
CHENEY: There is a strong tradition that the President of the United States is entitled to have people around him who advise him who do not then have to go before the Congress and testify with respect to the advice they gave the President…. What’s the allegation of the wrongdoing here? Frankly, there isn’t anything.
First, according to the White House line, Bush wasn’t involved in the prosecutor purge scandal, so he and Rove presumably didn’t talk about anything. Second, the allegation of wrongdoing has been documented in a 52-page report (.pdf), highlighting suspected crimes associated with the U.S. Attorney firings.
Q General Powell says he would close Guantanamo yesterday. Would you?
CHENEY: No. No, I think you need to have someplace to hold those individuals who have been captured during the global war on terror.
Cheney is contradicting the official White House line, which is a stated intent to close Guantanamo.
Q A member of the Department of Defense sent Hillary Clinton a letter, saying she should not criticize, because it helps the enemy. Do you agree with that letter?
CHENEY: Didn’t say she should not criticize. She was demanding the plans for withdrawal from Iraq.
Q Do you agree with that letter?
CHENEY: I agreed with the letter Eric Edelman wrote. I thought it was a good letter.
Even Defense Secretary Gates distanced himself from Edelman’s ridiculous letter, and Cheney’s just lying about Clinton’s intent. (Indeed, the Clinton campaign had a great response to Cheney’s remarks on the subject.)
Those were just the major highlights. No startling revelations — Cheney’s breathtaking dishonest? You don’t say! — but an hour-long example of everything wrong with the Vice President’s judgment and character.