White House claims Americans ‘had input’ on war in Iraq

March 21, 2008

Dick Cheney raised some eyebrows this week when ABC News’ Martha Raddatz reminded the VP that “two-thirds of Americans say” the Iraq war “is not worth fighting.” In response, Cheney asked, “So?”

Now, truth be told, I found this amusing, but hardly shocking. For one thing, the fact that Dick Cheney doesn’t much care about public support for the war after five years is a dog-bites-man story. Of course he doesn’t care; Cheney never does. For another, in fairness, I think I know what the VP meant: as far as he’s concerned, whether the war enjoys the backing of the nation or not, he’s convinced it’s the right position. And since he’s in authority, and the rest of us aren’t, “So?” seems like the predictable response.

But instead of just accepting this reality at face value, the White House has decided to spin Cheney’s comments in a rather silly way.

Q: The American people are being asked to die and pay for this, and you’re saying they have no say in this war?

PERINO: I didn’t say that, Helen. But, Helen, this President was elected —

Q: Well, what it amounts to is you saying we have no input at all.

PERINO: You had input. The American people have input every four years, and that’s the way our system is set up.

If this is the new White House line, it needs a little work.

It’s reminscient of the line the president himself took in January 2005, when he argued that Americans had endorsed his Iraq policy by virtue of him beating John Kerry. “We had an accountability moment, and that’s called the 2004 elections,” Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post.

By Bush’s and Perino’s reasoning, Americans vote, and then their leaders act accordingly. Bush beat Kerry, so the war continued.

But as Think Progress reminds us, there is a small flaw in this approach.

Like Cheney, Perino is clearly suggesting that current opposition to the Iraq war is inconsequential. But in claiming that American attitudes only matter every four years, Perino leaves out one inconvenient fact: the 2006 mid-term elections.

The 2006 elections — which the Democrats won control of both the House and Senate — were largely a referendum on the Iraq war with most Americans wanting a change in Bush’s Iraq policy. Indeed, exit polling in national House races and Senate contests in which a Democrat defeated an incumbent Republican shows that a large majority of voters cited the Iraq war as “extremely” or “very important” in their decision.

We “had input” in November 2006. Somehow, the White House has decided it didn’t count.

March 21, 2008 at 10:17 am

Dana Perino is an idiot. Bush has never had the best spokesmen, but in the last year of this presidency (thank you God), she is what is left when pretty much no one wants the job and frankly it isn’t like the WH cares what people think this late in the presidency.

Of course Perino should remember that even if Bush won – he won by so little and things have sure changed since then.

January 2009 can come soon enough.

Somehow, the White House has decided it didn’t count.

Actually, it seems as though Congressional Democrats decided it didn’t count — what have they done to stop the war? What have they done to get people health care? What have they done to stop rising fuel prices? What have they done to fix the financial markets? What have they done to hold the Bush administration accountable?

All they’ve done is give Bush what he wants, write a few strongly worded letters, and let Senate Republicans control the process by making it a de facto 60-vote chamber. They also took impeachment off the table.

The American people did give their input. And Congressional Democrats haven’t lived up to their end of the bargain.

Sorry to go on such a rant, but Democrats were given the chance to turn the will of the American people into action. Thus far, they have failed to do so.

It’s both infuriating and heartbreaking.

Yeah, sure; we had “input” because we were allowed to vote in TWO STOLEN ELECTIONS where entire demographic blocks of votes WERE NOT COUNTED.

It Amerika – you have the right to stand in line to vote, dur chimpfurher and the criminal cabal behind our fraudulent leader may even let some of us cast votes – BUT WE DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO HAVE THEM ACTUALLY COUNTED!

And the the lying liars and MSM proclaim that stolen, fraudulent elections somehow represent “democracy” and the “will of the people.”

In Perino’s defense, why should Bush or Cheney care? Impeachment is off the table, even censure is off the table.

Based on the leeway we have given them as a people, I’m pleasantly surprised that they even care to hold press briefings anymore.

I gotta disagree here.

Dana Perino and war opponents who beat up on the Dem majority in Congress for continuing to fund the war are in basic agreement and correct. Setting aside *why* the Congress acted or didn’t act, we do have a representative democracy.

We do not have a “referendum democracy” where the government divines the input of the people by interpreting mid-term elections and polling data to then set policy.

Constitutionally, and in practical fact, Ms. Perino is correct here.

“So?” Dick Cheney was just channeling his inner Alfred Lord Tennyson: Yours is not to reason why, yours is but to do and die.

If Perino thinks the 2004 “accountability moment” was our chance for input on waging the war ex post facto, why was the White House squelching any dissent before the elections by labeling war critics as unpatriotic if they wanted a true referendum on the war?

The American people have input every four years, and that’s the way our system is set up.

If election results are the verdict, then the Bush administration is guilty of perjury, and the media should be disbarred for the way they prosecuted the case. Even so, the jury was dumber than hell.

Just this week an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer about our democracy vs. Athenian “original” democracy, and the writer posited that what we really have is an elected oligarchy. After seeing Cheney’s and Perino’s comments, who can disagree?

The writer also pointed out that the end of Athens came when the people (voting men) voted again and again for costly wars which were badly waged. Move along people, nothing to see here!

I think I’m in agreement with #s 4 and 5. All behavior described is apt and appropriate for members of the first organized crime administration with a term limit. These people may not be able to competently make war, but they are all too keen on what they are really doing. Think of them more as crime family members: Bush head of the Big Oil family, Cheney head of War Profiteers. They’ve milked the Treasury for what it’s worth. Now the cops are coming, so they’ve put up their walls of defense and begun to scuttle and dismantle.

Valerie is just the perfect know-nothing, eye rolling stooge to pacify us until they turn out the lights and go into the night.

I’m surprised Perino can even remember the 2004 elections. Wasn’t that around when the Bay of Pigs happened?

Most of the nonsense in this thread ASSUMES ALL VOTES ARE COUNTED EQUALLY. Anyone that looks knows this is not true.

The criminal cabal behind dur chimpfurher STOLE 2 elections – the rest of the world acknowledges this

But even here, people want to pretend that somehow the chimperor “won” undisputed election and all votes were counted for and all discrepancies were reconciled.

LIARS! This is not even a REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY is demographic blocks of voters are systematically disenfranchised to skew results.

Keep making excuses and apologies for the criminals, morons, guess it make some feel better to pretend that somehow they are “intellectually superior” than the masses.

Tacitus, in the Germania [11] recounts how the men of a tribe were assembled for their ‘input’ into decisions of war and peace — they got to pound their spears on their shields when the chiefs declared war, and this was accounted the best kind of agreement.

One bright day, I’m going to crack open the paper, and the headline will read “Former Vice President Cheney Dead of Heart Failure.”

And I’m going to say, “So?”

Then, he’ll show up at heaven’s gate and try to stare down the gatekeeper into opening up. And St. Peter will say, “Go fuck yourself.”

Further proof of how right my great-grand-uncle was when he taught me that “The only ‘good Republicans’ are pushing up daisies.”

Goddamned scum.

My relatives were’nt the kind of folks that talk politics , I learned that rebublicons were scum on my own .

There is better input– it’s called impeachment.

And you don’t have to wait 4 years to do it.

‘K Dana. The people who voted for Shrubster can pay for and fight in his Clusterfuck 4 Democracy. We’ll be over here taping the Constitution back together.

In other words, the only time of accountability is the elections.

What utter crap.

Does that mean people are only accountable on the job during the initial interview and then the regular performance reviews? Of course not. They still have to answer to their employers and supervisors for the rest of the time.

And yet, they pretend that our positions and opinions don’t matter now just because the election is long over. To call that obviously wrong would be the under-statement of the decade.

Pingback: Democracy Every 4 Years | WWJV4

I’m counting the days until January 20th as much as anyone, but the 2004 elections were an accountability moment, and the majority of Americans failed it. To dismiss Bush’s re-election as somehow “forced” is not reality-based and lets your fellow citizens off the hook, which they don’t deserve.

The 2006 elections — which the Democrats won control of both the House and Senate — were largely a referendum on the Iraq war […] — Think Progress

Except that, IIRC, the Repubs interpreted the ’06 drubbing as an expression of public disgust with corruption, not with the war. And there was the Foley folly, there was Abramoff, there were other things bubbling right close to the surface. Enough so, to lend some credence to that assessment.

And I wonder what the most pressing issue will be this November. I suspect economy, not I-wreck, if only because we’re not hearing a whole lot about I-wreck any more while, in the meantime, people are feeling like caged gerbils on a running wheel, trying to keep up with one disaster after another. That’s why I appreciated Obama’s yesterday’s speech, tying the two together. It’s a good start, but I think he’ll need to focus on the economy much more in the future. He’s solid on the issue of I-wreck; I want to know how solid he is on the other burning question.

It’s obvious that Republicans think our system of government is a limited dictatorship, where the dictator is elected every four years and limited to two terms. But as long as you’ve got the power, it’s unlimited…unless of course it’s a Democrat in the Whitehouse, in which case Congressional Republicans are an oligarchy protecting America from the Traitor-in-Chief; even if they’re in the minority.

So in essence, they think our government is to be ruled by them…always.

Hey, just remeber this when it comes down to picking someone in novemebr, this is our chance at input and ralize that Mccain means four more years of bush policies

president dumbya
When the failed president dumbya stole two elections (00&04), has a culture of spying illegally on citizens, you should not expect employees to be more considerate of the law than their so called leaders. This is a lawless bunch of idoits with a culture of corruption and lawlessness. You make the call.

(#13) Chrenson- I am already saying “go fuck yourself” to Mr. Cheney. Why wait for St Peter?

We, the people of the United States of America, in order to form a more perfect
Union, need at this time to re-organize our system of Federal government so that
those in power are more immediately accountable for policies they undertake in
compliance with the ruling elite and, further, we should take back the Federal Reserve system and incorporate it within the jurisdiction of Congress or a people’s parliament.

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