NEWS JUNKIE POST
Jan 6, 2010 at 11:17 pmCheney Family Values
The Cheney family business has become unpatriotic fright wing propaganda. And business is bustling. When dad Dick gets weary of sending President Obama missives via POLITICO, he sends in daughter Liz for the heavy lifting. And any day now, Dick’s wife Lynn will come out with an anti-Obama children’s book.
Last week, Dick Cheney–dripping with sticky holiday malice over the aborted Christmas underwear bomber–inexplicably asserted that Obama was “pretending we’re not at war.” Why? Because it took the President three days to address the nearly tragic security slip-up. Okay, maybe Obama could have, even should have responded more swiftly. But to suggest he’s taking his job lightly or ignoring our perilous position in the world because he happened to be on vacation is ridiculous. Especially coming from George W. Bush’s veep. Bush, as you may recall, took six days to respond to shoe bomber Richard Reid back in December ’01. And W. spent one third of his presidency vacationing.
On Wednesday, Liz Cheney in a statement from the powerful perch of her Keep America Safe website, issued another finger-wagging diatribe to the Commander-in-Chief. “President Obama has weakened American security by treating terrorism as a law enforcement matter, refusing to use every tool at his disposal to prevent attacks, and taking his eye off the ball,” Cheney wrote.
The former second daughter, who also had a nepotism gig with the state department during the Bush administration ( she was involved in monitoring “Shock and Awe” over in Iraq; and we all know how well that went down), also rattled off a neo-con wish list for the President. She wants Obama to reverse his decision to shut down Gitmo. And over rule DOJ’s decision to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian criminal court and send him to a military tribunal.
You can debate both ideas, of course, and there are arguments to be made on both sides. But am I the only one who detects a convenient bout of Republican amnesia? I mean, both dad and daughter seem to conveniently forget that both shoe bomber Reid and surviving 9/11 hi-jacker Zacarias Moussaoui were tried in criminal court. On the Bush administration’s watch.
The Cheneys and their head nodders– primarily GOP chair Michael Steele, NY Congressman Peter King and the fright wing brigade–offer an argument that largely is comprised of two things. One: Republicans are better at national security than Democrats, Two: anything Obama does is reprehensible.
The first assertion is mere myth and one the Dems only encourage when the continuously play defense. Sorry, Dick, Liz, every time you point out that the Repubs kept us safe from attack after 9/11, you keep leaving off that one pesky indisputable fact… the worst attack on U.S. soil occurred DURING a REPUBLICAN administration. More Democrats need to say that. A little louder, please. And every time the GOP mouthpieces start blaming Bill Clinton, shut them down. You know, the way they keep saying we’re whining when we blame Obama’s mess on W.’s eight disastrous years. Enough, libs, really. Let’s get some backbone.
As for the second claim, come on. It’s so obviously nothing but shameless political posturing when Cheney et al skewer Obama for continuing the Bush-Cheney policies. The progressives are more out of step with Obama’s Afghanistan policy than the conservatives. We all know they’d find a way to blast Obama even if he was in complete lock-step with the neo-con agenda. Just because, he’s Obama.
” Our nation is at war against a far reaching network of violence and hatred, ” Obama said during his eloquent Inaugural Address. And he’s echoed those sentiments in his West Point and Nobel speeches as well as nearly a dozen others. Not good enough. The Cheneys ( as well as Congressman King, who God help us New Yorkers is actually contemplating a Senate bid) are alarmed at the President’s decision to drop “on terror” in his rhetoric pertaining to war.
Okay, now we’re quibbling over semantics. And it’s a pretty bold ( not to mention shallow) maneuver for even the more articulate of the pair who couldn’t shoot straight, to try to claim victory while clinging to semantics.
At this point Dick Cheney is emboldening terrorists. That’s right Dick, you’re the one who’s a threat to our national security. It’s gotten so bad that even Repubs like Congressman Ron Paul are telling him to shut up. The fact is there has never been a former president or vice president who has been so vociferously critical of a sitting president, especially in the area of foreign policy. Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter says, “If Obama can negotiate with Iran, he can negotiate with the former Vice President and convince him to stop bad-mouthing U.S. security.”
Forget that. Obama should act decisively. Provide Dick Cheney a Secret Service escort back to his undisclosed location. Throw in a muzzle. And while they’re at it, give darling daughter Liz a ride, too.
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“As I watched the events of the last few days, it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think that if he has a low-key response to [the attempt to blow up an airliner] that we won’t be at war.”
Richard B. Cheney
GOOD NEWS! Someday Dick Cheney is going to go away, I promise you that. Is that the best argument du jour he can come up with regarding Obama – that he does not express sufficient emotion or anger? That he is too cerebral. Isn’t that what we want in a president? In this way he is much like Jack Kennedy. The angriest statement JFK ever made while president was when he lashed out at “the utter contempt” of the executives at U.S. Steel toward the American people. But even in this instance, Kennedy’s tone was measured and restrained. He was not a man given to freaking out. Seriously, would we like a repeat of the shoot-from-the-hip, cowboy idiocy of the Bush/Cheney years? Look at all the good that did us. Obama’s seeming, contemplative demeanor is one of the things about the man that reassures me. Call it a silly quirk in my psychological make up, but I like my presidents to think things through. What can I tell you, I’m kind of funny that way.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
Thank you so much for this article. This is the kind of information that should be on the 24 hour news cycles but instead we hear the GOP propaganda.
The Republicans still hold the title of having the worse attack against the US under their watch. They also tried and convicted terrorists in federal courts and had them housed in our federal prisons. The GOP also focused almost totally on Iraq, the unnecessary war, and destroyed the image of the US which allowed the Taliban forces to gain strength and ignited Al Qaeda recruitment.
President Obama has been trying seriously to improve the image to reduce those recruitments but Cheney, Palin and the rest of the GOP usual suspects are doing everything they can to project the US as weak under the Obama administration. Now everyone will probably want to attack us.
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Although I don’t agree with the majority of this post, it’s not the typical squawk-box rhetoric that usually spills out of a Dick Cheney lynching. Refreshing and quite witty Amy, perhaps you’ll be even more balanced next time.
It’s interesting to note that Ex-President George W. Bush doesn’t open his mouth at all and behaves as he should and the Cheneys just keep ranting and raving – less media attention to the two of them Father and Daughter would go a long way. Thanks for an excellent article.