Monday’s Washington Post has yet another story, “Cheney Fights for Detainee Policy”, about Cheney’s hard line stance against McCain’s anti-torture amendment. This article raises the stakes a bit though.
WaPo’s Dana Priest (who broke the story about the secret CIA prisons) and Robin Wright reveal through their sources that those who oppose Cheney now include Condi Rice, acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon R. England and Elliot Abrams. They also state that:
Personnel changes in President Bush’s second term have added to the isolation of Cheney, who previously had been able to prevail in part because other key parties to the debate — including Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and White House counsel Harriet Miers — continued to sit on the fence.
Gonzales sat on the fence? Sorry, but he fell off that fence a long time ago and landed squarely in Cheney’s lap. As for Miers, now that she’s withdrawn her nomination for SCOTUS, we’ll never know exactly what her role was in all of this. Even if she had made the hearings, the WH would have claimed executive privilege anyway.
So, what’s Rice doing opposing Cheney? Apparently, she’s concerned about her dear leader’s policy agenda. We all know what a faithful Bush lapdog she is. But – one really has to wonder what’s going on behind the scenes. It seems to me that if Rice was so opposed to these repressive detention and torture policies all along, she would have said so. And what about Bush? He had threatened to veto the defense appropriations bill if it included McCain’s anti-torture amendment.
Why this sudden change of heart for Rice? Frankly, I don’t believe she’s had one. She has co-signed everything Bush has done – without exception. I think that whoever is speaking to WaPo on her behalf is full of it. The article states:
At the same time Rice has emerged as an advocate for changing the rules to “get out of the detainee mess,” said one senior U.S. official familiar with discussions. Her top advisers, along with their Pentagon counterparts, are working on a package of proposals designed to address all controversial detainee issues at once, instead of dealing with them on a piecemeal basis.
[…]
“The debate in the world has become about whether the U.S. complies with its legal obligations. We need to regain the moral high ground,” said one senior administration official familiar with internal deliberations on the issue…
Regain the moral high ground? I thought the neocons already believed they owned the piece of property the moral high ground sits on. Not only that – it’s tax exempt and they rent it out to religious wingnuts when it suits their purposes.
Whatever is going on, it must be hell working around Cheney. His approval ratings are at 19%. He’s VP of Torture now and he’s hanging on to this issue with a death grip. How can Bush possibly stop this massive hemorrhaging? It’ll ruin his “tough-guy” image if he goes soft on torture. Maybe McCain’s wife is a covert CIA agent who’ll be outed soon too.
“Detainee mess” indeed. There’s no way Rice will be able to charge in and fix this one for her husband…I mean “president”.
For a belated yet horribly relevant Hallowe’en nightmare, go here.
Cheney’s a growly looking bastard no matter which way you look at him.
Those pictures and that thread really were disturbing.
Barry,
That was my reaction too. The LH Cheney face is practically a caricature of all our worst imaginings of what he represents. And the recent LH Bush face almost (but not quite) made me feel a brief moment of pity – indicating as it does a transformation from bully-boy warmonger to “mommy, how the hell did I ever get led into this fucked-up, no-win quagmire?”
I am skeptical that we can read into these pictures as much as the diary author suggests, but it was morbidly fascinating nonetheless. And it makes me wonder what my own face might show to me…
One thing I know – broadcast that Cheney face thru the media and even a 19% approval rate would be but a fading memory.
it’s hard to believe Cheney hasn’t had a major heart attack lately. One might reasonably expect his head to have exploded by now as well.
Condi was a good bureaucratic infighter in her academic career. She’s just positioning herself to be not caught when the torture mess blows up, and to be closer to George when Cheney’s gone. Since Cheney and Rumsfeld are almost connected at the hip, her moves are also being made with an eye toward the in-fighting between Defense and State.
I came in to post almost exactly that. I think you’ve nailed it.
Which is an ecouraging sign – when the lapdogs start “distancing themselves” – How about Bushco replaces Cheney on their own – we take Congress back in 06….. hmmmmm
in the thought she might be a presnit herself someday.
TOXIC…follow the Money..it’s a no brainer. Haliburton. nuff said. That is the reason they are all running screaming. I would even speak to him if I were them. Mark my words..Cheney will be gone long before the midtern elections next year. The poor ticker just will need a little rest in Virginia. His goose is cooked. My guess would be sooner rather than later. SO long limp Dick, not sorry to see you go. What a disgrace you are and have been to our country. Maybe you rot in hell when you finally keel over and die. I hope it is a lingering, long, painful death. Kinda like the torture that you have put some many people though. Think of all those innocent Iraqi children you blew up with you illegal war. You are a permanate stain on the contitution that will take generations to clean up. The history books will not look kindly upon your disservice and all the damage you have done. So Fuck you, your family and all of the pathetic friends and cronies at Haliburton that have raped the poor Americans of the Tax money that they have shelled out, not knowing it would become BLOOD MONEY. Once again Fuck you Mr. Cheney.
Cheney, the twisted fuck, without a doubt will rot in hell for all eternity. This incarnation of evil should be fed to the pigs alive. I can’t believe they allow this treacherous unholy bastard in public without his mask and straight jacket. Hannibal Lecter is but an alter boy in comparison. The untold torture this beast Cheney has inflicted and the body parts he has mutilated is beyond belief.
Both of these immoral disgusting sons a bitches made a big fricken mistake by taunting the CIA. It makes you wonder if Valerie Plame could be Cheney’s Clarice Starling. With the state of the nation akin to a gargantuan bag of fuck, it’s more than obvious that Dick and Valerie have already sat down to a nice Chianti and fava beans with Dumbya as the main course.
I just hope they weren’t too disappointed in the size of the portion.
I just don’t think Cheney gives a fuck about his approval ratings and I also think he revels in the isolation. This has been his mode since he was elected VP. I think he’s like the prototypical corporate CEO who thinks of the America people like he would the meaningless peons who work for him. We are just the pawns he uses to get what he wants done. Now, if he’s loosing his influence and grip on Chimpy – that could spell trouble for him.
“I think he’s like the prototypical corporate CEO who thinks of the America people like he would the meaningless peons who work for him. We are just the pawns he uses to get what he wants done.”
You’ve nailed it!
The White House has had a power split running right through it since the beginning of the Bush regime; the neocon crazies vs. the more traditional criminal gang embodied by the Baker/Scowcroft/Powell/Carlyle Group types. The neocons managed to force out the Powell contingent and usurp their authority, but now that the neocon agenda is finally blowing apart at the seams, the more rational criminal gang is seeking to re-establish their dominance. They’ll have to make a deal with the Grover Norquist treasury looter crowd in order to overcome the neocns, but they certainly won’t hesitate to further undermine the best interests of the people if doing so will get them back in power.
Everyday now the neocons become more radioactive. They’ve perfected the art of losing friends and alienating potential helpers, but they still wield tremendous power, (and of course they’re so delusional, so infatuated with their own crackpot ideology that they themselves don’t yet quite grasp that their lunatic plans have utterly failed).
Toxic as he may be, I think it’s not likely the VP of Torture will step aside voluntarily. He still has so much to do to further destroy the world to give up now.
I agree – especially when I see that the table is being set for “regime change” in Syria. The neocons are still at it.
Cheney was planning to “retire” anyway.
Cheney becomes the magnet for all that has gone wrong. Cheney is the appointed “fall guy” just like Libby is the appointed obstructionist…
Cheney resigns, replaced with McCain, a new Secretary of Defense… an new, aw you get the idea….
A new look just in time for the midterms. Heck, we’ll even see an “elected” government in Irak.
They’re winging it, but they have the spin machines on their side.
We need International war crimes charges against Bush, Blair, Cheney, Rummy, Rice, Powell, Wolfie, AssCroft, Abu Gonzoles and at least four members of the Supreme Court as well as the House and Senate Republican leadership.
Agreed. I think this is about something else. It’s possible the Republican party has finally concluded that Bush is finished, and the best way to assure victory in 2008 is to run against Bush. After all, they’re reasonably confident that the Democrats are going to put up a centrist-right slimeball who’s tied to Bush’s “popular policies”, like Hillary or Biden. So the best way for them to win is to run someone “known” for “disagreeing” with Bush and paint their opponent as continuing the ex-president’s legacy. Based on polls, of course.
And a lot of people have suspected for a fairly long time that Condi’s being groomed for the VP slot. This seems to support this. She’s come out in favour of anti-Bush-policy legislation that the White House is reasonably confident has no chance of passing. (They wouldn’t have threatened to use Bush’s veto otherwise) Meanwhile, nasty ol’ Cheney comes out against the legislation, nicely setting up a contrast between the “old Republicans” and the “new Republicans”.
Political analysis aside, my thoughts on that disgusting excuse for a human being are: