ABOVE THE LAW

DICK CHENEY


Much of DICK Cheney's time in office has been spent consolidating and growing the power of the executive branch. His former boss Richard Nixon once famously claimed that when a president does something that means that it's not illegal. Both men share a firmly held belief that those holding the ultimate executive positions are categorically above the law. These people need not play by the rules that govern the common men for, much like the divinely chosen kings that preceded them, presidents are the law. Or, more appropriately, as King Louis XIV so pompously claimed, "L'Etat, c'est moi" - I am the state.
With this in mind, I bring you Cheney's next in a seemingly endless stream of offenses against this beaten down nation. One of the carrots at the end of the electoral stick for Democrats to retake control of Congress is the power of the subpoena. With it, the United States can finally begin to heal from the egregious wounds inflicted upon it by a runaway presidency and its rubberstamp backers currently residing in both houses of Congress. But to DICK Cheney, subpoena power means nothing. From his appearance on This Week (transcript via Think Progress):

STEPHANOPOULOS: You’ve talked a lot about the consequences of the Democrats taking over congress in the last week. Nancy Pelosi said this: “we win, speaking of the democrat, we get subpoena power.” If you’re subpoenaed by the Democrats, would you go?

CHENEY: I have no idea that i’m going to be subpoenaed. Obviously, we’d sit down and look at it at the time. But probably not in the sense at that Vice President and President and constitutional officers don’t appear before the Congress.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s your view of executive power? You’re not going to go up and testify.

CHENEY: I think that’s been the tradition. I can’t remember the last time a President did appear before the Congress. Or a Vice President.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Gerald Ford, I think.

CHENEY: That’s right. But not on a subpoena, he did it on his own.

Once again, little things like the law don't apply to Cheney and Bush. The constitutionally directed mandate of the United States Congress to provide oversight of the executive branch is not applicable to this administration. This group of criminals is responsible to no one, at least according to their definition of executive authority. When the new congress is sworn in early next year, I look forward to seeing this worldview put to the test.

QUICK FOLLOW-UP (courtesy of Crooks and Liars):

Top Republicans Sunday warned President Bill Clinton that refusing to honor independent counsel Ken Starr's grand jury subpoena in the Monica Lewinsky case could have serious political consequences — including the possibility of impeachment.

"I think it would be disastrous. It is basically saying he is above the law, he doesn't have to comply with the law," said Senate Majority Whip Don Nickles of Oklahoma on NBC's "Meet The Press." "Everybody else in America has to comply with subpoenas (while) he's saying he wouldn't. … I don't think that would be sustainable."

"(Clinton) has an obligation as the highest official in this government, sworn to uphold the Constitution and the laws of this country. If he doesn't do that, I think public opinion would turn overwhelmingly against him," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah on CBS's "Face The Nation."

Nothing like a little intellectual consistency mixed in with some good old rank hypocrisy, hmm? Oh, how times have changed!

DOING WELL

DICK CHENEY


I've been sitting on this topic for a couple of days (Think Progress had it I think on Monday). Cheney was on Limbaugh (as is his wont since he will not be interviewed by anyone who is not Limbaugh or Fox News) where he said the following:

CHENEY: Well, I think there’s some natural level of concern out there because in fact, you know, it wasn’t over instantaneously. It’s been a little over three years now since we went into Iraq, so I don’t think it’s surprising that people are concerned.

On the other hand, this government has only been in office about five months, five or six months now. They’re off to a good start. It is difficult, no question about it, but we’ve now got over 300,000 Iraqis trained and equipped as part of their security forces. They’ve had three national elections with higher turnout than we have here in the United States. If you look at the general overall situation, they’re doing remarkably well.

First off, I think that if anyone should receive some level of blame for there being unrest about the conflict not being over "instantaneously", perhaps we should all remember when all the prognosticators were out in force saying how the war would be over in short order. Don Rumsfeld claimed, "It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months." Cheney himself said, "I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. ... I think it will go relatively quickly, ... (in) weeks rather than months."

So please, DICK, pardon us if the American people are a little uneasy that the war has lasted a teensy bit longer than you and Rummy predicted.

Next, Cheney claims that the current Iraqi government has only been in place for less than a year; a democratically elected government, mind you; yet there are now stories floating around that Bush is considering replacing the current government, so just how much faith does this adminstration have in their friends in Baghdad?

And finally, DICK claims that overall situation is going remarkable well. Does this even need a comment, especially considering how American troops are dropping like flies, dozens (on a slow day) of Iraqis are found dead with signs of torture present and the electrical grid is so broken that the average citizen has about two hours of electricity a day?

With someone like Bush, there's a strong possibility that he's just completely disconnected from reality, but DICK doesn't get that benefit of the doubt. You just know that he's ... I hate to use the word "evil" so what about conniving and calculating? When he speaks to Rush or Fox News, you just know that he's not deluded; he knows exactly what he's saying and he knows that he's full of crap. He says whatever he wants regardless of the facts because he knows that the bobbleheads would never ever call him on it.

Let's get this party started, boys and girls. We'll start with the Big Three:



Mr. Macaca himself, George Felix Allen Jr.
Whether it's the fact that he called an opponent's videographer what is most like a derogatory slur, the fact that he gives backhanded and qualified apologies or the fact that the explanation for the faux pas keeps changing by the hour, this tool is awarded the top slot this afternoon (unless someone else comes along).






Tricky Dick Cheney:
and it's for something that's actually been bugging me over the last few days. When Ned Lamont secured the Democratic nomination for Senate in Connecticut a couple of weeks ago, I thought in passing the back of my head, "Huh, I wonder what those tools in the White House think of that," and then immediately figured that I'd never know since it would be totally inappropriate for a Republican administration to comment on a Democratic Primary. Oops, my bad. Silly me, what was I thinking.


(Soon to be former) Senator Joe Lieberman (cfl-CT)
Alright, this guy's on the list until he drops out of his one-man party ego trip.
Let it go, Joe!