WSJ: Cheney "relentless and unapologetic in pursuit of policy goals—and Americans are safer for it"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Mission Accomplished
Dick Cheney was relentless and unapologetic in pursuit of his policy goals—and Americans

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904716604576543023433625238.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

By PAUL A. GIGOT



It's hard to believe now, but Dick Cheney was once a favorite of the Washington establishment. As a young chief of staff to President Gerald Ford and then for 10 years a member of Congress, he was deemed by the town's political arbiters to be a sensible conservative, not a Reaganite or Bible-thumping crazy. The media loved him. When George H.W. Bush nominated him to be defense secretary after John Tower was rejected, he was confirmed unanimously in seven days.

Then came the George W. Bush administration, 9/11, the wars on terror and in Iraq, and Cheney the Reasonable became—pick your Dowdian cliché—Darth Vader, Dr. Strangelove, torturer in chief, Rasputin, the mad bomber.

This image transformation says far more about Washington's partisan warfare than it does about Mr. Cheney, who emerges in "In My Time" as the same man I've observed for more than 20 years—measured, more discreet than a journalist would prefer, conservative with a pragmatic streak but also relentless and unapologetic in pursuing his policy goals. Readers looking for a memoir with the strategic sweep of Dean Acheson's or Henry Kissinger's will be disappointed. The book nonetheless makes a contribution to history by showing how the Bush administration worked, and why it often didn't.

The book's early chapters recount Mr. Cheney's Wyoming upbringing, his two-time failure at Yale and his early years in government. They serve to humanize Lord Vader and also show the vagaries of fate in political life. As a young staffer in the Nixon White House, Mr. Cheney was invited to join the Committee to Re-Elect the President. His career might have ended early if he had accepted.

[aquart]

1. Except for that 9/11 thing.

But really, Paul Gigot?

[indepat]

2. Anyone who thinks America is safer now because of what the Bush-Cheney

reign wrought is either a god-damned fool or a god-damned hypocritical RW tool. :patriot:

[cstanleytech]

11. BS, stop your fear mongering because the fact is they did make us safer

......safer from things like "common sense".

[ixion]

3. Keep in mind when Darth Cheney says "Americans" he isn't talking about you and me

we don't count. He's talking about the top 5% or 10%, the only ones that 'matter'.

[bengalherder]

4. WSJ

Murdoch rag. They would burst into flame if they had to be truthful.

[marmar]

5. How much cocaine do you have to snort to write some sh*t like that?

Mr. Gigot must have inhaled a kilo.

[Demeter]

6. I may vomit

Criminal is as criminal does

[Paladin]

7. Paul Gigot, Blow-Jobbing Cheney's New Book?

If the book consisted of used toilet paper smashed between two covers, Gigot would still be mindlessly slobbering over it.....

[classysassy]

8. Paul,you ain't no saint.

Just another lying,greedy con artist who feed the brain dead republicans the crap they love to read and hear.Paul the sane citizens are not buying your garbage.

[Enthusiast]

9. Dick Cheney was relentless and unapologetic?

How about criminal?

[BlueMTexpat]

10. What else could one expect from Paul Gigot, RW cheerleader?

http://www.observer.com/term/paul-gigot/

:puke:

[onpatrol98]

12. "As a young chief of staff..."

hmm...it's hard to think of him as being young...just kind of makes you shiver.

[eejitseverywhere]

13. The deferrer

This Gidget sure must have a great tan. That article from a leading/supposedly newspaper was so full of unadulterated garbage that it took 40mg of valium to get me to half my normal blood pressure. Even the roof of the house lifted. Is Gidget a regular writer for the NOTW , I mean WSJ?
Seriously, he had to have been drunk or something. That article would not be allowed in any newspaper where a degree in journalism is required.