CHENEY'S CRONIES.....great read from "The Nation" re:EDWARDS

[Blaze Diem]

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041018&s=editors


editorial | Posted September 30, 2004

Cheney's Cronies



As he prepares to debate Halliburton CEO turned Vice President Dick Cheney, Senator John Edwards would do well to study up on his Harry Truman. The buck-stops-here President had a word for war profiteering: "treason." He had another word for those political and business leaders who condone "waste, inefficiency, mismanagement and profiteering" during a time of war: "unpatriotic." If John Kerry's running mate wants to have a greater impact in his debate with the Vice President--which follows hard on the first presidential debate--than did the woefully inept Joe Lieberman when he faced Cheney in 2000, Edwards has to drop the faux friendliness of the Washington elites whom Truman so disdained in favor of blunt talk about Cheney, starting with his Halliburton connections.

Halliburton has been experiencing a growth spurt ever since Cheney passed through the revolving door of Washington politics to set up the Administration he manages for George W. Bush. The Texas-based corporation moved to number one on the Army's list of top contractors in 2003, pocketing 4.2 billion taxpayer dollars last year alone. It got one no-bid contract after discussions in which Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was involved. (Despite soaring revenues, however, the Halliburton unit doing work in Iraq is plagued by so many problems, from mismanagement to allegations of corruption, that it may be spun off to try to salvage what's left of the parent company's reputation.)


If Edwards brings Halliburton up during his Tuesday night face-off with Cheney in Cleveland, the Vice President will undoubtedly claim--as he has whenever he's been challenged--that he no longer has any connection with Halliburton. Edwards can counter with another of those blunt Trumanisms: "liar." The Vice President continues to receive money from Halliburton--$178,437 in 2003 alone--...

(snip)
.........By making a link in the minds of voters between the excesses of Halliburton and the deteriorating situation in Iraq, Edwards can help refocus the campaign on the questions that matter. Among them: Which presidential team can be trusted to put the needs of Americans before their own interests and those of their friends? Cheney has made it clear where his loyalties lie.

[whistle]

1. Great, nail that bastard Cheney to the floor....

...and on November 3rd start the indictment processes for all of Bush's administration cronies.

[Blaze Diem]

2. I agree..Dems need majority in Houses to take down Bush/Cheney

But with John Kerry and J Edwards at the top, they've probably got a team already in place putting those many indictments together.

The top dog trial lawyer and the prosecutor..Kerry's been in DC long enough to know how the sleeze operates, and hot-shot JEdwards knows every slimy courtroom move of the self serving mega-conglomerats. This is like a "field of dreams" for both Kerry & Edwards..

I don't doubt they have already assembled a team to take apart the thieves in our White House, all in the name of American Democracy.

Bless them both!

[3113]

3. Truman was a Republican

"What idiot would think that?" you ask. I know this is hard to believe, but the Republican headquarters in Lamar, Missouri, Truman's birthplace as well as mine, had a picture of Truman on the wall. When a friend of mine went in and asked why, they said "What do you mean?" Truman was a Democrat, he repled. They responded indignantly, "He wasn't either."

How stupid can you get?