Mondale on Cheney

[alfredo]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072702126.html

This all changed in 2001, and especially after Sept. 11, when Cheney set out to create a largely independent power center in the office of the vice president. His was an unprecedented attempt not only to shape administration policy but, alarmingly, to limit the policy options sent to the president. It is essential that a president know all the relevant facts and viable options before making decisions, yet Cheney has discarded the "honest broker" role he played as President Gerald Ford's chief of staff.

Through his vast government experience, through the friends he had been able to place in key positions and through his considerable political skills, he has been increasingly able to determine the answers to questions put to the president -- because he has been able to determine the questions. It was Cheney who persuaded President Bush to sign an order that denied access to any court by foreign terrorism suspects and Cheney who determined that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to enemy combatants captured in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Rather than subject his views to an established (and rational) vetting process, his practice has been to trust only his immediate staff before taking ideas directly to the president. Many of the ideas that Bush has subsequently bought into have proved offensive to the values of the Constitution and have been embarrassingly overturned by the courts.

[izzie]

1. Both men are scary to me. One doing it behind Bush's back

and then maybe Bush thinking he can do it. In 6 years not one thing works right any more. Maybe that was the real plan. Govt. does not work so sell it off to corp. for profits. Guess we will have to wait to Sept. and see what the General wants to do. Bush right now is in love with this new General or he talks about him a lot any how.These two in the WH sure do not believe in the rule of the people do they? I am really sad about what has gone on these last 6 years and I hope that it all moves the other way now.

[Philosoraptor]

3. daddy bush appointed dick to pick the VP, the rest is history.

The fondest memory I'll have of dick is his endearing sneer.

[alfredo]

6. His gentle demeanor will be his legacy

:sarcasm:

[alfredo]

5. Blackwater is building its forces, and by spring our military will be

unable to fulfill its mission. Maybe bush wants to privatize the military.

[Philosoraptor]

2. There's never been an asshole like big dick.

He's one of a kind, he's running the whole show, we really don't even need a president, that's the lesson of big dick's reign.

[alfredo]

4. People should have seen that when he picked himself as vice president.