Bush and Cheney’s Final Disagreement

[marmar]

via Truthdig:



Bush and Cheney’s Final Disagreement
Posted on Jul 24, 2009


According to a Time magazine report, former VP Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush spent the last months of the Bush presidency divided on a number of issues, particularly on the question of whether the president should pardon Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, convicted of perjury and other counts after an investigation into the leaking of a covert CIA officer’s identity.

Time:

Hours before they were to leave office after eight troubled years, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney had one final and painful piece of business to conclude. For over a month Cheney had been pleading, cajoling, even pestering Bush to pardon the Vice President’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby. Libby had been convicted nearly two years earlier of obstructing an investigation into the leak of a covert CIA officer’s identity by senior White House officials. The Libby pardon, aides reported, had become something of a crusade for Cheney, who seemed prepared to push his nine-year-old relationship with Bush to the breaking point — and perhaps past it — over the fate of his former aide. “We don’t want to leave anyone on the battlefield,” Cheney argued.

Bush had already decided the week before that Libby was undeserving and told Cheney so, only to see the question raised again. A top adviser to Bush says he had never seen the Vice President focused so single-mindedly on anything over two terms. And so, on his last full day in office, Jan. 19, 2009, Bush would give Cheney his final decision.

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http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20090724_bush_and_cheneys_final_disagreement/

[begin_within]

1. It makes me wonder how many of "Bush's decisions" were actually Cheney's decisions

If Cheney still thought he could get his way over Bush even on the last day, how many times during the 8 years did Cheney actually get his way over Bush? Did Bush never put Cheney in his place during that time?

[tularetom]

2. Are we to believe that Bush's testicles finally descended on his last day in office?

That's the most sycophantic bullshit I've ever read. It credits bush with all sorts of honorable intentions, critical thinking, and courage - non of which he would even know how to spell. the pardon was no granted simply because it would reflect badly on bush. I'm sure he was reminded of the ration of shit his daddy took for pardoning all those Iran Contra people and he didn't want to be remembered the same way. With bush, loyalty was a one way street, something he insisted upon but never reciprocated. He didnt need Libby anymore so fuck him.

As slimy as Cheney is, at least he acted like a man in this instance and oddly enough I respect his loyalty to his subordinate. I know the intent of this article was to take some of the stain off bush's image, but it had the opposite effect on me.

[havocmom]

4. Probably less to do with testicles than bush's unresolved dislike of parental authority

Seems the very thing cheney relied on to make his puppet dance (bush's infantile anger at parents) backfired big time for ol dick. HE had become the parental figure bush rebels against.

Who was the woman, old Bush family friend, who wrote about visiting Babs and seeing, then 25 year old W, ride his bicycle past then in front of a car she and Babs were in? Cannot recall her name, but recall she was stunned by his childish behavior. That anecdote explained much about the arrogant mannerisms of W, his cold "who cares what you think" way of dealing with others, his glee at sticking it to someone.

After eight years of listening to cheney tell him what to do, the shrub finally made the connection. cheney was just his old man with a different hair cut. And he rebelled, true to form.

[rateyes]

3. Good read.

Though it does make Bush sound almost human. Too bad Bush didn't "get smart" until his last month in office.

[Sal Minella]

5. A Libby pardon would have erased all Cheney's tracks in his outing of Plame.

I think Darth has just enough conscience to feel bad that Libby has a felony conviction on his record for doing his boss's bidding.

And Libby's standing felony conviction links Cheney directly to the spiteful outing of a covert CIA agent.

Historians will not deal kindly with this fact, I would guess.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. What will be more interesting is, if Cheney dies before Libby does,

will Libby feel free to write the memoir that we all will stand in line to buy?

[Sal Minella]

8. Ah!!! What a thought!!!

And my next thought (approx. one nano-second later) is -- Has Darth already made arrangements to ensure this book WILL NOT get written. I wonder if Libby ever flies in small planes.

"Greyhound" would be my recommendation to Ol' Scooter for any traveling.

Do I believe Darth would obliterate a friend while attempting to create an illusion of blamelessness for himself in history? Yes indeedy.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. So Cheney is going to spend his last days fighting to stay out of jail.

He is in a prison of his own making. And after he dies, we will descend on his legacy like hungry vultures.

[Sal Minella]

9. And he knows that, he knows that.

I hope the fact makes him very uncomfortable.

Even Cheney-friendly historians will not be to cover up the evil of this man.