April 22, 2009--Cheney Agonistes
People have been wondering what Dick Cheney has been up to since leaving office.
His boss, in a manner of speaking, George W. Bush left town and in the tradition of former presidents has kept his head down and carefully refrained from criticizing his successor.
The last VP to leave office, Al Gore, slipped away after the Supreme Court dismissed his lawsuit in the 2000 election, gained 50 pounds, and grew a beard. It wasn’t until years later that he remerged, slightly slimmer, to collect his Nobel Prize.
Cheney, on the other hand, has remained in Washington and has been vocal and relentless in his criticism of Barack Obama, claiming, notoriously, that he has “made America less safe.” And he is among those decrying the Obama administration’s release of Justice Department memos that justified (forgive the pun) the use of waterboarding and other “harsh” interrogation methods when questioning “enemy combatants” and others suspected of participating in terrorist activities.
Without getting too deeply into the debate about these memos, let me suggest the relationship between them and Dick Cheney’s recent unprecedented behavior.
He may be concerned that as the news about them continues to unfold or Attorney General Holder appoints a special prosecutor to investigate what happened during 2002-03 or Congress sets its own investigation in motion, that he will be shown to have been in the thick of things, perhaps even be subpoenaed or indicted and prosecuted.
He of course recalls what happened to his deputy, Scooter Libby, who was convicted of taking the lead in “outing” then-CIA-operative Valerie Plame, the wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson who found that the story that Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger was bogus. He recalls that President Bush resisted calls to pardon Libby at the time and did not submit to Cheney’s pressure at the end of his presidency to pardon Libby and a host of others, many, like Alberto Gonzales and Harriet Meyers who were in the middle of fabricating legal justifications for the invasion of Iraq and the use of perhaps illegal interrogation methods.
And of course Cheney recalls his own central role in building the intelligence case, post 9/11, that Saddam not only had weapons of mass destruction but also had close ties to the World Trade Center attackers. Not getting the intelligence he wanted, he went back and forth to the CIA director many times, pressing him to “sex up” the evidence to justify the invasion.
All of these moving pieces are connected and are likely to come into fuller focus as the various investigations and potential prosecutions get under way. (See the important New York Times article linked below that unpacks some of these connections.)
Cheney also knows that Barack Obama is reluctant to open this can of worms, concerned that it will further inflame partisanship and so distract the media and Congress that it will get in the way of their dealing with his economic and social agenda. Obama, until yesterday when he hinted that it might be appropriate to look at the higher up’s who shaped our Iraq and War on Terror policies, has seemed to many, including Cheney, as timid on this subject; and thus Cheney likely sees a chance to “roll” the president, by keeping the heat on him and thereby make him back off from going further.
He probably paid close attention to Obama’s behavior at the recent Summit of the Americas where he appeared to be reluctant to confront Hugo Chavez and Manuel Ortega who are “enemies” of the United States. If Obama would sit quietly for an 80 minute speech by former Contra leader Ortega and then not respond in kind, and if he could exchange smiles with bad-guy Chavez, would weak-appearing Obama have the cajones to take on fire breathing, Dark Vader Cheney?
The former vice president has also undoubtedly been following reports that Obama is not fighting hard enough to advance his own legislative priorities, caving in to some Senate leaders who have successfully challenged important parts of his budget proposals, including on health care and agricultural subsidies.
Cheney knows how these kinds of investigations and prosecutions work. Start with the small fish at the bottom of the chain of command. In this case with Jay Bybee and John Yoo former director and deputy of the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel, among the authors of the “torture” memos. Squeeze them and hope that they then turn on their boss, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Various investigations are already closing in on him. Squeeze him, and like the others he might come to conclude that he could face further disgrace, disbarment, and perhaps years in jail. Who knows what he might say if forced to testify under oath?
Confronting this prospect one or more of them might turn into a contemporary John Dean and blow the whistle on who really was in charge, the person to whom they all ultimately reported. Who might that be?
Dick Cheney? The sexer-upper.
His boss, in a manner of speaking, George W. Bush left town and in the tradition of former presidents has kept his head down and carefully refrained from criticizing his successor.
The last VP to leave office, Al Gore, slipped away after the Supreme Court dismissed his lawsuit in the 2000 election, gained 50 pounds, and grew a beard. It wasn’t until years later that he remerged, slightly slimmer, to collect his Nobel Prize.
Cheney, on the other hand, has remained in Washington and has been vocal and relentless in his criticism of Barack Obama, claiming, notoriously, that he has “made America less safe.” And he is among those decrying the Obama administration’s release of Justice Department memos that justified (forgive the pun) the use of waterboarding and other “harsh” interrogation methods when questioning “enemy combatants” and others suspected of participating in terrorist activities.
Without getting too deeply into the debate about these memos, let me suggest the relationship between them and Dick Cheney’s recent unprecedented behavior.
He may be concerned that as the news about them continues to unfold or Attorney General Holder appoints a special prosecutor to investigate what happened during 2002-03 or Congress sets its own investigation in motion, that he will be shown to have been in the thick of things, perhaps even be subpoenaed or indicted and prosecuted.
He of course recalls what happened to his deputy, Scooter Libby, who was convicted of taking the lead in “outing” then-CIA-operative Valerie Plame, the wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson who found that the story that Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger was bogus. He recalls that President Bush resisted calls to pardon Libby at the time and did not submit to Cheney’s pressure at the end of his presidency to pardon Libby and a host of others, many, like Alberto Gonzales and Harriet Meyers who were in the middle of fabricating legal justifications for the invasion of Iraq and the use of perhaps illegal interrogation methods.
And of course Cheney recalls his own central role in building the intelligence case, post 9/11, that Saddam not only had weapons of mass destruction but also had close ties to the World Trade Center attackers. Not getting the intelligence he wanted, he went back and forth to the CIA director many times, pressing him to “sex up” the evidence to justify the invasion.
All of these moving pieces are connected and are likely to come into fuller focus as the various investigations and potential prosecutions get under way. (See the important New York Times article linked below that unpacks some of these connections.)
Cheney also knows that Barack Obama is reluctant to open this can of worms, concerned that it will further inflame partisanship and so distract the media and Congress that it will get in the way of their dealing with his economic and social agenda. Obama, until yesterday when he hinted that it might be appropriate to look at the higher up’s who shaped our Iraq and War on Terror policies, has seemed to many, including Cheney, as timid on this subject; and thus Cheney likely sees a chance to “roll” the president, by keeping the heat on him and thereby make him back off from going further.
He probably paid close attention to Obama’s behavior at the recent Summit of the Americas where he appeared to be reluctant to confront Hugo Chavez and Manuel Ortega who are “enemies” of the United States. If Obama would sit quietly for an 80 minute speech by former Contra leader Ortega and then not respond in kind, and if he could exchange smiles with bad-guy Chavez, would weak-appearing Obama have the cajones to take on fire breathing, Dark Vader Cheney?
The former vice president has also undoubtedly been following reports that Obama is not fighting hard enough to advance his own legislative priorities, caving in to some Senate leaders who have successfully challenged important parts of his budget proposals, including on health care and agricultural subsidies.
Cheney knows how these kinds of investigations and prosecutions work. Start with the small fish at the bottom of the chain of command. In this case with Jay Bybee and John Yoo former director and deputy of the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel, among the authors of the “torture” memos. Squeeze them and hope that they then turn on their boss, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Various investigations are already closing in on him. Squeeze him, and like the others he might come to conclude that he could face further disgrace, disbarment, and perhaps years in jail. Who knows what he might say if forced to testify under oath?
Confronting this prospect one or more of them might turn into a contemporary John Dean and blow the whistle on who really was in charge, the person to whom they all ultimately reported. Who might that be?
Dick Cheney? The sexer-upper.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
6:25 AM
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