CBS News: Is Dick Cheney Scary on Purpose?

A big editor at CBSNews.com ripped into Cheney today. I thought it was pretty damn funny. however, it also feature a misstatement about Pentagon schemes...

Sinister. That word keeps cropping up in descriptions of Dick Cheney's public countenance.

I don't quite understand how or why this came to pass. But I'm now suspicious that it's a plot. Maybe the image wizards at the White House figured out that in post-9/11 America, having a dark, secretive, powerful sorcerer behind the throne was the perfect tactic to create awe and obedience amongst us Muggles.

After all, Dick Cheney didn't used to be Dr. Strangelove. As a congressman and Defense Secretary, Cheney was actually a pretty fun guy. He was open with the press, relatively spin-free for his peer group and popular for the deadpan wisecracks issued from his famously curled mouth. He was a Republican that Democrats liked. Republicans did too.
....
Is the "undisclosed location" business still necessary? Was it ever? Why does such a careful man, such a team player, persist in making claims about Saddam's Iraq that would be considered "off the reservation" from other players? Why is one of the administration?s most agile advocates kept away from the press? Why is it that he emerges most often for fundraisers, playing right into the paid-for-by-Halliburton image? Maybe that?s the image they want: these are calculating people.
...
The precipitating event, strangely enough, was one of the rare interviews Cheney submitted to, this time with National Public Radio in January. He resurrected two controversial and suspect claims that the administration had abandoned. He said, again, that there was "overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between al Qaeda and the Iraqi government." Meanwhile, Colin Powell had just said he didn?t know of any "smoking gun, concrete evidence" of such a connection. Cheney also claimed that two trailers found after the war provided "conclusive evidence" that Iraq had a biological weapons program. This is in direct opposition to what the CIA?s chief weapons inspector, David Kay, concluded.

This was something of tipping point in the "Is Cheney a liability?" indictment. But there is a long list of other counts.

They began with Cheney?s refusal to give Congress and the General Accounting Office a list of who his energy task force had consulted with and heard from. Cheney has consistently said this was a principled battle to preserve executive powers that Congress was eroding; his critics consistently said it was classic stonewalling to conceal the influence of Cheney?s old business colleagues. That lawsuit is headed to the Supreme Court.
....
After the war, in September of 2003, Cheney implied quite strongly that Iraq was involved in 9/11. Bush himself had to clear that one up, declaring the administration "had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved" in those attacks.

Also after the war, reporting revealed just how deeply Cheney was involved in assessing, interpreting and editing pre-war intelligence on Iraq, working closely with the Pentagon?s shadow espionage think tank, the Office of Special Programs. [Tsk tsk CBS: let's get it together!]

Now, the criminal investigation of the potentially illegal leak of the name of a CIA employee, and wife of a Bush critic, to columnist Robert Novak is supposedly honing in on some Cheney staffers. [...or Chief of said staff]

And to complete the circle, Cheney is getting walloped for taking Justice Antonin Scalia duck-hunting in Louisiana with some oilmen. Scalia will be hearing the energy task force case. Finally, and perhaps most importantly over at the White House, a CNN/Time poll found that 42 percent thought Cheney should be yanked from the ticket.

Cheney is a full-fledged evildoer to many Democrats and Bush-haters. He is problematic for Republican strategists. But he is deeply supported by many Republicans who see him as the most reliable and influential guardian of the conservative torch. And he is very important to the Hobbesians: generally conservative intellectuals who believe that Democrats, liberals and internationalists profoundly underestimate how dangerous and belligerent the world is, especially the Islamic world today.

Let me point that out again: more than 40% think he should be dropped. While it doesn't compare directly to crucial 'unfavorability' poll ratings, its a pretty significant indicator of general distaste. Dean had around 30-40 unfavoribility points in Wisconsin, which is so high that it's very difficult to achieve electoral success. Who has really found something to love about the man lately?? Anyone? Anyone?

Posted by HongPong at February 20, 2004 07:20 PM
Listed under The White House .