By now I’m sure you’ve had your fill of all the online congratulations tossed at Fox News’s Megyn Kelly for simply asking the right questions of former Vice President Dick Cheney. (See the interview below.) It’s a little like congratulating a carpenter for hammering a nail, but, after all, it is Fox News. Kelly played it safe of course, by using an appropriately angry column by Paul Waldman in The Washington Post as a stand-in for her first question, but the question did put Cheney in the position of explaining exactly how he has the nerve to blame the current situation in Iraq on President Obama.
Cheney has once again risen from the muck to write a shameless opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal as a way to promote a new organization he and his daughter Liz have launched called The Alliance for a Strong America. Cheney has to start a new organization through which to spread his lies because his old organization, the Republican Party, wants nothing to do with him.
To hear Cheney tell it, Iraq was in fine shape when he and George W. Bush handed it off to Obama in January 2009. Five-and-a-half years later, with Baghdad in the crosshairs of an army of Sunni militants, the whole thing is Obama’s fault. This is such a stupendous lie that were it not coming from the lips of a man with more blood on his hands than a Mesopotamian flood we could simply ignore it. But it’s Cheney and he has the floor.
Sitting beside his daughter Liz for nearly 11 minutes on Fox, Cheney not surprisingly defended the Bush administration by saying that everyone was in favor of invading Iraq, including “Bill Clinton [who did not have a vote at that point] and Nancy Pelosi.” Kelly did not have the chops to remind him that the votes to authorize military force against Iraq were based on lies told to the world by Bush and Cheney, as well as then-Secretary of State Colin Powell in his career-ending appearance before the United Nations.
I frankly don’t think Cheney has an audience anymore—after all, daughter Liz couldn’t even muster enough support to stay in a Senate race back home in Wyoming—but that’s not what troubled me about Kelly’s interview with Dick and Liz. While Liz sat mute for the first six minutes of the interview, not once did Cheney refer to our twice-elected chief executive as “President Obama.” He called him “Barack Obama”—the syllables uttered as if Cheney were choking on a tough piece of beef—“the White House,” “the administration,” “this president,” and, finally “he.”
It is no accident that this loathsome man, who was a heartbeat away from the presidency for eight years, refuses to call President Obama by the honorific to which he is entitled, and by which all presidents and vice presidents refer to their predecessors and successors as a matter of courtesy and respect. It is a way of sending a message to the few who still think that Cheney has something to say that Barack Obama is not rightfully the President of the United States. Am I making too much of this? I think not—Kelly concluded her “tough” interview with the Cheneys by asking Liz if she believes President Obama is “dangerous.” Young Liz—failed Senate candidate and State Department “Deputy Assistant Secretary by Virtue of Her Last Name”—answered in the affirmative.
Liz Cheney, whose father lied us into a war that cost this country trillions of dollars and 4,486 dead service members—not to mention the tens of thousands who are suffering from lifelong wounds both physical and psychological—had the nerve to say that President Obama (she did call him that) has presided over a “weakened America.”
The only thing that has weakened the United States of America in the eyes of the world is its colossal arrogance in invading a country ruled by a madman who represented no threat to our shores, and was not even a serious threat to his neighbors. The current nightmare in the Middle East—Iraq, Syria, Libya—has its roots in sectarian hatreds that go back centuries. No one expected George W. Bush to solve them, but we relied on him and his minions not to make things worse. That they did, and are now blaming it on Barack Obama is not just shameless, it is disgusting.
Steve Robinson moved to Flagler County after a 30-year career in New York and Atlanta in print, TV and the Web. Reach him by email here.
Art says
This country is in way worse shape now than ever before! racial tensions have reverted to the 60’s , no boarder protection, we are the worlds laughing stock, the IRS is the new liers club, Obama is the worst president ever and talk about a heartbeat away joe Biden is a joke! Lie, lie, lie get caught with your pants down and lie some more.
And I sure do feel bad that Hillary Clinton had a hard time paying her mortagaeS and private school for her daughter then making 12 million the year they left the White House I sure do know just how she fells!
Wake up, are you kidding me!
Geezer Likes Frogs says
Am I the only guy who thinks that Dick Cheney looks constipated?
When you’re as full of dung as he is — it’s bound to be uncomfortable.
A countenance depicting the pitfalls of a low fiber diet of evil.
barbie says
Well-said! Dick Cheney shouldn’t be on our television, he should be in jail. He and some of his colleagues are war criminals, pure and simple. And don’t think I’m all partisan-y when I say that. Years from now, our history will show a list of things accomplished by President Barack Obama–but I believe that high up on that list–possibly what he ends up being recognized for above all–will be his wholesale dismissal of those war crimes. Appealing to the public to “Move Forward”, pretending that his predecessor and his Executive Branch didn’t do anything wrong, acting as if US military illegally invaded another sovereign nation based on bogus intelligence. I can’t think of anything more cowardly than to appeal to the people of this country to “look past” something like that. And that, coming from a former professor of Constitutional Law. That’s a cover-up that makes Watergate look quaint in comparison.
Steve Wolfe says
Steve, after eight years of listening to liberals trashing Bush in every way including getting away with calling for his assassination and even making a movie about it, plus libs ignoring the validity of lower taxes as an economy booster (works even when Democrats try it), then 6 more years of blaming Bush, it’s about time to look in the mirror. You actually wrote an article because a man you discount and disparage failed to use your favorite reference to the failure-in-chief? Really? What do you do when you have a real problem? Do you call code enforcement when your neighbor leaves a kink in his wound-up garden hose?
Stand up America says
I like Cheney. I’m signing up for the The Alliance for a Strong America. I’ve had enough of the liberal commie BS and lies.
Max Awesomeness says
Oh, I think he’s just mad and lashing out because fewer troops in iraq means less Haliburton profits for him.
Johnny Taxpayer says
Am I the only one that finds the Author’s commentary the height of irony? He chastises Dick Chaney for not calling Barack Obama, President Obama, and yet in his own diatribe commits the same mortal sin by mentioning George W. Bush four separate times by name without “refer(ing) to our twice-elected chief executive” with the “honorific to which he is entitled”.
So we’re clear, it’s a sin to not put President before Barack Obama’s name, but it’s perfectly fine to leave it off when we’re talking about that crazy Texan….
girl with 2 dogs says
Obama has weakened the country on every level. America is in decline. Spending, Borders, Foreign Diplomacy, and out Government agencies (VA, IRS, etc.) are all severly out of control. Failed Leadership on all levels.
I have a hard time calling him President. Very incompetent community organizer is about all he will ever be
confidential says
Cheney a war monger lying us into a war to bulge his pocket thru no bid contract Haliburton and the Iraqi oil.
Now he blames the current President! They doomed us with trillions in $$ we do not have and thousands of lives.
Anonymous says
The issue is not how I refer to presidents past or present, but rather what a former VP calls the President of the United States. For a former VP not to refer properly to the president, then to call him “dangerous,” sends a very clear signal to the ranks of the Obama-haters.
Anonymous says
hillary can’t live on 50 million and their daughter is making 600,000.00$ employed by NBC and does very few appearances. it’s said by people working for NBC that she was hired and being paid that enormous amount of money because of her name and her mother and father’s contacts. Both sides are low life, deceitful liars that do not give a crap for the down to earth working people.
Pogo says
I thought it was the sweat he worked up begging for five draft deferments; the decaying blood money, and the embalming fluid that made him look and smell like that. But you might be right. I wonder which will explode first: the Yellowstone Caldera, or Bruce Cheney?!
And then there is another from Cheney’s terrible sounding band of brothers (pun intended):
http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/nugent.asp
Nancy N. says
He’s a mean, bitter, racist and elitist old man with an ego the size of Texas. That’s a bad combination. This is a guy who shoots his friends in the head – you expect him to be polite to his enemies?
TJ says
Well I thank all of the Bush/Cheney supporters for the belly laughs. Really needed the humor this morning. I realize that you did not mean to be funny but your blind hatred of the current admin and your equally blind devotion to an admin that did as much or more damage to this wonderful nation of ours as you claim Obama has done is rather . . . shall we say, Hilarious.
KB63 says
Thank you. Great article! It still never fails to amaze me that the Bush supporters cannot see, not one little bit, that it was a mess when Obama came in because of these types of actions yet they just keep harping & harping about it being all Obama’s fault.
Larry says
3 minutes answers most of the questions of why the US is in the shape it’s in.
http://youtu.be/5AKGIlt6cSI
Geezer Krispy Kreme Aficionado says
“no boarder protection”
I hear that Motel 6 is offering boarder protection.
Your toothbrush and toiletries are covered 100% against
angry “liers” acts of vandalism.
They’ll leave the light on for you.
lier: one who lies down
boarder: person who rides a snowboard, or a paid guest
Consequently, many boarders are liers.
This article has nothing to do with travel.
Jim from Lake Worth says
Obama just blames everything on past presidents. He has no answer(s) for the problems facing America today. He is truly a failure and has made race relations much worse.
Anonymous says
And who started the trend of not Calling the President President whoever in the first place?? I believe it was the Ds that did this to the First Bush in debates with then candidate Clinton?
Jim R. says
t hat’s what happens when they get all their information from the Fox propaganda channel.
A.S.F. says
Race Relations were worse in the eyes of some people the minute a Black Man dared to step foot into the Oval Office. These people are as determined to remain as blind about their own true motivations as they are about almost everything else. It’s like they are waiting for the more acceptable Daddy figure from “Father Knows Best” to magically appear and make everything Okey-Dokey with a wave of his hand. Cheney talks like the Penguin villain in Batman and has about that much of a sense of humanity. President Obama managed to pull us back from the brink that this awful man and the puppet he was “serving” brought us to.. If Obama walked on water in front of the Conservative Republican multitude, they would accuse him of muddying them on purpose, just to ruin America out of spite. And they would be waiting forever for their Republican savior to appear in a cloud of fairy dust to whip up some loaves and fishes JUST FOR THEM (no welfare folk invited to the jamboree.)
confidential says
Totally agree with Larry here! That is what we have become.
Jim R. says
He didn’t make race relations worse, he just brought the racists out of the closet
TJ says
How has he made race relations worse?
Just curious as to what you are talking about because I don’t see it at all. Easy to make a statement can you back it up with anything? Many thanks!
Bethechange says
I miss George Carlin! :)
L.A. Perry says
Cheney has the freedom of speech. Yet with those freedoms comes responsibility. As a veteran I know this. And so should he. He had his 15 minutes of destructive fame. He is now retired and should learn form the younger Bush and BE retired and let others move the country forward. He does not have to agree. If not, let him run and work within the political system to change it, should he win enough votes. His opinions are his and do not reflect on all in this country. He is wanted by the Hague on charges of Crimes Against Humanity. If he had been from any other country he would already have been turned over to them to face these charges. I have nothing more to say about Cheney and want to hear no more from him. He is fortunate to be retire and I highly encourage him now to BE retired and enjoy his family. When one day he is on his death bed, politics will not be there. His family will.
Carl says
Just another ignorant no nothing loud mouth, him and the dummy who sat on his lap for eight yrs should be in jail for treason, I`d slap the old fool but crap splatters
NortonSmitty says
George W. Bush was never elected President. Not once.