Cheney Defends His Tenure, Adminstration's Actions

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Washington Post

Vice President Cheney offered an unabashed defense of the Bush administration's claims of broad executive powers today, mocking criticism from Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and saying the president "doesn't have to check with anybody" before launching a nuclear attack.

In an interview with Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday," Cheney fired back at Biden's contention that he was probably "the most dangerous vice president" in U.S. history. He also ridiculed Biden for mistakenly citing Article I of the U.S. Constitution, rather than Article II, in talking about executive branch powers during an October debate. "If he wants to diminish the office of the vice president, that's obviously his call," Cheney said of Biden. "President-elect Obama will decide what he wants in a vice president and apparently, from the way they're talking about it, he does not expect him to have as consequential a role as I have had during my time."

Cheney, speaking less than a month before he and President Bush leave the White House, was blunt and unapologetic about his central role in some of the most controversial issues of the past eight years, including the invasion of Iraq, warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens, and harsh interrogation tactics. Cheney also said he disagreed with Bush's decision to remove embattled Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in 2006, saying that "the president doesn't always take my advice."

"I was a Rumsfeld man," Cheney said. "I'd helped recruit him and I thought he did a good job for us."...

***

In discussing his views of broad executive power on national security issues, Cheney said Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt "went far beyond anything we've done in a global war on terror," and said that all U.S. presidents since 1973 have viewed the War Powers Act -- which gave Congress the role of declaring war -- as unconstitutional.

He noted that the president is accompanied at all times by a military aide carrying the nuclear "football" allowing the launching of nuclear strikes. "He could launch the kind of devastating attack the world has never seen," Cheney said. "He doesn't have to check with anybody. He doesn't have to call the Congress; he doesn't have to check with the courts. He has that authority because of the nature of the world we live in. It's unfortunate, but I think we're perfectly appropriate to take the steps we have."...

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/21/AR2008122100869.html?hpid=topnews

[sakabatou]

1. Arrest him already!

[burrowowl]

11. AMEN!

[Liberal Veteran]

2. Cheney is cesspool of vomiting maggots.

I wonder if you look closely enough if you can see the evil oozing out his pores.

[saigon68]

6. War Criminal scratching dirt to cover up his DUNG PILE

[opihimoimoi]

3. His arrogance scares away good Pubs who quit in disgust and join us DEMs

Let him speak....he deserves the right to send the GOP over Here

[Muttocracy]

4. Bush and Cheney are "have they no shame" in the extreme.

[beac]

13. Alas, far from "shame," they are PROUD of their vile actions.

It makes me SICK to think these two criminals will be allowed to walk around free and enjoy the spoils of their war of choice.

[samplegirl]

5. Cheney also....says its up to him what he cares

to divulge after leaving office. Good ridden to the scum of the earth.

[StudsT]

7. The horror, for me, is that 90% of the M$M apparently do, too...

our media reminds me of the jokes we used to use about russia & china :puke:

StudsT

[Jefferson23]

8. The most disgusting member of the Bush Regime, and true to form until the bitter end.

[annabanana]

9. "He has that authority because of the nature of the world we live in. "

This statement scares the shit out of me.

What is Cheney's view of the "nature of the world"? Who formed that view? How broad was his personal experience before he burst upon the national stage all those many years ago?

If someone who really knows nothing of the world should find himself with the "football" there are no safeguards..

[mamameow]

10. ???????

so let me get this straight, if the president declares war (oh and fuck congress) against our enemies here and abroad, then the prez is free to do anything he wants???? ok obama declare war on all members of the bush admin, past and present, and throw the scum in gitmo as enemy combatants. i'd be willing to bring those at gitmo now in exchange. the real enemies walk among us now!!!!!!!!!

[classysassy]

12. An evil person

if there was justice in our country,Mr Chaney would be sent up the river .

[gratuitous]

14. Odd that the Post should use the word "defend"

Because I'd like to see Mr. Cheney at the defense table, with the ablest court-appointed attorney in the pool.

[truthisfreedom]

15. Sociopaths don't ever back down. It's inconsequential that cheney even speaks.

Listening or responding to him is like giving stock to Jeffrey Dahmer's musings.

[Piewhacket]

17. Dahmer only tortured and killed 17 people...

[scipan]

16. Article II, Section 8

Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;--And

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.
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Cheney and his stenographer, the WaPo, don't get to rewrite the Constitution.