Cheshire Cheney: Menace on a Limb

[marmar]

from Newsday:


Les Payne

Cheshire Cheney: menace on a limb
January 21, 2007

Trade the grin of the Cheshire cat for a scowl and you have Vice President Dick Cheney. OK, the cat in "Alice in Wonderland" never shot a friend. Still, it is the scowl, all crooked and evil, that makes up the Cheney menace. He is arguably the most powerful vice president ever, filling the vacuum his boss leaves in the Oval Office.

During President George W. Bush's six years in office so far, Cheney has been as famous as the Cheshire cat for vanishing and suddenly reappearing. He was back out on the limb last week promoting Bush's escalation of the Iraq war. The Scowl was all over Fox TV news, rendering the clenched visage of Brit Hume downright charming by comparison.

The Cheney menace also haunted the courtroom where the jury was being picked last week for the trial of the vice president's former chief of staff. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is facing felony charges of obstruction of justice and perjury in the grand jury probe of how Valerie Plame was exposed as a CIA agent, possibly as a punitive act. Defense attorneys reportedly struggled with the daunting task of eliminating from the Libby jury those with "strongly negative feelings" about Cheney.

On the first day two such potential jurors, civic-minded we must assume, couldn't conceal their distaste for Cheney. One reportedly lasted 15 seconds, another weighed his civic duty for 15 minutes before confessing "low regard" for the sitting vice president. Cheney is scheduled as a star witness in Libby's leak case, which is on the periphery of the administration's pursuit of the Iraq war.

Cheney is very much at the heart of the war and deserves as much blame as anyone. His involvement also bears, in the opinion of more than a few, the hint of profiteering, if not conflict of interest. He has amassed great wealth and power in the all too common - and questionable - practice of shuttling between top corporate jobs and posts at the government trough. He is the former chief executive of the giant Halliburton energy and government services conglomerate that has landed multi-billion-dollar U.S. war contracts without competitive bidding.

The vice president may well have met all federal ethical requirements for severing his corporate ties before taking office. The imprint of his association with Halliburton, however, remains as strong as the Cheshire grin when the cat has disappeared. It's a fair bet that if the republic frees itself of Cheney, he is likely to benefit from Halliburton's gorging during his tenure in office. ......(more)

The rest of the column is at: http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-oppayne5060249jan21,0,7592998.column