LOVE Maureen Dowd's new name for Cheney !

[Laura PourMeADrink]

VICE

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/opinion/17dowd.html?_r=1

Cheney, Master of Pain

MAUREEN DOWD
Published: May 16, 2009
WASHINGTON
Dick Cheney has done many dastardly things. But presiding over policies so saturnine that they ended up putting the liberal speaker from San Francisco on the hot seat about torture may be one of his proudest achievements.

Nancy Pelosi’s bad week of blithering responses about why she did nothing after being briefed on torture has given Republicans one of their happiest — and harpy-est — weeks in a long time. They relished casting Pelosi as contemptible for not fighting harder to stop their contemptible depredations against the Constitution. That’s Cheneyesque chutzpah.

The stylish grandmother acted like a stammering child caught red-handed, refusing to admit any fault and pointing the finger at a convenient scapegoat. She charged the C.I.A. with misleading Congress, which is sort of like saying the butler did it, or accusing a generic thuggish-looking guy in a knit cap with gang tattoos to distract from your sin.

Although the briefing was classified, she could have slugged it out privately with Bush officials. But she was busy trying to be the first woman to lead a major party. And very few watchdogs — in the Democratic Party or the press — were pushing back against the Bush horde in 2002 and 2003, when magazines were gushing about W. and Cheney as conquering heroes.

Leon Panetta, the new C.I.A. chief, who is Pelosi’s friend and former Democratic House colleague from California, slapped her on Friday, saying that the agency briefers were truthful. And Jon Stewart ribbed that the glossily groomed speaker was just another “Miss California U.S.A. who’s also been revealing a little too much of herself.”

more at link:

[TankLV]

1. Repukes are FROTHING because Pelosi didn't do enought to protest THEIR TORTURING!

Thanks for finally putting the correct words to this phoney "scandal"...

The REPUKE TORTURERS are now whining and crying LOUDLY because Democrats/OTHERS didn't PROTEST LOUDLY ENOUGH to THEIR ILLEGAL TORTURING!!!

...but the LIBERAL media doesn't report it that way, why...

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Sneer" - xVP Dickie 'Five Military Deferments' Cheney (R)

"I became a hero for the republicon homelanders the old-fashioned way: by lying, by war profiteering, by occult skullduggery, and by 'earning' five fat military deferments so I could sit back and smirk while other people go off to fight the Crusades we republicons start. Smirk. Sneer."

- xVP Dickie 'Five Military Deferments' Cheney (R)

[Phx_Dem]

3. Pelosi could not have handled this worse. She seemed unprepared

and unsure of what she was saying. Calling someone else a liar when you can't get your own story straight, is just stupid and extremely unprofessional.

I'm not saying she isn't telling the truth, I believe her. I just think the horrible way in which she handled this situation has put her in a bad spot and giving the Republicans the opportunity to make her the story.

Pelosi and Reid need to take a class on "political strategy 101."

[rasputin1952]

4. I believe she was caught off guard...

not that that is a "good" thing.

cheney is trying to get the GOP and the previous administration off the hook. One thing Pelosi can do is start a full investigation of what happened. cheney is betting she won't, i say go for it and let the chips fall where they may.

Hastert isn't mentioned? What happened w/him? Why is this "Pelosi's fault"?

Crush the bastards w/a full investigation by an independent council...if charges are warranted, let them be put in place and the trials begin. If found guilty, (something I am sure would happen), cheney would be making his "statements" from Federal prison...:D

[Laura PourMeADrink]

11. dumb question - can you prosecute a prez, vp after office for something

they did in office? Won't they just claim executive privilege?

[rasputin1952]

15. Yes...there is no such thing as "executive privilege" once one

has left office. They are little than citizens that can put "ex-" in front of the titles they had.

They can be charged with any crime, infraction or anything else. It would be interesting to see just what would come of an investigation. We can speculate all we want, but there are some things beyond speculation. If there were an investigation, everything cheney has said would be looked at, and he has essentially admitted to criminal activity. He's gambling there will be no charges...I'm gambling there will be...:D First thing ANY lawyer worth his salt will tell a client is, "say nothing, i will speak for you"...cheney has essentially broken the first rule of someone who has been or could be charged with a crime. His own big mouth has placed him in a very precarious legal position.

[lunatica]

5. Yeah, the abuser will always blame the spouse or the child for the abuse

"Well, she made me do it because she wouldn't do what I told her to"

"I hit the kid because he made me mad"... this is always a good one...

[Wetzelbill]

6. Vice?

She's always called him that.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

12. sorry about that - never heard it..

[Wetzelbill]

16. now you owe me one brazillion dollars

:)

[ensho]

7. remember, Maureen is perverse

have you forgotten how cruel, murderously powerful the neo cons were

I stand with her

and against the neo cons

[lunatica]

8. She's really only into herself. She stands with no one

She's a wit gone bitter and mean.

I don't ever go to any link to her Op Eds because she's an equal opportunity skewer. She does it with the relish of the disillusioned bitter person who hates the success of others.

[ensho]

9. it was Nancy I was standing with, not Maureen

nt

[lunatica]

10. Thanks for the clarification. I assumed you were talking about the subject

of the OP.

[vaberella]

13. Besides the name for Cheney, the rest of the article is pure rubbish. n/t

[Old Hank]

14. Dowd is a day late and a dollar short

She should have warned us about Cheney way earlier. But she "warned" us about Gore instead.