Cheney: Bush's Actions Legal If Not Impeached

[tekisui]

Source: The Raw Story

If you don't get punished, you didn't go anything wrong, right?

That's the message Vice President Dick Cheney gave in an interview with CBS' Bob Schieffer on Sunday, suggesting that a president's actions are legal if those actions didn't result in his impeachment.

Asked by Schieffer if he believed that anything the president does in time of war is legal, Cheney said there is "historic precedent of taking action that you wouldn't take in peacetime."

Cheney referenced Abraham Lincoln as an example of another president who "suspended the writ of habeus corpus" during a war, prompting this exchange:

###

SCHIEFFER: But nobody thinks that was legal.

CHENEY: Well, no. It certainly was in the sense he wasn't impeached. And it was a wartime measure that he took that I think history says today, yeah, that was probably a good thing to do.

###

The vice president spent much of the interview defending eight years of the Bush administration's policies, including its surveillance and interrogation programs.


more: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Cheney_Presidents_actions_legal_if_hes_0104.html

[Xipe Totec]

1. We are not at war n/t

[indepat]

17. We are not at war: tis all an excuse for all the illegality, inhumanity, unconstitutionality that's

gone down. :D

[Demeter]

2. Cheney Is Delusional--This Century's Kissinger

He is SO asking for a war crimes trial in the Hague AND a treason trial at home....

so let's give it to him!

[indepat]

16. Hear! Hear!

:P

[hootinholler]

3. ROFL Go fuck yourself Mr. Cheney!

See you in the Hague. Once you collect your fucking pardon, then they will have standing, you prick.

-Hoot

[Occam Bandage]

4. Not exactly what he said.

He said that Lincoln's actions were legal, from the perspective that "legality" means "that which is not stopped by the legal system," and that regardless his actions were looked upon favorably by history. He's not saying Bush didn't do anything illegal per se, but rather that the country tends to be more lenient on the chief executive during wartime.

It's weaselly, but not *exactly* "Bush's actions legal if not punished."

[davidinalameda]

5. whenever I read some of the quotes by Cheney

all I can say is :wtf:

what bizarro universe is he living in

[MannyGoldstein]

6. He Has Somwhat Of A Point

By not impeaching Bush and Cheney, Congress has given tacit approval of their conduct that may be used in legal arguments later on.

Actually, the precedent of his predecessor in creating law through executive decree, bypassing Parliament, is is how Hitler came to rule Germany unchecked. The courts used the precedent in deciding that Hitler could do the same.

[tekisui]

7. Indeed.

Complicity through inaction sets a precedent. The Democrats in power have said, "The actions of this administration are acceptable, please feel free to continue in the future."

[DCKit]

13. Ahhh, the old "Because you let me" defense.

I can only hope Cheney's love of bunkers and holes is rewarded in spades by some/any court.

[Democrats_win]

8. Thanks to the 2006-2008 elections, cheney and limbaugh are eunuchs.

[BuyingThyme]

9. Yes, the impeachment threshold.

I remember from law school.

[oldnslo]

So then Bush good president if not bumped off, ticket punched, etc.

[ColbertWatcher]

10. Wrong, Dick!

Why is everything out of this guy's mouth so wrong?

[peacetalksforall]

11. I despise the hypocrisy that is Dick Cheney and the Federalist Society.

He pretends to be talking about Bush, but he is talking about himself. He is and has been the President. Don't think your fooling us, DicK.

Though you wouldn't be able to figure it out yourself, we know you were able to rely on the Federalist Society who figured out a path of screwed up reasoning and gave you the excuses as well as the accompanying signatures of that worthless Attorney General.

Then, you had Mr Addington, Woo, Libby and a batallion of other lawyers to tell you how to do it.

Nuts do you DICK - do you get pleasure when talking about Bush knowing it's yourself? Pleasure from letting George swinging from the tree? Poor George. He allowed himself to be your joke?

Nixon left two daugthers and children to deal with his reputation and legacy.

Bush is leaving two daughters and their children to deal his reputation and legacy.

And you, also, are leaving two dauthers to deal with YOUR reputation and legacy.

Yes, I support the chant - hope to watch you on tv when you arrive at the Hague.

President in act - of killing, thieving, lying,and torturring and making a huge fortune while pretending to be a VP.

[choie]

12. it's just amazing that Cheney

goes on interview show after interview show, unafraid of any repercussions. The contempt with which he holds the American people, not to mention the rest of the world, is mind-boggling.

[bdamomma]

15. he knows that nothing will be done to him arrogant SOB he is.

I would love for us or some attorney general prove him wrong.

[bdamomma]

14. that arrogant SOB that is why our goal should be to get these criminals

their just dues.

[spanone]

18. if the dems let these crooks walk, they will have set a frightening precedent