S. Blumenthal: The long march of Dick Cheney

[kskiska]

For his entire career, he sought untrammeled power. The Bush presidency and 9/11 finally gave it to him -- and he's not about to give it up.

The hallmark of the Dick Cheney administration is its illegitimacy. Its essential method is bypassing established lines of authority; its goal is the concentration of unaccountable presidential power. When it matters, the regular operations of the CIA, Defense Department and State Department have been sidelined.

Richard Nixon is the model, but with modifications. In the Nixon administration, the president was the prime mover, present at the creation of his own options, attentive to detail, and conscious of their consequences. In the Cheney administration, the president is volatile but passive, firm but malleable, presiding but absent. Once his complicity has been arranged, a closely held "cabal" -- as Lawrence Wilkerson, once chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, calls it -- wields control.

Within the White House, the office of the vice president is the strategic center. The National Security Council has been demoted to enabler and implementer. Systems of off-line operations have been laid to evade professional analysis and a responsible chain of command. Those who attempt to fulfill their duties in the old ways have been humiliated when necessary, fired, retired early or shunted aside. In their place, acolytes and careerists indistinguishable from true believers in their eagerness have been elevated.

The collapse of sections of the façade shielding Cheney from public view has not inhibited him. His former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, indicted on five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice, appears to be withholding information about the vice president's actions in the Plame affair from the special prosecutor. While Bush has declaimed, "We do not torture," Cheney lobbied the Senate to stop it from prohibiting torture.

(snip)

Dick Cheney sees in George W. Bush his last chance. Nixon self-destructed, Ford was fatally compromised by his moderation, Reagan was not what was hoped for, the elder Bush ended up a disappointment. In every case, the Republican presidents had been checked or gone soft. Finally, President Bush provided the instrument, Sept. 11 the opportunity. This time the failures of the past provided the guideposts for getting it right. The administration's heedlessness was simply the wisdom of Cheney's experience.

more…
http://salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/11/24/cheney/

[NMDemDist2]

1. K&R, chilling article n/t

[EuroObserver]

12. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, as the Irish part of my family would say!

Sidney Blumenthal is working very relentlessly these days.

More power to himself, whatever. :hippie:

Did I point out a week or so ago that the tide is turning, has turned?

ed: "The hallmark of the Dick Cheney administration is its illegitimacy. Its essential method is bypassing established lines of authority; its goal is the concentration of unaccountable presidential power. When it matters, the regular operations of the CIA, Defense Department and State Department have been sidelined." --> Indeed, the pResidency itself has been sidelined.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Ditto on the K&R

[Canuckistanian]

3. That's it! That describes it exactly!

Excuse me, I've got some reading to do...

K&R, in the meantime...

[emulatorloo]

4. kick and nominating n/t

[punpirate]

5. The irony and the implicit lie...

... in Cheney's quest for more power for the executive is that of his stated belief (which is in itself a diversion from the truth) that the power of the presidency has been weakened by previous encroachments of Congress.

And yet, the Executive branch has been, even at its most disabled by scandal, far more powerful than any other branch--and far beyond the powers invested in it Constitutionally--by one simple act: the signing of the National Security Act of 1947. From that point onward, the country ceased to be a republic with equal tripartite government. It became a national security state with expansive (and I mean that in a very explicit sense) powers afforded the Executive branch.

In that sense, Cheney wants it all. He's perhaps the head honcho of a tight bunch with some very anti-democratic aims in mind.

[Kolesar]

14. That was Blumenthal's best-researched column, but I thought your point...

..was quite insightful, Punpirate. It is as if the moment when Caesar took power from the republic was in 1947.

Truman.

[Canuckistanian]

6. Unbelievable... Cheney has been underground all this time

The naked ambtion, the deception, the subversion of "conventional powers".

Did anyone chronicle the story of Cheney back when he annointed himself VP?

[cliss]

7. Well, that certainly explains everything doesn't it?

I always used to wonder why Cheney always had a horrible sneer on his face. "If he has so much power and money, why isn't he happy?"

Now I know the answer. He just wants more.

At some point, people started realizing that the REAL president of the U.S. was Dick Cheney. Bush was nothing more than a figurehead. It was so obvious during the debates last year. Bush was a bumbling idiot. Cheney, on the other hand, was cunning, a formidable speaker, had lots of information up his sleeve.

Now if Cheney sees "Bush as his last chance" then things may be looking up. Bush is just hanging on by a thread, and they're both getting lamblasted by everyone.

I had an appointment with a high-level government executive yesterday in Portland. After a while, he said, "I can't wait until we have a change of leadership. We're all very unhappy the way things are right now". So everybody is feeling it.

[ailsagirl]

8. He's not immune to the adage "pride goeth before a fall"

He's not infallible. He's human (ostensibly). And he's
not impervious to the Law of Cause and Effect.

[DavidDvorkin]

9. Of course he is.

There is no such thing as Karma, what goes around does not necessarily come around, and there is no law of cause and effect in operation here.

Guilty and evil politicians escape punishment far more often than they suffer it. Cheney will probably escape it, too.

[burythehatchet]

16. Case closed.

:D

[ailsagirl]

17. Time will tell n/t

[A Simple Game]

18. So true in politics.

We are going through this exactly because *'s predecessors got away with their misdeeds.

If Nixon, Reagan, and or Bush 1 had been impeached and convicted for their misdeeds then Cheney wouldn't have dared to do what he has done.

When it gets really close to impeachment for * and company, I can hear the cries of "we can't impeach them, it will tear the Country apart". Bull, we are being torn apart now, and it is because we "saved the nation" every time before.

It certainly doesn't bother the Republicans to impeach someone, the Democratic party needs to "Save the nation" by punishing wrong doers not "Spare the nation".

It has gotten to the point that the Republicans are not only just screwing us, they are laughing at us also. I can take a screwing, it happens all the time, but I hate being laughed at, time to get even!

[DavidDvorkin]

19. Good point

Letting Republicans get away with their crimes creates a precedent. Lawyers and judges would never say that publicly, but that seems to be the way it works, anyway.

I think the only way to break that cycle is for Democratic leaders to call for impeachment repeatedly, publicly, and loudly.

If only we had some Democratic leaders willing to take the political risk . . .

[A Simple Game]

20. Democratic leaders should call for impeachment

only where it is deserved. But that is not a problem right now.

[Cha]

10. Lying son of a bitch...Sidney

Blumenthal has cheney down..

:wtf: is this..some more of their neocon rancid logic?

"We were not in Iraq on September 11th, 2001 -- and the terrorists hit us anyway," he said."

The "terrorists hit"..because dick and bush were sitting around with their thumbs up their assess.

[roseBudd]

15. We were not in Iraq on 9/11 but we looked the other way whenever Israel

did anything it wanted to the Palestinians. We were in Saudi Arabia on 9/11, an affront to some.

They do not hate us for our freedom they hate us for our hypocrisy.

[stevedeshazer]

11. Cheney is the heart of the beast.

No pun intended.

[EuroObserver]

13. Absolutely. And increasingly cornered. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

21. If the beast had a heart, Cheney could be it,

but I think he is that empty space, vacuum or void that is made up of nothingness. The opposite of life.