The Cheney Jinx, or, The Man is Cursed by Failure

[Dora]

I posted this as a response in another thread, but somebody suggested that it deserved a thread of its own.

Read it, and hope.
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The Curse of Dick Cheney
The veep's career has been marred by one disaster after another
By T.D. ALLMAN
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/6450422

.... The Cheney jinx first manifested itself at the presidential level back in 1969, when Richard Nixon appointed him to his first job in the executive branch. It surfaced again in 1975, when Gerald Ford made Cheney his chief of staff and then -- with Cheney's help -- lost the 1976 election. George H.W. Bush, having named Cheney secretary of defense, was defeated for re-election in 1992. The ever-canny Ronald Reagan was the only Republican president since Eisenhower who managed to serve two full terms. He is also the only one not to have appointed Dick Cheney to office.

-snip-

"Cheney's manner and authority of voice far outstrip his true abilities," says Chas Freeman, who served under Bush's father as ambassador to Saudi Arabia. "It was clear from the start that Bush required adult supervision -- but it turns out Cheney has even worse instincts. He does not understand that when you act recklessly, your mistakes will come back and bite you on the ass."

-snip-

In his first test-drive at the wheels of power, Cheney had played a central role in the undoing of a president. Wrote right-wing columnist Robert Novak, "White House Chief of Staff Richard Cheney . . . is blamed by Ford insiders for a succession of campaign blunders." Those in the old elitist wing of the party thought the decision to dump Rockefeller was both stupid and wrong: "I think Ford lost the election because of it," one of Kissinger's former aides says now. Ford agreed, calling it "the biggest political mistake of my life."

-snip-

Halliburton was Cheney's first real chance to get rich; he grabbed it with both hands. His principal action was his acquisition of a subsidiary called Dresser Industries. Dresser struck lucrative deals with Saddam Hussein; Halliburton did business with Muammar el-Qaddafi and the ayatollahs of Iran. By the time Cheney left in 2000, Halliburton's stock was near an all-time high of fifty-four dollars a share. Then it turned out that Dresser had saddled Halliburton with asbestos lawsuits that could cost the company millions, and the stock plummeted to barely ten dollars a share. Even with the bounce Halliburton stock has received from the war, an investor who put $100,000 into the company just before Cheney became vice president would have less than $60,000 today.

-snip-

There is so much more than this at the link. It's an old article, from last year, but it's certainly worth reviewing again.

[Metta]

1. Cursed is just the beginning of it for him.

The best he can hope for is that his karma doesn't bear fruit all at once.

[WI_DEM]

2. all this time I thought the jinx was W--a guy who has failed at everything

[Mabus]

4. Double Jinx

I've always thought W flucutated between attaining what he didn't deserve and the subsequent realization that he didn't know what he was doing.

[louis-t]

7. Excellent observation.

I will use this quote often.

[Mabus]

9. Thank you.

:hi:

[GeorgeGist]

6. That's why his middle name is...

double U seless

[crispini]

3. Very good article.

Really makes it all clear.

This quote is very telling:

Those who have known him over the years remain astounded by what they describe as his almost autistic indifference to the thoughts and feelings of others. "He has the least interest in human beings of anyone I have ever met," says John Perry Barlow, his former supporter. Cheney's freshman-year roommate, Steve Billings, agrees: "If I could ask Dick one question, I'd ask him how he could be so unempathetic."

[glitch]

5. He is a curse to us only - he and his cronies do quite well by his 'curse'

nt

[harrison]

8. The article confirms what we all know. We have a sociopath

as President and a sociopath as Vice President. Start from there in your anaylsis of any action of this administration.