You don't know Dick ...
...Cheney, that is .. but the Washington Post's series of four articles about his Vice Presidency should open your eyes. Here's the last one:
Imagine how different history would have been if Cheney had spent as much energy on issues of national security in early 2001 as he did in chasing a few votes in the Pacific Northwest ...
I remember reading about all those rotting fish. Needless to say, the power and refinery industry was a heavy contributor to the Bush-Cheney campaign. Just a coincidence though .. I'm sure.
And now we learn for the first time why Christie Whitman quit as EPA administrator. It isn't good enough that she resigned because, "I just couldn't sign it. The president has a right to have an administrator who could defend it, and I just couldn't."
Well Christie, the American people have the right to have an EPA administrator who tells us the truth. Why didn't you go public back then? And don't think going public now will save your reputation from when you assured 9/11 workers that the air at ground zero was safe to breathe.
And now we know why Karen Hughes had to leave .. and Colin Powell (two more who have served the nation poorly).
Any non-Cheney loyalist went bye-bye...
Cheney thinks it's more important to have yes-men trash the rights of we the people than work for our best interests.
He is so bloated with power it's a wonder he hasn't gotten rid of Bush.
Cheney monkeys around with laws and regulations and ends up gutting those laws and regulations of their original meaning.
He reclassifies people and institutions so they become exempt from the rules that are clearly designed to govern them. Like captured terrorists are "illegal combatants" .. slipping through supposed loopholes in the Geneva Conventions.
And torture techniques are redefined as "special interrogation" or whatever ...
And the FISA court supposedly lacks jurisdiction over the same activities the FISA court was created to oversee ...
And power-plant upgrades are redefined as "maintenance" so they won't be governed by clean-air regulations ...
And now Cheney has the VP's office falling between the Executive and Legislative branches, so no rules apply to it -- on and on and on.
It's government by loophole, an underhanded slippery approach to the law.
The Supreme Court's recent ruling in "Hein" is a good example -- taxpayers can sue over government appropriations of money to religious groups .. EXCEPT when the appropriation is conducted by the Executive branch. Meaning that all future appropriations will be by the Executive branch. So no one can sue.
This whole Cheney mess is really very simple -- apply Occam's razor. Why would someone so obsessively fight any oversight into his activities if they were legal?
They wouldn't.
