Wilkerson on Cheney: He's Destroying What's Left of the Republican Party
By Heather Wednesday May 13, 2009 5:00pm
Rachel Maddow asks Lawrence Wilkerson if Dick Cheney's insistence on defending himself in public is helping to create the political will for torture investigations, and thus hurting the Republican Party. Lawrence Wilkerson wonders if there's anyone in the Republican Party with the intestinal fortitude to tell Cheney what he needs to hear if they're not going to remain a minority party forever.
Maddow: Col. Wilkerson, you're a Republican and I think that the, you're not a politician, but I think that the political implications of Cheney being out there so publicly on this issue are pretty obvious. Is there anybody in the Republican Party who might tell him to keep quiet or leave the stage or stop advancing his own agenda he seems to be pursuing at the expense of the party? Is there anybody who could tell him to keep quiet who he might listen to?
Wilkerson: I would have expected that George H.W. Bush would have said something in private certainly. I don't know that former Vice President Cheney would have listened at this point though. His attack on Colin Powell was something that stunned me. I didn't think that he would go that far. He's destroying what's left of the Republican party. I think the latest polls show we're down to 21% of Americans who identify as Republicans.
I suspect that if Cheney continues it will be down in the low teens. He's destroying the party. There needs to be someone with some, ahhh ... as we say in the Army, some intestinal fortitude, some guts, who steps forward and tells this man to go home and shut up.
Update: Lawrence Wilkerson was a guest blogger at the Washington Note.
From the article:
My investigations have revealed to me--vividly and clearly--that once the Abu Ghraib photographs were made public in the Spring of 2004, the CIA, its contractors, and everyone else involved in administering "the Cheney methods of interrogation", simply shut down. Nada. Nothing. No torture or harsh techniques were employed by any U.S. interrogator. Period. People were too frightened by what might happen to them if they continued.
What I am saying is that no torture or harsh interrogation techniques were employed by any U.S. interrogator for the entire second term of Cheney-Bush, 2005-2009. So, if we are to believe the protestations of Dick Cheney, that Obama's having shut down the "Cheney interrogation methods" will endanger the nation, what are we to say to Dick Cheney for having endangered the nation for the last four years of his vice presidency?
Likewise, what I have learned is that as the administration authorized harsh interrogation in April and May of 2002--well before the Justice Department had rendered any legal opinion--its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al-Qa'ida.
So furious was this effort that on one particular detainee, even when the interrogation team had reported to Cheney's office that their detainee "was compliant" (meaning the team recommended no more torture), the VP's office ordered them to continue the enhanced methods. The detainee had not revealed any al-Qa'ida-Baghdad contacts yet. This ceased only after Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, under waterboarding in Egypt, "revealed" such contacts. Of course later we learned that al-Libi revealed these contacts only to get the torture to stop.
There in fact were no such contacts. (Incidentally, al-Libi just "committed suicide" in Libya. Interestingly, several U.S. lawyers working with tortured detainees were attempting to get the Libyan government to allow them to interview al-Libi....)
Less important but still busting my chops as a Republican, is the damage that the Sith Lord Cheney is doing to my political party.
He and Rush Limbaugh seem to be its leaders now. Lindsay Graham, John McCain, John Boehner, and all other Republicans of note seem to be either so enamored of Cheney-Limbaugh (or fearful of them?) or, on the other hand, so appalled by them, that the cat has their tongues. And meanwhile fewer Americans identify as Republicans than at any time since WWII. We're at 21% and falling--right in line with the number of cranks, reprobates, and loonies in the country.
When will we hear from those in my party who give a damn about their country and about the party of Lincoln?
When will someone of stature tell Dick Cheney that enough is enough? Go home. Spend your 70 million. Luxuriate in your Eastern Shore mansion. Shoot quail with your friends--and your friends.
Stay out of our way as we try to repair the extensive damage you've done--to the country and to its Republican Party.
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...I just she would wear little more jewelry and grew her hair out.
Why?
I'm not sure, but I think her show's ratings have flat-lined. She should be before Olbermann's, not after. I feel she'd do better looking a little more network 'mainstream'.
She once tried to grow her hair out and it just didn't fit her but I do agree she needs a little fixer upper. Someone needs to go shopping for her because I think she only has 4 suit coats.
that's pretty dumb.
Her show is doin quite well, because of her mind, not her appearance.
... those thick black Poindexter glasses on the air.
To me, her greatest appeal lies in her incisive intellect. I understand that she was reading the New York Times when she was 3.
I likes my Rachel without any airbrushing, kthnx.
Heh.
She doesn't need to change a thing.
I particularly like her razor-sharp mind ..
But if she had a matching set of earrings that razor sharp mind would be so much sharper,
(*trying to imagine a pair of earrings that would match her razor sharp mind*)
"News" people would worry less about jewelry and make-up and hair and actually ask the tough questions
like Rachel. I might even watch teevee again.
There's plenty of blonde bejewelled harpies on Fauxsnooze if you like that kinda bulltweed...
Something tells me you'd be more likely to get her in a pick up truck with a labrador and a flannel shirt than growing her hair out and wearing jewelry
But they don't really need any help!
here is a website with
cheney's lies...
here you go:
http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/cheney_s_secre...
They took down the GOP!
They also took out the Dims. That is what FACISM is all about. One party, $$$$rules.
go home and shut up.
I love it.
That took some intestinal fortitude to say that.
Brass balls indeed.
couldn't care less about the Repugs. He is only interested in Cheney. He can stir up confusion, muddy the waters, taint the jury-pool. Whatever you call it, he (and his daughter) are CYA-ing at a frantic pace. Maybe he's scared. I hope so.
We need to buy him an all expenses paid vacation to Belgium.
An all expense paid trip to Den Haag would be lovely. I personally will pay for Karl Rove's trip too.
I really like Mr Wilkerson. That took guts.
He might want to hire some personal protection, however. I have a feeling that Cheney is not too impressed with him right about now.
my Grampaw!
Let's share!
Seems to be a lot of "suiciding" still going on. Maybe with McChrystal going to Afghanistan the "suiciding" will be limited to there and Pakistan for a while.
Mr. Cheney, You Did Not Keep Us Safe
If 3,000 Americans had been killed on your watch, in an attack that could have been prevented, perhaps you'd be a little hesitant to accuse anyone else of endangering America. And if you had advocated torture, and the torture produced false information that you used to mislead America into an unwise, unjust and unwarranted war, you might be a tad sheepish about defending the use of torture.
Not Dick Cheney. Mr. Cheney has stepped up his attack on Pres. Obama's security strategy, telling CBS's Bob Schieffer that Obama's refusal to use waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" (i.e., torture) endangers American lives.
The truth is the Bush-Cheney policies did not keep us safe, and Mr. Cheney is not a credible spokesman on issues of national security.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-begala/mr-...
{ Too long, Make it brief and provide a link. SiteMonitor}
Their party will rebound with the assistance of the Democratic Party.
Always the optimist aren't ya?
I'd say, yes, very much so, considering. No torture pics cuz gotta cover up for the Bush. Senate today shot down caps on credit card rates. States are taking stimulus cashola and still laying off thousands. So is the glass half full still?
Screw the senate democrats. They are pigs - half of them. Failing to reign in the bankcard rates after what those criminals did to us!
I hope everyone of these so-called democrats gets thrown out of office. If I'm gonna get screwed this bad, I would rather have it done by the repukes.
And I have a newsflash for these sell-out democratic bastards. The repukes were thrown out because they are corporate fascists! If you think the american people are going to start enjoying corporate fascism again just because the democrats are serving it, you are sadly mistaken.
they dont need a republican party anymore !its been morphed into the new repig lites party of the dimocrats!
.
The fire in the VP's office.
the mysterious office fire, the man-sized safes, the paper-shredding trucks, and the heavy boxes that Cheney deemed so top-secret and important that he had to move them himself.
Hmmmm. I smell a big rat and his name is Dick.
And those secret oil exec meetings that were so important, we couldn't even find out who was in them!
They give him airtime because they know he's a ratings bonanza and people will watch him.
Just like if you scooped up a piece of dogshit off the sidewalk and then advertised that your show was gonna spend the first half hour filming it sitting in the guest chair.
Let him talk.
The more the better.
"blah blah .. of course GW knew .. at least he musta known .. I mean he signed it .."
Go on incriminating George Bush AND yourself Mr. Cheney ..
And keep the torture "debate" in the spotlight ..
I can't wait for Spanish Judge Garzon to indict Cheney & Bush and put the question of extradition before the American justice system and the Obama administration ..
We (the US) just deported a Nazi war criminal to Germany for trial ..
Rachel is perfect just the way she is. NO JEWELRY, LONGER HAIR or any of that crap. That razor sharp mind is all anyone needs.
please please please keep the mike in dicks face until the day he dies. Team Torture has a spokesman and he will say whatever he damn well pleases. dont make him shoot you in the face or waterboard you. he will do it. no doubt.
to paraphrase a chickenhawk war criminal, "these are the last throes of the republican party." how sweet it is indeed.
also, ever seen his daughters? SHEESH! lets hope that they take after their father, the turkey baster.
"He's Destroying What's Left of the Republican Party"
Dear God, if ONLY that were true we could let him talk until he finally accomplishes just that.
Unfortunately, mainstream media has made it their mission to discuss possible solutions for the Republican Party's problem until someone discovers a magic elixer to help it live one more day to do further damage to this country.
Him and Rumsfeld were Nixonites, which is of the Prescott Bush criminal cabal. There is a word which describes their attitudes and activities and it starts with a F.
Watching him makes me remember when most Republicans were simply people you had some political policy disagreement with but could otherwise respect.
Thanks Dick - this would be the first time you've done anything worthwhile for this country. Don't get me wrong - I still think you are a douchbag of the highest order. The comeuppance the Repugnican party must endure is a good thing. Surely, another tier will fall off with all of their in-fighting. Grab the popcorn and let's go for 13%. Zero would be nice, but have you been to Oklahoma lately? Not likely.
Really Col. Wilkerson, you can say "testicular fortitude" on TV. That is what you wanted to say isn't it? Try it sometime. It will be appreciated and help get you point across stronger.
"He's destroying what's left of the Republican party. I think the latest polls show we're down to 21% of Americans who identify as Republicans."
Good, can he please do the same to the Democratic Party?
No good can come from a single party. Especially one that gets more depressing day after day.
The United States is Nationalized Healthcare away from being a Socialist Democracy. A third party emerging from the aftermath of the failure of both Democrats and Republicans is what's needed. Do you think the American people have the guts and is there anyway to reunite the people as a majority and present a referendum come next election?
But you know, every time I see someone pronouncing that the US is about to go down the tubes to socialism, I have to wonder - just exactly what is it about socialism that you find so objectionable? Or is it just a knee-jerk reaction to the term "socialist"?
If he is really destroying what's left of the republican party, I think he is my new hero.
This needs to be used by every Democrat on all the Sunday shows every time these assholes say that Obama is making the country less safe for not using torture. And be sure to use the word torture and not their sugarcoated "enhanced interrogation techniques".
He knows that this economic meltdown, which happened on his watch,
has NOT BOTTOMED OUT. He knows that unofficial unemployment
might well exceed 20%. If it does, he believes, it will drag
Obama down by the shear emotional weight of the accumulated
frustration of millions of unemployed tea partiers marching on DC.
THIS IS HIS HOPE. This way Republican Patraeus will march into office
in 2012 as.... a victorious liberator ready to calm the economic
storm with an iron fist. People will want it. I won't want it.
This doomsday strategy will not work with me even if I am homeless.
He certainly had some harsh words in his guest blog. Talk about not holding back!!! And I don't think you will see him apologizing to Rush either. This guy has testicular fortitude, no doubt about that.
"He has titanium balls."
Shooting the Republican Party in the face since 2006!
Please continue, Mr. Cheney.
Continue on Dick. Don't stop until the GOP consists of you, Rush, the Fox snooze imbeciles, and the talk radio barking yaks.
You are finally doing something good for the american people.
Who would have thought that was possible, coming from such a useless sack of shit?
a microphone and a spotlight.
"and oh what heights will hit, on with the show here is Diiiick"......
Darth Cheney will never shut up until the day he dies or his ass is hauled into a warcrimes trial.
Cheney is a war criminal OF THE HIGHEST DEGREE, and is ALSO a war profiteer as well, AND HE KNOWS IT!
Of course, he's not smart enough to know that if he kept his arrogant mouth shut, he'd probably be safe by now. Obama would cover for him.
But no, all Big Dick thinks about is himself. Screw the country or the world.
The arrogance hurts.
Mr. Wilkerson puts Cheney in mighty fine company.
However I would add: thieves, murderers, thugs, punks, scollywags, imbeciles, scoundrels, oafs, worms, bigots, racists, perverts, xenophobes, pedophiles, war criminals, homophobes, misogynists, hypocrites, whiners, crooks and liars...
IMHO Rachel is hot just the way she is.
You are a genius! I wouldn't change a thing about your post.....and I agree about Rachel........her shining intelligence and razor-sharp wit are all the decoration she needs........and BTW, I think SHE has the titanium balls!
Wilkerson: I would have expected that George H.W. Bush would have said something in private certainly. I don't know that former Vice President Cheney would have listened at this point though.
Oh, yeah: as if Bush ever took the lead over Cheney when they were in office. I remember how they wanted Bush to go testify privately to Congress on some matter of impeacheable importance, and Bush wouldn't testify unless Cheney was there as well. Either they both went together (so Cheney could help keep their stories straight), or they weren't going to go at all.
Bush was the figurehead, Cheney was the real President. It's just that nobody could ever see themselves enjoying a beer with Cheney.
I could, provided I was using it to waterboard Cheney with at the time.
The reference wasn't to GW Bush for whom Cheney was VP. It was GHW Bush, Georgie's daddy, who has slightly more gravitas in Republican circles than GW.
America's very own Heinrich Himmler.
" He's destroying the party" . I am finally starting to appreciate Cheney , he has done wonders for his party hasn't he ? The madman's ego is just slightly out of control , then again maybe not , after all it appears he is even above the law ... domestic as well international .
exposes himself to the American public the more they will realize he has no cred. Then when the cred gets low enough a Republican will step forward and demand he be investigated. After that its all downhill.
The real reason these photos are not being released is due to the fact that Pelosi is implicated and would be ousted if an investigation would be held. No photos, no investigation, Pelosi stays. Cheney's insistance that all the information be made public boxed her in. Politics is a nasty business.
Heck of a job Cheney!
The Repugs need to run Cheney for President next election, stick Palin on as VP.
Cheney really creeps me out. What's with this pro-torture tour and trying to undermine Obama? Is he suffering from early Alzheimer's? Did he sleep through the election, and still doesn't realize that he's no longer in power? How far will he go? Apparently, Pat Buchanan tried to suggest that the moral at the CIA was low, and that people there were talking to Cheney. WTF? Is Buchanan just as deranged as Cheney?
'NO MORE, No Torture. No Exceptions' (Spring 2008)
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/200...
I'm thinking that Cheney should go on all the shows this weekend and defend himself against this unAmerican. In fact go on all the shows twice.
"Dick Cheney...before he dicks you."
Yes, you read that right. I LOVE him now, 'cause he's scared!!! Cheney scared, now that I really LOVE. Yeh you ol' wingbag, how does it feel when YOU are the scared one??? hahahhahahahaha With any luck, Cheney will single-handedly erase the PUKIES and the COMPLICITS!!! LOVE IT!!
Imagine what the poor "man" must feel every time he gets a chamber of commerce vacation brochure from Spain.
> Wilkerson: I would have expected that George H.W. Bush would have said something in private certainly.
So the GOP needs to call in the "wimp" to save their pathetic party? Truly a riches to rags story.
Let Dick-Head keep talking.....
Rightarded is a genetic brain disorder ergo Republicanism will never die out.
I've always suspected that the reason the Bush administration resorted to torture techniques was not to keep America safe, but as a desperate attempt to try to win a war that had gotten totally out of control and was quickly turning into a military and political fiasco. It's reassuring to see those who were formerly in a close role to what was going on essentially acknowledging the duplicitous motives of the Bush administration's use of torture.
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