The ugly American: https://bthepoliticalgrilltwo.runboard.com/t45 Runboard| The ugly American: en-us Thu, 28 Mar 2024 12:58:40 +0000 Thu, 28 Mar 2024 12:58:40 +0000 https://www.runboard.com/ rssfeeds_managingeditor@runboard.com (Runboard.com RSS feeds managing editor) rssfeeds_webmaster@runboard.com (Runboard.com RSS feeds webmaster) akBBS 60 The ugly American:https://bthepoliticalgrilltwo.runboard.com/p88,from=rss#post88https://bthepoliticalgrilltwo.runboard.com/p88,from=rss#post88The ugly American: Editor's note: Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator, was a political consultant for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992. (CNN) -- As an American, I am appalled by Dick Cheney and his relentless, pathetic and ultimately doomed effort to revise the history of his failures. But as a Democrat, I am thrilled that an incompetent, dishonest and reviled figure is hell-bent on making himself the face of the Republican Party, hogging the spotlight from rising stars like Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. And so let us review the Cheney record: No vice president has done more damage to our country, not even Vice President Aaron Burr, who shot and killed Alexander Hamilton 210 years ago. In the first months of the Bush-Cheney administration, Cheney was ordered to convene a task force on terrorism. Instead, he ignored the problem, the Cheney terror task force never met, and the warnings about an impending terrorist attack were ignored. Later, instead of apologizing, Cheney cravenly blamed the White House counterterrorism czar Dick Clarke, who had tried to warn anyone who would listen that an attack was coming. "Richard Clarke was the head of the counterterrorism program in the run up to 9/11," Cheney said. "He obviously missed it." Blaming the guy who did his job when you're the one who didn't do yours. From there, it was off to the races, as Cheney did and said anything to drag America into a war with Iraq. He said the lead 9/11 hijacker "did go to Prague, and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service ... several months before the attack." Wrong, according to a Senate Intelligence Committee report. He said Saddam had "an established relationship with al Qaeda." Wrong. Cheney claimed there was "irrefutable evidence" Saddam had reconstituted his nuclear program. Wrong. He said Saddam "had an established relationship with al Qaeda, providing training to al Qaeda members in areas of poisons, gases and conventional bombs." Wrong. He said there was "overwhelming" evidence of ties between al Qaeda and Iraq. Wrong. He said that we'd be "greeted as liberators" and that the insurgency was in its "last throes" nine years ago. Wrong and wrong. One can debate whether Cheney's misstatements were the result of willful mendacity or incompetence. I believe the former. But at a deeper level, it does not matter. Regardless of whether Cheney is a liar or a fool, thousands of heroic American troops are dead. Tens of thousands are injured. Iraq is a disaster -- and will be for years to come. And America is weaker and poorer because of Cheney. http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/17/opinion/begala-dick-cheney-lies/index.html?hpt=hp_t3 {Cheney is a despicable man. A liar, war criminal, a right wing fanatic who believes "might makes right" and "the end always justifies the means". If George Bush the lesser is infamous for his numb-skull smirk than Cheney is equally infamous for his curled lip snarl. His personality is of the type that suggests he's capable of putting the boots to his own grandmother....after he waterboarded her of course. If he had been an important figure in Hitler's Germany he probably would have been hung after the war. As one of the major architects of the Iraqi war he is directly responsible for the needless deaths of almost 5000 Americans and hundreds of thousand of Iraqis. The fact that it doesn't seem to bother him or Bush is a sterling indictment of the neo-con regime. These were nasty men who did some horrible things. Todays right wing is not much of an improvement as they are mostly extremists who spend a lot of time and effort being apologists for the Bush/Cheney disasters which they brought about on the world. Their hatred for President Obama is rooted in self-loathing for their part in bringing this pair to power and in my opinion they have a lot to loath themselves about. What do you think of the man and his place in our history?} nondisclosed_email@example.com (Noserose)Sat, 19 Jul 2014 14:25:12 +0000