Cheney, Cheney, Everywhere

I remember fondly the days our former Vice President Dick spent holed up in his "undisclosed location." Today, I am flicking across the channels on the teevee and lo and behold, there he is again. He's at an event honoring Gerald Ford at the National Press Club and he's pontificating about 9/11, terrorism, North Korea and nuclear proliferation. Now, I'm not going to deny him his right to free speech, but I wonder does the traditional media need to put him on camera each time he opens his mouth?

"Torture and Abuse Was Counterproductive to What We Were Trying to Accomplish"

Dick "Four Deferrals" Cheney doesn't know what he's talking about:

Dueling Banjos

The media fascination over the past twenty-four hours over the Dueling Banjos played by President Obama and former Veep Dick Cheney makes it clear how difficult moving forward without looking back is going to be. Beyond the fact the chattering class has legimitized Cheney's tired and worn-out fearmongering (didn't Americans reject this approach during the most recent election?), it's clear that the absence of torture investigations HASN'T made it easier for the nation (or the Administration) to focus on the domestic agenda.

In fact, it may have emboldened the former Vice President to continue his crusade.

Denouncing the president's approach to closing Gitmo and ending torture as American policy as "recklessness cloaked in righteousness," Cheney continues his aggressive and unprecedented attacks. I wonder if his cage-rattling might be making some in the Obama Administration reconsider their desire to turn the page on torture investigations.

Take Me To Your Leader

Rasmussen is polling Republican voters about who they view as the leader of the rapidly shrinking GOP. Compared to Rasmussen's March 2009 numbers, the search for a new leader reveals a roster of golden oldies emerging to fill the power vacuum. Who has stepped forward to become the leading Goposaur?

	Mar-09	May-09
John McCain	5%	18%
Michael Steele	5%	14%
Sarah Palin	1%	10%
Mitt Romney	N/A	8%
Rush Limbaugh	2%	6%
Dick Cheney	N/A	4%
No Clear Leader	68%	37%
Not Sure	17%

Earlier this month, Rasmussen reported deep dissatisfaction among the Republican faithful regarding their congressional leadership, with 69% saying they have lost touch with their base nationally.

With Friends Like These...

Who needs enemies?

Congressional Republicans are telling Dick Cheney to go back to his undisclosed location and leave them alone to rebuild the Republican Party without his input.

Displeased with the former vice-president's recent media appearances, Republican lawmakers say he's hurting GOP efforts to reinvent itself after back-to-back electoral drubbings.

Here's to hoping Dubya's Rasputin doesn't find the directions back to his infamous "undisclosed location" any time soon. The power vacuum at the top of the Republican Party is one of the new president's greatest advantages.

The Public in Favor of Impeaching Cheney/Bush

A poll released today by ARG shows the American voter has had enough of the corrupt Bush Administration's endless assault on the rule of law. Was the overwhemlingly unpopular Libby Liberation the proverbial last straw?

According to ARG, 69% of voters disapproved of the commutation, with only 26% approving. This represents the hardcore GOP base, which appears to be shrinking with the release of every poll.

As to for the dreaded "i" word, 50% of voters support impeaching the FourthBranch (that's the Vice President for those not paying attention over the past month) with 46% in favor of impeaching Dubya. Will the Democrats finally listen to the will of the people?

Question:
Do you favor or oppose the US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney?

7/5/07	Favor	Oppose	Indecided
All Adults	54%	40%	6%
Voters	50%	44%	6%
Democrats (38%)	76%	24%	-
Republicans (29%)	17%	83%	-
Independents (33%)	51%	29%	20%

Question:
Do you favor or oppose the US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush?

7/5/07	Favor	Oppose	Undecided
All Adults	45%	46%	9%
Voters	46%	44%	10%
Democrats (38%)	69%	22%	9%
Republicans (29%)	13%	86%	1%
Independents (33%)	50%	30%	20%

Compare the public polls regarding impeachment of Clinton during the L'Affair Lewinsky - and it's not even close. (h/t to Ana over at Time's Swampland blog) Back in 1998, only 25% of the public supported impeaching Bill Clinton. The GOP in Congress ignored the polls and paid a price in the midterm elections. Will the Democrats ignore the polls and pay a political price in 2008?

What Will the Democrats Do About the Wizard of Wyoming?

Cross-posted at Daily Kos and My Left Wing.

The revelations in this week's WaPo series on -Vice- President Cheney finally reveal what many of us have believed all along. The nation should have been paying MUCH more attention to the little man behind the curtain. It turns out, unlike the one in Oz, the Wizard of Wyoming IS great and all powerful.

Now that the rest of America has been awakened to this sinister and unchecked "FourthBranch" (h/t to dday) operating within the federal government what are our Democratic presidential candidates going to do about it?

Glad you asked...let's take a look.

Sadly, there's been mostly silence from our would-be leaders.

A review of the candidates websites was resoundingly disappointing as I looked for substantial reactions from our Democratic Presidents-in-Waiting. To be fair, Sen. Obama did issue a press release yesterday saying:

Chicago, IL June 25, 2007
Chicago, IL-Senator Obama today released the following statement on Vice President Cheney's attempts to prevent public scrutiny of his office.

"Throughout this administration, Vice President Cheney has consistently sought to operate in secrecy and thwart rules designed to ensure the public's right to know how their business is being done. I believe strongly that democracy works best when it does its work in the daylight. In an Obama Administration, we will launch the most sweeping ethics reform in history so that we can restore an open, honest government that finally makes real progress on the challenges facing the American people."

Yes, Senator, fine and dandy. But, WTF are you going to do about the current situation?

Hillary? Silence. Someone on her web development team might want to make the site searchable, I couldn't find a Search function anywhere. Practically every press releaseis about endorsements and polls. (I've got lots to say about that, but I'll bite my tongue for now).

John Edwards? Quite a few policy statements discuss Cheney's role in energy and military policy, but nothing (at least that I could find) about the WaPo series. Biden has some press releases about Iraq & Employee Free Choice. Good, important stuff but nothing about Cheney. Over at Richardson's website it was more of the same. The deafening silence continued on Sen. Gravel's and Dodd's websites.

I thought for sure Kucinich, the sponsor of impeachment articles, would have something to say but the most recent press release is from June 8 - and it's about new campaign television ads. A "search" for Cheney brings up four press releases on the Cheney articles of impeachment Kucinich has proposed in the House, but the most recent is from mid-April. NOTE TO HILLARY - even Kucinich's website has a "search function."

I'm on practically every campaign's email list - and I don't recall seeing any of them mention this - yet. I understand this is the last week of the fundraising quarter and they're focused on the money race, but come on folks. Perhaps the candidates are out on the campaign trail discussing this, but I have a hunch they're not. [of course, if someone has information I've overlooked, please let me know and I'll revise the post]

I wonder to myself, what's missing? Intelligence? Passion? Courage?

Is it intelligence? Perhaps the Democrats don't grasp the seriousness of Cheney's outside the rule of law, behind the scenes manipulations? When Harry Reid said a while back, "I'm not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody who has a 9 percent approval rating," he revealed the depth of the Democrats ignorance regarding Cheney. They think it's a popularity contest.

Don't they see? Fourthbranch wanted (and needed) the Democrats to dismiss him as a result of his abysmal approval ratings. While the Dems were telling jokes about his hunting expeditions, Dick was hard at work dismantling our constitutional system of checks and balances, redefining the powers of the executive branch, destroying our military and endorsing -torture- creative interrogation techniques. Now we know what Dick's been smirking about all these years.

The time for "name-calling" has long since past, Senator Reid. Even Dorothy's Scarecrow could understand that. And he didn't have a brain.

Could the silence be due to a lack of passion? The Democratic base is more engaged, enraged and committed than it has been in years - perhaps ever. This has translated into huge gains for the Democratic Party across the nation. But it's unclear (to this observer) that this passion is understood (or shared) by our elected leaders. Like the Tin Man, it might be time to find out if the DC Democrats have a heart.

Or have our "leaders" chosen to remain silent because by acknowledging what's gone on in this administration may lead them to the inevitable conclusion - the Vice President's actions demand impeachment hearings? Clearly, we've got ourselves a pride of Cowardly Lions roaming the halls of Congress and the presidential campaign trail.

We all know how Dorothy and her pals eventually discover their "missing" qualities residing within. And, I'm going to hold out hope the Democrats can find theirs, too.

On Thursday night, all eight of the candidates will gather at Howard University at a PBS-sponsored debate moderated by Tavis Smiley. I'm interested to hear what our candidates have to say about the WaPo revelations.

Now that the Fourth Estate has finally done it's job, it's time for our democratic leaders to do theirs.