This is the title of a diary a Daily Kos:
Cheney Rats Out Dem Leadership as His Co-ConspiratorsIt's really fascinating to watch Democrats salivating over possible wrong doing by elected Democrats, and based on something Cheney said. Here are the facts from ThinkProgress.
In an interview with Fox News’s Chris Wallace yesterday morning, Vice President Cheney defended the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, and claimed that the congressional leaders briefed on the program wholeheartedly approved. In fact, Cheney claimed, when the White House asked if it needed congressional approval for the program, they unanimously agreed it did not:
<...>
Cheney’s
startling claims run directly counter to accounts by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). Rather than asking for congressional input, Pelosi and Rockefeller said in 2005 that Cheney simply informed them of what was going on — and ignored their objections:
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Other congressional members who attended those briefings have said that they were told only the barest outlines of the program. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Jane Harman (D-CA) said that the
White House never disclosed that it was skirting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants. Former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman
Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) said the same thing:
<...>
What’s more, Rockefeller, then vice-chairman of the Intelligence Committee, wrote a hand-written letter to Cheney in 2003 to “reiterate
concerns” about the wiretapping program. “http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/rock-cheney1.htmlhttp://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/rock-cheney1.html">I feel unable to fully evaluate, much less endorse these activities,” he wrote.
Cheney claims to have suggested seeking congressional approval right away. However, the White House put up a stiff fight just a few years later, when Congress finally sought to impose oversight of the wiretapping program. The Vice President has already presented misleading infomration about the dates and frequency of these supposed briefings; now he appears to be offering misleading descriptions of them.Signs that the rats are in retreat. I guess the AEI believes that people will forget their role is promoting war crimes.
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has been a major source of the Bush administration’s extreme neoconservative thought. AEI is the home, or former home, of
Paul Wolfowitz,
Richard Perle,
Dick Cheney,
John Bolton, and
Doug Feith. With the help of Fred Kagan, AEI
designed the Iraq “surge” strategy that Bush implemented in January 2007.
Today, AEI may be moving away from eight years of cheerleading for Bush policies. The National Interest reported Friday that there is a
“purge” of neocons at AEI:
<...>
Today, the fruits of of AEI and Bush’s foreign policy are a Middle East in flames, the U.S. reputation abroad in tatters, and the
most unpopular president in modern history. “The change that Obama promised during the campaign seems to be reaching Washington in
unexpected places,” National Interest concludes.
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