Woodward on 60 Minutes: Cheney the Dickless
Of all the irritating quotes from Bob Woodward tonight on "60 Minutes", one jumped out. The new book is called "State of Denial" and my family member in Washington, says that the joke going around town is that the first two books Woodward wrote about President Bush were positive and this is a 500-page correction. But back to the interview: Sure, it was aggravating to hear how our President has been lying so intensely to the American People, but we've known that for a long time. His whole Presidency has been a lie. And yes, it hurt hearing the quote about Laura and the dog Barney still supporting him because it just reinforced the immature, brat-like stubbornness these clowns sell as resolve. It's easy to have resolve when you're out riding your bicycle while American kids are getting ground up in this hideous mess.
I guess I should be a little ashamed that the carnage isn't what made me maddest. Then again that's old rage - it never really goes away. That's 24-7 anger hanging over this country like a toxic cloud. What provoked me tonight was slightly different. The honor went once again to Dick Cheney. Woodward was going through the various people who wanted to dump Rumsfeld, and of course, Cheney is not on the list. Rumsfeld and Cheney started their alliance in Washington power politics, decades ago, so you'd think there'd be some loyalty there. But then Woodward added that Cheney feels that if Rumsfeld goes, they might come for him next. See, Cheney is perfectly happy to talk tough and be macho in meetings or shooting quail. He just wants someone else out there to protect him from the heat. Rumsfeld is an insulating wall keeping the angry crowds away from Cheney's door.
So it doesn't matter if it's a 20-year-old fighting in Iraq, or a 100-year-old Rumsfeld here at home, Cheney wants someone else to enact his twisted schemes, while he stays off the battle field. Meanwhile he remains a darling of the conservative base - that 30% who never get it. This is no surprise really - they love how tough he sounds. It's so like the rest of their loving support when it comes to the phoniness of the Bush administration. Oh well. It's a little sickening how they trip all over themselves talking about how great Cheney is, but I'm used to that, too, and I know the truth. The truth is Dick Cheney is a typical cowardly bully - one of the consummate cowards in the long history of political villains.
posted by Bill McDonald @ 9:53 PM
25 comments
25 Comments:
What happened to "getting funny" again?
What happened to America?
It seems to me the only supporters of this administration are the ones who benefited from the tax cuts. "The haves and the have mores". to quote an idiot.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
A rare deletion. It's the rule of not wishing for a living individual to be shot to death, especially that one.
You were right to delete that posting. I was thinking about 'what might be' and it came out wrong. I want removal, not death.
"What happened to "getting funny" again? " I heard on NPR this morning that the White House has issued a statement of denial concerning all issues brought up in Woodwards book 'State of Denial', what can be funnier then that?
I'm actually getting somber, I'm so psyched up. This next few weeks is going to be full speed ahead in the freelance comedy world. We've got a Republican leadership bragging about making us safe and they can't even protect the Congressional pages.
Sometimes - like in August - it doesn't count as much. This counts.
It reminds me of the run-up to election 2000. The political atmosphere is electric.
A quibble here against fogging the Cheney-Rumsfeld-George Hitler Worker Bust connections. Jughead Junior is Howdy Doody to G.H.W.B's Cowboy Bob.
Here's the book, here's the link.
http://tarpley.net/bushb.htm
The following from Chapter 10, on getting elected, 1966-70. Cheney served in Congress then, too. Rumsfeld was 'appointed up' around that time.
Chapters 10 - 14 (H.W., bio, 1966-74), spell out the formative seed in those three names of the political nexus in the center of the black nazi hole sucking our lives and nation and heritage into oblivion today.
At the time, (divesting public portfolio to run for Congress, '66), H.W. had been CIA-active under an oil well-driller front cover, since before '53. Note the theme (below) of 'future oil supply' being measured back then and causative of today's events.
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In 1965, Bush was able to boast in his last Zapata Annual Report that earnings per share had risen for the sixth year out of the seven of his tenure. One severe setback had been the destruction of the MAVERICK platform by Hurricane Betsy in the Gulf. But Bush was able to reassure the shareolders: "I am pleased to note that within three weeks of Hurricane Betsy, your company had been paid the full value by the insurance companies. The coverage was carried with Lloyds of London and British Insurance Companies, and the offshore drilling business should be grateful for the way in which these companies have responded when disaster has struck."
Bush's world offshore drilling market survey now included the coast of Nigera, the Iranian leases in the northern Persian Gulf, Austrialian off-shore fields then opening up, the Gulf of Suez, and the beginning of drilling in the North Sea fields by both Britain and Norway. Zapata, said Bush, was keeping in close contact with British Petroleum, Continental, and Shell. On the world oil market overall, Bush quoted John Loudon, the senior managing director of the Royal Dutch Shell Group as saying that in 25 years the free world was going to require three times the current amount of oil for its consumption.
Later, the SIDEWINDER completed its trip from the Sultan of Brunei's domains off the coast of northern Borneo, and began operating in the Persian Gulf. But to replace SIDEWINDER, Southeastern-Zaapata Drlling, a one-third owned affiliate, had built a new rig in Japan at a cost of some $6.5 million, and this rig had been moved to the Borneo coast under contract to Shell. Seacat Zapata's NOLA III had left the Persian Gulf and was now operating in the Gulf of Tunis, whence it would proceed to the Red Sea coast of Ethiopia. VINEGAROON was working off the coast of Louisiana for Chevron, and a new rig, tentatively labelled RIG 8, was also destined for the Gulf of Mexico. Opportunities seemed imminent in Australia, where Zapata had set up a special relationship with Oil Drilling and Exploration Ltd. of Australia.
In 1966, the year that Bush says he left the management of Zapata to devote himself full-time to politics, Zapata experienced another increase in earnings per share. According to the 1966 Zapata Annual Report, Zapata's "net profits for 1966 exceeded the net profits of several Fortune 500 companies." The value of Zapata's offshore drilling fleet was an estimated $34 million, and the company's stock was now trading on the American Stock Exchange. With departure of George H.W. Bush as chairman of the board, the corporate personalities of Zapata underwent a shakeup. Along with Bush departed his maternal Uncle Herbie, aka G.H. Walker Jr., the Managing Director of G.H. Walker and Co., New York. J.W. Gardner was out as president, replaced by William H. Flynn. The new chairman of the board and chief executive officer was now D. Doyle Mize, who had previously been a member of the board. The Underwood, Neuhaus Co. interests kept their seat on the Zapata board, but their representative changed from Milton R. Underwood to William Stamps Farrish III, Bush's Beeville hunting partner and the grandson of the Standard Oil executive who had been exposed for dealing with Nazi firms. Added to the board were also two representatives of leading Houston law firms, including R.P. Bushman of Vinson, Elkins, Weems, and Searls and B.J. Mackin of Baker, Botts, Shepherd and Coates. Judging from the presence of Farrish and the Houston lawyers, we may conclude that although Bush had departed from the formal structure of Zapata, he still had board members to represent his interests, which was important in light of the Zapata stock he continued to hold. The sole New Yorker on the post-Bush board was also a new face, Michael M. Thomas of Lehman Brothers.
What's funny is a bunch of liberals trying to make hay out of a Republican 'sex' scandal. The only difference between Conroy Democratic congressman Gerry Stubbs is that Stubbs actually HAD SEX with a 17 y/o male page.....oh, and rather than his party booting him out of office for it, they gave him a slap on the wrist (sensure) and he went on to get re-elected. Too bad you weren't writing for Carson back in 1983, Bill....
oops...I meant Foley...not Conroy. Guess that shows how important I think this is....
Gee ("guess that shows how important I think this is") Butch,
Interesting how the "family values" party thinks consenual sex between adults is impeachable yet doesn't consider the sexual advances of a Congressman toward a child (a boy) "important."
Hypocrites to the very end.
Who said consensual sex between adults is impeachable? I believe they said that lying under oath to derail a lawsuit against you is impeachable if I recall. But I forget that with you liberals, only terrorist detainees are entitled to their day in court. Silly me.
If you don't think this is a big deal, fine. I bet the Republican leadership does, but not because of how it affects the pages. They're worried that it could hurt their political chances. So ironically, the Republicans and the pages are both covering their asses for different reasons.
"the Republicans and the pages are both covering their asses for different reasons."
- that's what I was waiting for....'getting funny' again :)
Humor and vitriol make for a good blog Bill. Keep it up.
Thanks, guys. I have a feeling Leno will be on this topic for awhile.
Both Trent Lott and Tony Snow have said that Foley was guilty only of sending 'overly friendly' messages to the pages. This begs the question of what a too-friendly message (to a 16 year-old from a 52 year-old) is.
I suggest a nationwide contest to create a new emoticon to express the thought "I want you to take off your pants" but in a friendly manner, with nothing sexual suggested.
Fox 'news' could hold the contest. No, wait -- they have already said it was Clinton's fault!
"I want to debrief you"
The Republicans are tense. It's like they're waiting for the other shorts to drop.
How about this : ♥╒╝∟c◙○╤◘╕τ☼ƒ
Where has Barney Frank been throughout all of this?
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You know, since they knew in advance and could have played this joker at any time to trump the news cards in the media hand, then they did. To put this worthless stir ahead of serious bad news -- 'bad' from the point of view of the party sinking in the polls.
The Gray Old Pedophiles GOP is losing big in pre-polling for elections -- the Pedophiles Speaker and House are lost already, and the Senate is sliding steeply toward Democrats. But that news cannot be allowed to circulate. (Instead, there are spotty media shots about "confident" Pedophile participants and "whether the people have a long-shot chance to take back Congress with Democrats.")
Somebody tossed Foley blood in the water to distract from the thousands of CIA-torture murdered bodies floating in the Euphrates.
For the umpteenth time, read Wayne Madsen Report (dot)COM DAILY !!
October 3, 2006 -- Informed sources in Tallahassee, Florida have told WMR that Governor Jeb Bush was fully aware of ex-Rep. Mark Foley's conduct with underage male pages but sat on the information to protect Foley and another top GOP Florida official, Attorney General Charlie Crist, who is currently running for governor to replace Bush. Today, Jeb Bush said he had not previously known about Foley's behavior with the pages before being informed by House Speaker Dennis Hastert in a letter dated October 1, 2006. Bush said he was "dismayed and shocked to learn about Congressman Foley's unacceptable behavior."
However, according to our Florida sources, the FBI and Justice Department informed the Florida Governor's office, Attorney General Crist, and the Florida AG's Child Protection Cybercrime Unit at least a year ago about Foley's predatory emails and instant messages. WMR was told that Crist's conflict-of-interest in the case stems from Crist's and Foley's involvement in gay sex parties, some of which took place during 2003 in trendy Coconut Grove, Florida.
[Photos at Wayne Madsen Report (dot)COM ]
(Left to right: Crist, Foley, and Jeb Bush.)
Informed Florida sources claim that up until now, Crist and Jeb Bush have been able to keep a lid on the once-divorced Crist's life style, touting his conservative Christian credentials, but that the Foley revelations will ...
Dear Butch,
Being gay is a long, long way from being a child molester and pervert. In fact, if you look up the stats, by far the majority of perverts are straight (and often Boy Scout Leaders). Far more than the accepted ratio of straights to gays.
Of course, the Republicans will milk this situation to their advantage, associating gays with their own perverts. It's to be expected.
laurelhurstdad, what the Eff are you talking about? Did I ever equate being gay to being a pedophile? And who is milking "this situation to their advantage"?!
PS - I doubt Foley is a "pedophile" - post-puberty boys are usually not their targets.
The reason I brought up Barney Frank is because he is yet another example of Democrat hypocrisy. Good ol' Barn started getting it on with a male prostitute who subsequently moved in with the Barnster and ran his gigalo ring out of Barney's house. And like Foley....the house leadership forced him to resign...er...wait, no they didn't.
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Oh, you are up on the Barney Frank case. But no, you are not. It is your selective intelligence that emphasizes your fascist authoritarianism. Get some facts ...
Wayne Madsen Report (dot)COM
Sep. 30/Oct. 1, 2006 -- Major cover-up suspected in GOP's "Pagegate" now rocking Capitol Hill. Capitol Hill sources report that the congressional page sex scandal that has barraged the Republican leadership weeks before the general election is a re-flash of a similar scandal in the late 1980s. In June 1989, openly gay Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, two months before he admitted that his aide was using his Capitol Hill home for prostitution purposes, threatened to expose the identities of a number of closeted gay Republican members of Congress after a Republican National Committee surfaced that suggested then-House Speaker Thomas Foley was gay. The Republican leadership went into immediate crisis mode and wanted to sweep the matter aside. However, the story of Republican lobbyists and members of Congress procuring the services of underage male prostitutes soon hit the newspapers.
The scandal surrounding GOP congressmen having sex with minors first burst onto the headlines in October 1980 when Maryland conservative Republican Rep. Bob Bauman resigned after his arrest for having sex with a 16-year old male prostitute. In 1983, Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Gerry Studds was censured by the House for inappropriate sexual contact with a 17-year old male page. The Republicans clearly pulled their punches amid calls for Studds to be expelled by the House. However, after Studds' admission he was gay, he was re-elected in 1984.
Although Studds was the first House member to admit his homosexuality, the GOP was worried about starting a trend of self-disclosure. They had their own skeletons to be concerned about. In 1989, the Barney Frank-male prostitute aide scandal broke. However, Frank cooperated with the House Ethics Committee in its investigation and he quickly fired Steve Gobie, the aide involved. The year 1989 would also introduce the American public to the underground sordid world of GOP underage male prostitution rings -- a story that emanated from a scandal involving male congressional pages that culminated in headlines in The Washington Times beginning in June 1989 that reported underage male prostitutes had been given midnight tours of the White House. As WMR reported yesterday, these tours involved the private quarters of the White House.
With the scandal surrounding Florida Republican Rep. Mark Foley's sordid e-mail and Instant Message exchanges with 16-year old male pages, including one who was sponsored by Lousiana Republican Rep. Rodney Alexander, those familiar with the 1989 scandals are taking a closer look at House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
Congressional sources told WMR that Hastert, while working from 1964 to 1980 as a popular history/government teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville High School, in Yorkville, Illinois -- a suburb of Chicago -- was the subject of persistent rumors about inappropriate contact with male members of his high school wrestling team. The culture of the times usually resulted in such alleged behavior being covered up by public and parochial school authorities. However, the rumors were enough for his Yorkville constituency to reject him when he ran for an open seat in the Illinois House of Representatives in 1980. However, Hastert lucked out when another sitting Republican House member who represented the three-seat district had a stroke and declined to run for re-election. The GOP machine bosses selected Hastert as the replacement candidate.
Hastert served in Springfield from 1980 to 1986, six years to make the transformation from wrestling coach with a cloud surrounding himself to politician. In 1986, Hastert received an unexpected promotion. After incumbent Republican Rep. John Grotberg was nominated by the GOP for a second term, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and fell into a coma. The Illinois Republican Convention selected Hastert as the replacement on the ticket, a virtual election to the U.S. House of Representatives in the strongly Republican district.
In 1989, when the allegations of homosexuality among GOP congressmen arose during the first "Pagegate" scandal, Hastert's name was one of those whispered. In 1995, Hastert became Chief Deputy Whip under now-disgraced GOP Majority Whip Tom DeLay. Hastert would luck out again. In late 1989, amid scandal, House Speaker Newt Gingrich resigned. After Louisiana Rep. Bob Livingston was elected as Speaker by the GOP House Caucus, he too resigned after admitting to an extramarital affair -- an amazing development since the House had impeached President Bill Clinton for lying about his own extramarital affair. Hastert, without much scrutiny, emerged as the compromise candidate for Speaker, after the GOP deadlocked on Majority Leader Dick Armey (also the subject of various rumors after he called Barney Frank, "Barney Fag") and Majority Whip DeLay.
Now Hastert is fending off allegations that he knew about the page problem with Mark Foley for 11 months and refrained from taking any action. It is also noteworthy that the Chairman of the House Page Board is Republican Rep. John Shimkus, a close ally of Hastert's from Illinois. Allegations of cover-up are also surrounding Louisiana GOP Rep. Rodney Alexander, the sponsor of the 16-year old Louisiana page to whom Foley sent messages concerning masturbation and erections, and New York Republican Rep. Tom Reynolds, the chairman of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. Both representatives stand accused of covering up Foley's activities for as long as 11 months.
And the Pagegate scandal threatens to turn into a tsunami that could sweep a number of GOP congressmen from office on November 7.
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