Former Republican Congressman On Cheney’s “Public? What Public?” Statement
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Cheney, History, Iraq, Polls, The War On TerrorismMickey Edwards shares an interesting perspective, that ties into that poll I posted yesterday about how people think politicians should pay attention to polls…
What, then, is the straw that causes me to finally consign a man I served with in the House Republican leadership to the category of “those about whom we should be greatly concerned”?It is Cheney’s all-too-revealing conversation this week with ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz. On Wednesday, reminded of the public’s disapproval of the war in Iraq, now five years old, the vice president shrugged off that fact (and thus, the people themselves) with a one-word answer: “So?”
“So,” Mr. Vice President? [...]
Cheney told Raddatz that American war policy should not be affected by the views of the people. But that is precisely whose views should matter: It is the people who should decide whether the nation shall go to war. That is not a radical, or liberal, or unpatriotic idea. It is the very heart of America’s constitutional system.
It’s a pretty strong rebuke from the former congressman, and one I think more and more people will start making as the election approaches. After all, it’s OUR country, not the President’s, and the more and more Cheney and company act like this, the easier it’ll be for people to say, “You just don’t get it.”
However, the fallout from stuff like this could really hurt McCain. After all, he has aligned himself strongly with Bush’s Iraq policy and if he comes out and says, “I will not listen to polls,” that could swing the swing voters because they don’t want 4 more years of leaders who won’t listen to them.
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 23rd, 2008 and is filed under Cheney, History, Iraq, Polls, The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:38 am
What pains me is the fact that our Senate and House do nothing about these criminals in the Executive branch - nothing! It’s clear that our laws were broken, the extent and detail of which will take years to figure out if ever since the investigations aren’t happening. What is Congress afraid of - standing up for the constitution, protecting our laws, seeing justice done, doing their job’s?
When will people realize that when Bush and Cheney were appointed to office this country suffered a very subtle Coup d’etat - and it will take decades to undo what they have done - yet they go unpunished. I can only hope that the “plan” is to get Bush and his posse out of office, then start the investigations and jail sentences without having to worry about any pardon’s being handed down by the “boy wonder”.
March 23rd, 2008 at 12:14 pm
I’ve thought for a while that the Bush administration and its friends had all the respect for the average American citizen that medieval rulers had for the peasants. And their Republican allies in the House and Senate are their enablers. The only question is how many of them do it because they agree as opposed to pure blind loyalty to the party.
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Cheney’s comments show that he is a perfect personification of the statement that Al Gore makes in his new fabulous book, “The Assault on Reason” — when Gore says, “our country is controlled by a radical right-wing corporatist ‘faction’ which hold in utter contempt the concept that there is even such a thing as ‘the public interest’”.
Gore accurately states that this radical corporatist ‘faction’ (which I would call a corporatist Empire) does not even recognize that the concept of a ‘public interest’ even exists — and Cheney proves, on queue, that he does not think the ‘public’ should have any impact on government decisions.
There is no ‘public interest’ in an empire, and Cheney asserts that in his corporatist Empire there should be no public input or influence.
This pretty much sums up the belief in empire instead of democracy.
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:40 pm
The Dems who control congress (barely) do nothing because a) they feel they still have a very good shot at winning this election and the white house and don’t want to be seen as making attacks purely on a partisan basis (you know that will be the charge), and b) since they are fairly sure they can win, they are not certain they want to start limiting the president’’s power when they are about to sit someone from their party in the president’s chair.
It will take a lot to screw things up, but with the exception of the quandry over Clinton and Obama, just about everything else breaks in their favor. If they do nothing, they don’t hurt their chances of winning; if they do something, who knows what happens after it gets spun.
And this is why a) the Dems somehow always screw it up and lose, and b) are often no better then the Republicans.
It takes some freaking leadership, and as much as it pains me to say thing, we aren’t getting any.
March 23rd, 2008 at 10:13 pm
It is stuff that this tht convicnes me that GWB’s epitaph will be “The man who destroyed the Republican party.” Of course, he really did not do it all by himself. Actually Cheney probably is more to blame than he is. But as the titular leader of the party, he will serve as proxy for the the gaggle of incompetents, authoritarians, and fundamentalist wackjobs that facilitated the GOP’s political suicide.
Third parties do not work in the U.S., but periodically room is created for a new party when one of the two majors self-immolates. That is how the Republicans came to replace the Whigs, when the Whigs self-destructed over the question of slavery. I really think that process is exactly what we are witnessing now. But to quote myself:
March 23rd, 2008 at 10:16 pm
First sentence was supposed to be “It is stuff like this convinces me that …”
sigh. Note to self: No commenting after second whiskey.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:13 am
I actually understand what Cheney was getting at: There is more experience, understanding and information at the top then is available to the masses. An opinion poll of less informed (and uninformed) individuals that don’t have policy experience should not be dictating policy decisions.
Of course that flies in the face of the constitution, because our basic framework was created to make it almost impossible to authorize an offensive war (for better or worse is up to interpretation).
While I don’t agree with what Cheney views as to what’s in this country’s best interest, truth be told, I agree with Cheney’s philosophy.
Without even considering the information gap between the public and the government, there’s a lot more stupid people then there are informed individuals. And I’d prefer that the closest that Cletis the One-Toothed-Yokel ever gets to making policy decisions that affect me is by voting for others to act on his behalf.
March 30th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I disagree with you Rob. Many are not informed because Washington wants us to be uninformed. Clear Channel controls the media and guess what group they fall into? I say people in this country are in denial and had better wake up before we no longer have a country or we are owned by China and Japan.
March 30th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
The “people” don’t have access to the classified material the president and vice-president do. Does the government rely on the emotions of the people or the intelligence information they have on hand that the people don’t? Come on, get real. We’re at war. Sometimes the most popular thing is not what’s best for America.