Dick:
Former Vice President Dick Cheney criticized the Obama administration on Tuesday for its handling of the September 11, 2012 terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, calling it ‘a failure of leadership.’ Cheney said U.S. leaders should have been better prepared for violence on the anniversary of the al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.
‘They should have been ready before anything ever happened,’ Cheney told MailOnline exclusively during a party in Georgetown celebrating the launch of a new book by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Ahem:
Tony Blair agreed to commit British troops to battle in Iraq in the full knowledge that Washington had failed to make adequate preparations for the postwar reconstruction of the country.
In a devastating account of the chaotic preparations for the war, which comes as Blair enters his final full week in Downing Street, key No 10 aides and friends of Blair have revealed the Prime Minister repeatedly and unsuccessfully raised his concerns with the White House.
Why does anyone take this guy seriously?
muddy
I hope he keeps it up until he gets all the backsies and gets investigated and imprisoned.
mai naem
Because he’s a major league asshole who managed to make it even though he had no heart. Enough to scare off any chicken shit journo from actually investigating anything this asswipe does. This country can’t wait long enough to get rid of Dick and his progeny.
peach flavored shampoo
Good f’in lord there’s a supertanker’s worth of irony, hypocrisy, and projection going on in this statement.
Scott S.
In a sane society, Cheney would’ve been strapped to a rocketship as soon as he was out of the White House and shot straight into the sun.
PeakVT
Why does anyone take this guy seriously?
Tribalism.
danimal
Why does anyone take Dick seriously? Because he was a daddy figure when most of the national press corps in NY and DC were peeing their pants over terrorism. It’s why they can’t investigate freely; they were complicit in the subsequent events.
reflectionephemeral
Why does anyone take this guy seriously?
Same reason you root for Matt Cooke. He’s on the right team.
To my knowledge, Matt Cooke hasn’t enabled torture or pushed for a thoughtless invasion that killed thousands of Americans and likely over 100,000 Iraqis; so I think yours is the lesser sin.
BENJAMIN
This heckling from the peanut gallery is really sticking a finger in the eyes of Justice. BENGHAZI ! is the rallying cry because ‘no one died wrt Watergate’? What is the downside for Obama to go for their throats on war crimes? Comity?
Bipartisanship? It seems they smell weakness, and think he hasn’t the cajones. It’s time to roust these fuckers.
Raven
Looks like the Cleveland story may overshadow BENGHAZI for a while.
Citizen_X
Oh, by all means, keep reminding us of yourselves, assholes.
gratuitous
@peach flavored shampoo: Oh yeah.
I’m reminded of an old NFL Films reel that prominently featured Abe Gibbon, then a coach with the Atlanta Falcons. Abe was kind of a character, and they had him miked up to catch his seemingly never-ending patter. Here he was singing “Joy to the World” along with the PA, there giving a pep talk to a player. They then had a mash up of Abe calling out defensive signals during the game: “Watch the fullback!” “Watch the tight end!” “Watch that pulling guard!” and finally, hilariously, “Watch EVERYTHING!”
Easy advice for that blood-gargling psychopath to say that the Obama administration should be ready for anything at all times: Deficits didn’t matter during his misadministration, and for the first time in recorded history a nation launched an invasion (twice!) while cutting taxes and running on a depleted treasury.
Just Some Fuckhead
What the hell are you smoking John? No one could have predicted or stopped 9/11. OTOH, Benghazi is the latest in a long string of murders by Hillary Clinton that started back with Vince Foster.
cvstoner
These people have no shame. Really and truly, no shame.
Mike in NC
Sadly, there isn’t a circle in hell deep enough to confine the likes of war criminals Cheney and Rumsfeld.
Ted & Hellen
I love it.
Because of Obama’s spineless refusal to investigate and prosecute Bush and Cheney for Iraq War crimes, Darth Vader walks free to criticize and condemn Obama for much less severe fuck ups.
Ha!
Of course this may all be part of the planned theatrics, but either way, entertaining as all hell.
Raven
@gratuitous: I had buddies that played for him on the Chicago Winds. They had really skecthy pay and Abe would take the whole team for Pizza!
Comrade Jake
I’m just rather astonished he’s not a regular on the Sunday talk show circuit, frankly.
Hoodie
Because anyone who takes him seriously is an idiot? I imagine those in his tribe who aren’t idiot don’t really take him seriously, they just find him useful for marshaling the idiots.
gene108
@cvstoner:
The elected officials beating the Benghazi drum don’t bother me as much as the voters, who keep voting them into office and want more of this sort of circus to reveal all the “illegalities” of the Obama administration.
Chris
@danimal:
This. Iraq isn’t Watergate, unfortunately. All of Official Washington was in it together.
Chris
@gene108:
That I agree with.
And the milquetoast moderate centrist ones piss me off more than the Repubs.
Tone In DC
Somebody PLEASE stake this poor excuse for a vampire.
Not to mention the other neo-con chickenhawks who “had other interests”.
Update – I know I shouldn’t have such ill will about another human being. But 2001-2009 is still VERY fresh in my memory.
Gonna go have lunch a bit early and forget this poor excuse for a sentient life form said anything.
matt
is Obama paying this guy to make Republicans look like dissembling, hypocritical jackasses, or is he doing it pro bono?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Ted & Hellen: FOX would interview him from Gitmo to get this statement, and wingers would talk about how brave he is, speaking his mind from prison.
Not that I don’t support the idea of putting him there.
c u n d gulag
Maybe his doctors should lie, and tell him that his next heart surgery can only be performed in Europe.
Then, the second he lands, have the Military Police from The Hague slap cuffs on him, and bring him to trial for committing War Crimes.
What an evil, stupid, ignorant MFer – and without even the grace, after f*cking this country up 9 ways to Sunday, and back, to just go somewhere, and STFU.
Dick, baby, we have no interest in ever hearing your opinion on anything ever again!
The next thing we want to read about you, is your obituary, and where you’ll be buried, so we can start drinking beer and eatind jalapeno-laced chili, so that the rodents and pidgeons aren’t the only ones fouling your grave.
Villago Delenda Est
Another guy whose head would look MUCH better on a pike than it does on his shoulders.
That goes for his wife and his two daughters, too.
WereBear
Shame is for the little people.
Villago Delenda Est
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Vince Foster? Why there are unmarked graves all over Arkansas, dating back to the late 70’s, holding the victims of Cersei Clinton’s many thrill killings.
Brian R.
Go fuck yourself, Cheney.
MattF
Yeah, there’s a not-so-little list of ‘should be in prison’. That generally mean their comments at a pre-publication party should be ignored.
Rosalita
Cheney comes out of his bunker to spew bullshit and Rumsfeld writes a book… still waiting for Karma or an asteroid to catch up with either one of these pricks
Roger Moore
Because they’re looking for a quote, and he’s a great source. They aren’t after quality journalism; they’re after a quick controversy to attract clicks and sell papers.
Roger Moore
@Scott S.:
No. His awfulness as VP was predictable based on his record, and a sane society would have paid attention and refused to let him anywhere near the levers of power again. The worst mistake of the past 50 years was not putting the whole Nixon Whitehouse in prison and throwing away the key.
Epicurus
I was not aware that anyone (with a functioning brain) DID take Darth Cheney seriously. We all know what he is and what he did; why he is not in jail is a mystery for the ages. Once again, we are listening to the crazy person walking down the street, talking to himself. Rest assured, he is the crazy person, not you.
Ash Can
War criminal says what?
Just Some Fuckhead
Did Cheney get a wing at the George Bush Rehabilitation Center at SMU?
Jebediah
How does Kickstarter work? Would it be a good way to raise funds for a one way plane ticket to the Netherlands?
MTiffany71
Cue John Houseman: Because he made his money the old-fashioned way — murder.
f space that
For the same reasons they think Mr. “I can only eat part of one donut at a time now” Christie is the most awesomest sexy Republican since Paul Ryan. They are wired for Republicans. Lame stream media indeed.
Just Some Fuckhead
@f space that:
I understand the need to tar all Republicans with the same brush, but Chris Christie is a straight-shooting no-nonsense sonuvagun. He’s exactly the type of politician that can bring the country together and continue to keep government moving in the right direction.
muddy
Yer such a fuckhead.
catclub
@Epicurus: Epicurus Says:
“I was not aware that anyone (with a functioning brain) DID take Darth Cheney seriously.”
When George Bush was 23% approval, Cheney was at 9%.
But that 9%, they have money. Its like the 27% of the 27%
muddy
I’m not big on math, but I liked that one. ;)
Gopher2b
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I can’t tell if you’re being serious but the 2016 primaries should be awesome. The three camps of the GOP are setting up their three best candidate (Cruz, Paul, and Christie) and I think they genuinely dislike each other – to say nothing of the inherent in capability of their ideologies. It’s goin be awesome!
Frankensteinbeck
I wish to echo @catclub. Dick Cheney is the most unpopular politician in the country. The Village thinks he’s the bee’s knees. Everyone else in the world thinks he’s Dr. Strangelove.
@BENJAMIN:
The downside is losing the goodwill and cooperation of the entire Democratic caucus in both houses. Congress already retroactively declared everything Bush and Cheney did not crimes, so he can’t if he wants to. Also, you want to annihilate all progress in getting the public pumped up over gun safety, fair taxes, and the general villainy of the 1%? Drag Obama into the sewer of ‘I’m a vindictive partisan’ that everybody thinks the Republicans own right now. Then when the prosecution failed because your ability to prosecute a president for anything he did in office is a grey area AT BEST and the SCOTUS sure ain’t approving it he looks like a weak fool and Republicans get proof rather than a suspicion they can get away with anything.
I would love Bush and Cheney to be in prison. They deserve to be. Attempting to do it was a shitty idea and I’m glad Obama didn’t fall into that trap.
Ted & Hellen
@Ash Can:
Your president disagrees and wonders why you won’t look forward instead of back.
Lurking Canadian
I think Obama should welcome the opportunity to discuss national security with Cheney, and challenge him to a debate.
Said debate, of course, to be held in The Hague.
Suffern ACE
@Just Some Fuckhead: You left out “willing to make tough decisions”.
We always need someone who will make those tough decisions, especially against those teachers unions and welfare bums, especially if those decisions don’t affect us or our children.
BEN
@Frankensteinbeck:
The downside is losing the goodwill and cooperation of the entire Democratic caucus in both houses.
I’m not sure you read me, correctly.
That is not a persuasive argument against it. They are more afraid for their jobs than they are Obama. Where is the famous comity and fraternal bipartisanship. Obama has made heroic efforts to recoup that old langsyne, but it has been futile. Maybe it’s time for a shift in the power available to POTUS. Executive Order?
tones
All I wish for on Christmas is to see the entire Bush administration shackled and frog-marched in orange jump suits.
That is all I ask for every year since then ,and all I will ever ask for, possibly forever.
El Cid
This is the one man who literally did not have a heart for years.
What’s more, he literally had no pulse, as his turbine-style artificial heart operated continuously rather than as heartbeats.
We had a VP so evil that he became the heartless Bond villain he played.
Senyordave
@Lurking Canadian: I think Obama should welcome the opportunity to discuss national security with Cheney, and challenge him to a debate.
Said debate, of course, to be held in The Hague
That would be a great comment for Jay Carney to slip into a press briefing!
grandpa john
@c u n d gulag: As to pissing on his grave, charge admission and use it to pay off the deficit the fuckers ran up off budget, it probably won’t take long as I imagine the lines will be long. Hell use it as vacation time and take the whole family
grandpa john
@Gopher2b: so they have already dismissed Rubio?
gnomedad
The Benghazi hysteria is completely Obama’s fault for not having had an affair with an intern yet. What’s a poor impeachment lynch mob to do?
ricky
They serve wings at the GBRC at SMU? Does a side of pork rinds come with it?
danielx
Because FREEDOM. And free markets. And contracts for Halliburton and KBR. AND all that sweet, sweet Iraqi crude oil, mustn’t forget that.
@El Cid:
@ricky:
Well, there you go. All the reports of Cheney’s heart problems have always seemed a little fishy to me – I figured he had a lump of plutonium in there instead of a pacemaker. In which case he could devour pork rinds (or the livers of Iraqi children) by the pound with no consequence except a possible case of indigestion.
Recently a commentator somewhere, I don’t recall where, named Rummy as a blood-gargling psychopath, but I thought it described Cheney much better. I’ve described a sociopathic asshole neighbor of mine several times as being like Dick Cheney without the charm, and people always get exactly what I’m saying.
DBaker
Read the comment section of this article for a good barrel of laughs. It just has all the right wing hits from the last decade or so.
BTW, that 27% approval rating had also something to do with the fact that Bush was not right wing enough for some of these people, just like Romney was not pure enough.
Finally, consider the source. One of the methods of mainstreaming right wing memes in the press is for Murdoch to print something in one of his papers overseas, be it the Daily Mail, the Telegraph (for a more “respectable” option) or the Sydney paper (can’t remember which one he owns down there), to allow his friends to say here that “some people overseas say” that…. blah, blah, blah.
Charles Johnson is correct as one of the front pagers pointed out, it’s all about pre-emptive strikes against Hillary in 2016.
ricky
@Just Some Fuckhead:
He’s several donuts and a few cheese blintzes short of truthful and I doubt that can be surgically corrected.
Of course, your language is loaded, so I may have misfired on your rhetorical intent.
aarrgghh
but who would know better about being not ready for major terror attacks than two-term president darth cheney, former assistant president c+ augustus and former security advisor candi “brown sugah” slice?
EconWatcher
Tony Blair has been trying to rehabilitate his image as George Bush’s poodle. But somehow I don’t think he helped himself getting photographed at Bush’s library opening with a giant golden “W” pin on his lapel, standing next to Cheny and Condie…
Steve M.
Dick Cheney Vice Presidential Library Opens In Pitch-Dark, Sulfurous Underground Cave (from The Onion).
RaflW
An sick fascination with the undead?
Thinking Americanist
Allow me to ask the same question here, as I did on my blog:
Where were these so-called “whistleblowers” when the United States of America was invading the Country of Iraq based upon blatantly false information about so-called “Weapons of Mass Destruction”? I mean, if there was any sort of false information being pimped to the media, and there was, trust me — these people would have known about it.
Where were these so-called ”Whistleblowers” when the United States of America was attacked on 9/11? I mean, if there was any sort of false information being pimped to the media, and there was, trust me — these people would have known about it.
You want to know where these people where? I will tell you where they were; they were standing around with their noses straight up the goddamned ass of President George W. Bush and the neocon administration in the White House, that’s where!
My Posting:
thoughtsandrantings.com/2013/05/08/on-these-benghazi-hearings-and-scandal/
You’re Welcome.
Howard Beale IV
I’m really surprised outside of that one story about the hackability of the insulin pump that surfaced a while back that few (if any) have figured out how to attack pacemakers and other electronic implants.