Bill Clinton Thinks Dick Cheney Needs More Target Practice
Former President Bill Clinton laughed off a question Wednesday about former Vice President Dick Cheney and his claims that the country is less safe under the Obama administration.
"I wish him well," Clinton told CNN while greeting voters after a campaign stop with Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe. "It's over," he added, apparently a reference to the Bush administration.
"But I do hope he gets some more target practice before he goes out again," Clinton said with a grin before moving along the ropeline.
It's probably not a good sign for your political career if former rivals aren't taking you seriously.
Katie Couric recently quizzed the Vice Presidential candidates on what they think of current Vice President Dick Cheney. Joe Biden said there aren't many good things that Dick Cheney has done. He did say that Cheney has done harm by "shredding the constitution" and condoning torture. Sarah Palin admires Dick Cheney for his support of the troops. She said the worst thing Cheney has done was when he accidentally shot someone during a hunting trip.
For something more lighthearted take a look at Biden's and Palin's favorite movies.
Another news cycle, another Dick Cheney hunting controversy. This time, he didn't shoot anyone, so that's good. But he did go to a gun club that proudly displays
the Confederate flag. Al Sharpton was not amused.
A Daily News photographer captured the 3-by-5 foot Dixie flag affixed to a door in the garage of the Clove Valley Gun and Rod Club in upstate Union Vale, N.Y.
"It's appalling for the VP to be at a private club displaying the flag of lynching, hate and murder," said the Rev. Al Sharpton. "It's the epitome of an insult."
Sharpton demanded Cheney distance himself from the exclusive club where the Stars and Bars was flown, and said he might hold a prayer vigil there.
Club officials threatened a reporter with arrest when he sought comment.
The flag fiasco is especially upsetting because blacks have recently been subjected to an upsurge of racial threats, including nooses left in Jena, La., and Columbia University, he said.
"This is an outrage - he ought to leave immediately," Sharpton told The News. "He ought to apologize to the American people for being there in the first place."
"That flag brings back painful memories of the old, old South," said Elouise Maxey, 59, president of the Northern Dutchess County branch of the NAACP. "I'm disappointed that he would go."
Cheney spokeswoman Lee Anne McBride said Cheney did not know anything about the controversy.
"The VP did not see the flag and neither did anyone on staff," said McBride.
*****
"As long as he doesn't shoot somebody in the a--," Bill Tryon, 48, said he was fine with Cheney's visit. Tryon lives in the area.
There was no repeat of last year's snafu, when Cheney shot an old pal in the face during a quail hunt in south Texas.
"It should be water under the bridge," said Ralph Mondello, who is running for a spot on the local town council.
It wasn't much of a hunt: it was more like shooting pheasants in a barrel. Farm-bred pheasants were set loose on the grounds 24 hours before the vice president arrived so that he could be sure to bag some game. It's called a "canned hunt."
Dick Cheney Says He's Not Part of the Executive Branch of Government
In what is an astounding display of arrogance -- even for him -- Vice President Dick Cheney is claiming
that he is not part of the executive branch of government. Yes, that's right. Even though he is the #2 man in the Executive Branch of government, Cheney claims that for purposes of securing classified information, he is not part of the Executive Branch of government. Which is just...nuts.
The Office of Vice President Dick Cheney told an agency within the National Archives that for purposes of securing classified information, the Vice President's office is not an 'entity within the executive branch' according to a letter released Thursday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
"The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, you exempted the Office of the Vice President from the presidential executive order that establishes a uniform, government-wide system for safeguarding classified national security information," Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the Committee's chairman, wrote in a letter to Cheney. "Your decision to exempt your office from the President's order is problematic because it could place national security secrets at risk. It is also hard to understand given the history of security breaches involving officials in your office."
Waxman noted that Cheney's office had declared itself not affected by an executive order amended by President George W. Bush in 2003 regarding classification and declassification of government materials.
"Your position was that your office 'does not believe it is included in the definition of 'agency' as set forth in the Order' and 'does not consider itself an 'entity within the executive branch' that comes into the possession of classified information,'" a National Archives official claims Cheney chief of staff David Addington wrote to him.
The Vice President's office's refusal to comply with the executive order and the National Archives's request prompted the National Archives to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office. But the Justice Department has not followed up on the Archives's request.
But two can play at that game. The Democrats have decided that if Cheney doesn't consider himself part of the Executive Branch, then his office clearly doesn't need any more Executive Branch funding.
Following Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that his office is not a part of the executive branch of the US government, Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) plans to introduce an amendment to the the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill to cut funding for Cheney's office.
The amendment to the bill that sets the funding for the executive branch will be considered next week in the House of Representatives.
"The Vice President has a choice to make. If he believes his legal case, his office has no business being funded as part of the executive branch," said Emanuel in a statement released to RAW STORY. "However, if he demands executive branch funding he cannot ignore executive branch rules. At the very least, the Vice President should be consistent. This amendment will ensure that the Vice President's funding is consistent with his legal arguments."
Dick Cheney: hoist on his own petard.
Who knew that Rahm Emanuel had such a great sense of humor? Let's see how Cheney manages to pay his assistants, secretaries, air conditioning bill (remember, he has to have any room he is in chilled to precisely 68 degrees), and the gas bill for Air Force 2 when his "Executive Branch" funding disappears.
I know. How about he pays his office expenses out of his own pockets from his hefty, ongoing Halliburton retirement payments? That works for me.
Conservative commentator George Will gives Dick Cheney a blast of buckshot with his latest column about Cheney's steadfast refusal to acknowlege the truth: that Iraq is an unmitigated disaster.
Many months ago it became obvious to all but the most ideologically blinkered that America is losing the war launched to deal with a chimeric problem (an arsenal of WMD) and to achieve a delusory goal (a democracy that would inspire emulation, transforming the region). Last week the president retired his mantra "stay the course" because it does not do justice to the nimbleness and subtlety of U.S. tactics for winning the war.
A surreal and ultimately disgusting facet of the Iraq fiasco is the lag between when a fact becomes obvious and when the fiasco's architects acknowledge that fact. Iraq's civil war has been raging for more than a year; so has the Washington debate about whether it is what it is.
In a recent interview with Vice President Cheney, Time magazine asked, "If you had to take back any one thing you'd said about Iraq, what would it be?" Selecting from what one hopes is a very long list, Cheney replied: "I thought that the elections that we went through in '05 would have had a bigger impact on the level of violence than they have ... I thought we were over the hump in terms of violence. I think that was premature."
He thinks so? Clearly, and weirdly, he implies that the elections had some positive impact on the level of violence. Worse, in the full transcript of the interview posted online he said the big impact he expected from the elections "hasn't happened yet." "Yet"? Doggedness can be admirable, but this is clinical.
Clinical is certainly one word for it. I can think of a few others, as well.
The New York Daily News reports
that two top CIA officials are going to testify against Scooter Libby in his trial for perjury, false statements and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame matter. Reportedly, the officials will help Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald prove his case that Libby lied under oath.
The U.S. alleges he [Libby] learned about Plame from one of the CIA officials when he went after dirt on her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Wilson shattered a pillar of President Bush's rationale for war - that Iraq was seeking to build a nuclear weapon.
Both CIA officials - including a top architect of the 2003 Iraq invasion - discussed Plame with Libby a month before columnist Robert Novak blew her cover in July 2003, prosecutors charge.
Libby has said journalists told him about Plame - not Cheney or the six witnesses named so far by prosecutors.
Until recently, the CIA officials' identities were kept secret by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who did not name them in Libby's October indictment.
But subsequent documents allege Libby asked top CIA official Robert Grenier on June 11 why the agency sent Wilson to Niger to see if Iraq tried to buy uranium. Grenier replied that Plame was an agent and "believed responsible" for arranging her husband's trip.
The other official was Craig Schmall, a CIA briefer whom Libby complained to about the Wilson trip on June 14, court files allege.
Grenier, the CIA's station chief in Islamabad, Pakistan, helped stage the successful U.S. attack on the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks.
He then joined the CIA's Iraq Issue Group, hatching operational plans for invading Iraq.
"Bob had to go to lots of White House meetings in the runup to the war," said one colleague.
The source expressed surprise that Grenier would have discussed Plame with Libby.
This year, as CIA Counterterrorist Center chief, Grenier oversaw the failed missile strike aimed at Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Shortly afterward, Grenier was demoted.
But Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief, said Grenier lost his job over his "concerns about aggressive interrogations [of terrorist detainees] at secret sites."
In other Plamegate news, everyone's still waiting to see if Karl Rove is -- or already has -- been indicted. It appears that it may be a long wait; no one rushes Patrick Fitzgerald.
Here are some of the latest developments in Quailgate:
The political cartoonists have been busy. Cagle.com, the website of professional cartoonist Daryl Cagle, has a collection of dozens of the cartoons.
Vice President Dick Cheney, who is known to take heart medication, had at least two drinks that day. He told Brit Hume during the interview on Fox that he drank one beer at lunch several hours before the shooting took place. He also drank a cocktail later that evening after the shooting according to comments that Katharine Armstrong made to CNN.
Fox News has the complete transcript of Brit Hume's interview with Dick Cheney. Journalists were hoping he would give a press conference about the accidental shooting instead. Many journalists also argue that Cheney did not explain the long delay in reporting the story. This article lists some of the questions journalists have for the Vice President. However, President Bush was satisfied with Cheney's answers.
Alan Dershowitz explains why he thinks the long delay in reporting the story means something is being covered up. Dershowitz uses a cost/benefit analysis to explain his argument.
An article in the New York Times cites a quail hunter who says Cheney had to have been "far closer" than 30 yards for the victim to have been hit with that many pellets.
A CBS News story said Karl Rove pushed Cheney to do the interview with Fox News. The article said Cheney is in a "state of meltdown" over shooting his friend and the political fallout it created.
Media Matters notes that many media outlets did not report that contradiction between Cheney's beer consumption and ranch owner Katharine Armstrong's comments that Dr. Pepper was served at lunch.
The local sherrif's office has closed its investigation. No charges will be filed.
The Associated Press is now reporting that 78 year old attorney Harry Whittington, who was shot by Vice president Dick Cheney during a hunting trip, has had a heart attack because some of the birdshot is lodged too close to his heart.
Peter Banko, the hospital administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial, said Harry Whittington had the heart attack early Tuesday while being evaluated.
He said there was an irregularity in the heartbeat caused by a birdshot pellet, and doctors performed a cardiac catheterization. Whittington expressed a desire to leave the hospital, but Banko said he would probably stay for another week.
Whittington, a prominent Republican attorney from Austin, was accidentally sprayed with shotgun pellets when Cheney was aiming for a quail Saturday.
Whittington had initially been placed in intensive care. He had been moved to a "step-down unit" Monday after doctors decided to leave several birdshot pellets lodged in his skin rather than try to remove them.
*****
The wildlife department issued a report Monday that found the main factor contributing to the accident was a "hunter's judgment factor." No other secondary factors were found to have played a role.
CNN is reporting that Mr. Whittington has just had an angiogram procedure to evaluate his condition. Reports indicate that he has never had heart trouble before being shot by Vice president Cheney.
After all the jokes about the incident by comics on late night television last night, the White House had decided to play along with the jokes this morning. Even Jeb Bush cracked a joke at Cheney's expense. But after Whittington had a heart attack, Scott McClellan turned serious this afternoon. This is a PR nightmare for the White House, but it will have to get in line for top spin doctor treatment.
After all, Scooter Libby just testified that his bosses (e.g., Cheney) told him it was ok to lead undercover agent Valerie Plame's name to the press and the CIA has confirmed that Plame was undercover at the time, working on the Iran-nuclear weapons case. That's not good news for Dick Cheney or the White House.
Most people thought it was some kind of joke because it's almost exactly like the quail hunting scene in Wedding Crashers starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, but it turned out to be true: Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot his lawyer in the face while they were hunting quail on Saturday.
Luckily for the nearly 80 year old attorney, Harry Whittington, Cheney is in such poor health that he travels with a full medical team and has instant access to an ambulance. Whittington was helicoptered to a hospital in Corpus Christi on Saturday evening, and was still in the ICU as of Sunday evening. The hospital listed his condition as "stable," which is one step down from "good." The Austin attorney reportedly was sprayed in the face, neck and chest with buckshot.
The shooting was first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. The vice president's office did not disclose the accident until nearly 24 hours after it happened.
Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail.
Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass, while Cheney and the third hunter walked to another spot and discovered a second covey.
Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong said.
"The vice president didn't see him," she continued. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."
Kathryn Armstrong, the daughter of the owners of the ranch where Cheney was hunting tried to downplay the incident. She told reporters that "This is something that happens from time to time. You now, I've been peppered pretty well myself," which leads to the inevitable question: is she insane? It "happens from time to time"? Yeah, I've heard of accidents like this happening, but only when everyone in the hunting party has had a few too many cocktails. After all, if you're sober and in broad daylight, a quail breaking cover from the ground and a 6' tall white guy don't look much alike.
Notice that a) the story wasn't reported until 24 hours after the accident occurred and that b) Ms. Armstrong's statement blames the victim. But anyone who's taken a hunting safety course knows that if you have a weapon it is your job to know where your fellow hunters are at all times.
Of course the jokes have already started: "It took 40 years, but Cheney finally saw some action." "Good thing he got those 5 deferments to get out of going to Viet Nam: otherwise his platoon would never have made it back alive." Cartoons showing Cheney as Elmer Fudd the Hunter are also starting to surface. Let's hope that Mr. Whittington makes a full recovery. And that he declines the next hunting invitation he receives from the Vice-President.
Most of us are used to seeing teenagers and 20-somethings bobbing their heads to music only they can hear through their iPods. But Vice president Dick Cheney is also an iPod fanatic, who insists that his digital music player be charged and ready to play his favorite tunes at all times. No exceptions, no excuses. Woe betide any staffer who lets the vice-presidential ipod battery run dry. The Independent (U.K) explains:
The vice president is an iPod fan, and keeping it charged is a priority for his staff.
Normally that isn't an issue, even when he's flying around the world. Air Force II is equipped with outlets in each row of seats.
But when Dick Cheney was traveling home overnight Wednesday from his diplomatic mission, most of the outlets went on the fritz.
Working passengers began lining up their laptops to share the power from a couple of working outlets — particularly the reporters who urgently needed to prepare their articles to transmit during a quick refueling stop in England.
But when Cheney said his iPod needed to be recharged, it took precedent above all else and dominated one precious outlet for several hours. The vice president's press staff intervened so a reporter could use the outlet for 15 minutes to charge a dead laptop, but then the digital music device was plugged back in.
That way, Cheney got his press coverage and his music, too
But what music is he listening to? Does he rock out to "My Sharona" by The Knack, as does President Bush? Or does he prefer more mellow tunes, like big band music? Inquiring minds want to know.
