Comments on the Cheney rumors
My own thoughts on the previous post, re rumors about Cheney’s role in Plamegate and the legal fallout:
- “and--very surprisingly--national security adviser steve Hadley.” Nothing surprising about this at all. In the insinuations that Richard Clarke was miffed at being “demoted” to a deputy, few seemed to notice that the Bush White House security reshuffle actually promoted a group of deputies – including Hadley, who was deputy under Condoleezza Rice. The position of National Security Adviser itself was effectively empty with Rice in it. Hadley, in contrast, was heavily invested in “homeland security” before coming to the WH; along with other ties incl ties to Cheney, he was formerly on the board of ANSER, Inc, which founded a “Homeland Security Institute” back in 1999. Like Rice, Hadley was promoted in the aftermath of 9/11 (which in a normal administration wd not have been a resume-brightener for a natl security advisor’s office). Needless to say, he was key in boosting the
- The ongoing legal ramifications certainly explain why so little has been seen of Cheney lately.
- However, I wd think the WH wd go to literally any lengths to prevent Cheney’s resignation. McCain disappointed a nation by joining with Bush in the 2004 election, when he cd have made a real difference. Even so, he is supporting putting official limits on torture by the military (though he has not opposed holding prisoners without telling them the charges against them, a practice that cd not possibly enhance natl security). Even the tiniest such sign of independence, or popularity, is sufficient to threaten this WH. If GOP congressmembers are lobbying for him, that wd be another strike against him. Undoubtedly the WH wd prefer to replace Cheney w/ Condoleezza Rice, if it had to replace him at all. But it’s hard to imagine Republicans in general going along with that. Either way, it’s a no-win for the Bush team.
- Speaking of which, if any significant portion of this information is valid, it strongly suggests that the Bush team has been diminished to its irreducible core: Bush, his WH Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Karen Hughes, Harriet Miers, and a few of his relatives. Where is their constituency? (Answer: exactly where and what it should have been from the first, back when this quintessentially unqualified man started making little noises about running for the WH back in the late 1990s. Too bad they in effect bought off the MSM.)
- With the Vice President, the Congress, parts of the GOP, and PNAC peeled away from him, Bush has one remaining buffer. No, not “the Christian right.” Genuine fundamentalists have never effectively been in the picture with Bush, except in being successfully manipulated by the Bush team – and in being used as a bogeyman to scare writers, editors and publishers/producers among others. Bush’s last buffer is the aforementioned MSM, which have created a widespread public unawareness about much of what’s been going on. The current fall-out will be a race against time, with
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