WASHINGTON, Feb. 23, 2007
Cheney Won't Budge On Pelosi Criticism
VP Refuses To Take Back Charge That Speaker's Anti-War Stance Emboldens Al Qaeda
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Vice President Dick Cheney, left, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CBS/AP)
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Interactive Second In Command A closer look at Vice President Dick Cheney's career and his much-publicized health problems.
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Face The Nation Madam Speaker Watch an exclusive interview with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Face The Nation.
"If you're going to advocate a course of action that basically is withdrawal of our forces from Iraq, then you don't get to just do the fun part of that, that says, 'We'll, we're going to get out,' and appeal to your constituents on that basis," Cheney said.
The vice president had voiced the same criticism of Pelosi earlier this week during a visit to Japan, and the California Democrat accused the vice president of questioning her patriotism, saying she was going to call President Bush directly with her complaint.
"I hope the president will repudiate and distance himself from the vice president's remarks," Pelosi said. She ended up talking with White House chief of staff Josh Bolten instead of Bush.
The long-distance quarrel began in Tokyo, where Cheney earlier this week used an interview to criticize Pelosi and Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., over their plan to place restrictions on Bush's request for an additional $93 billion for the Iraq war to make it difficult or impossible to send 21,500 extra troops to Iraq.
During Friday's interview in Sydney with ABC News, Cheney said, "I'm not sure what part of it is that Nancy disagreed with. She accused me of questioning her patriotism. I didn't question her patriotism. I questioned her judgment."
"You also have to be accountable for the results. What are the consequences of that? What happens if we withdraw from Iraq?," he said. "And the point I made and I'll make it again is that al Qaeda functions on the basis that they think they can break our will. That's their fundamental underlying strategy, that if they can kill enough Americans or cause enough havoc, create enough chaos in Iraq, then we'll quit and go home. And my statement was that if we adopt the Pelosi policy, that then we will validate the strategy of al Qaeda. I said it and I meant it."
Asked if he was willing to take back his criticism of Pelosi, Cheney replied, "I'm not backing down."
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 175 Commentslmao-
Old F-U cheney speaking of "accountability"?
War lies - Corporate FRAUD costing millions to Americans and profiting millions to Companies that are not loyal to the people of our country?
Why are they bringing in those "Nixon" era lawyers? Why isn't congress charging bush/cheney with treason for falsly taking this country to war resulting in the death of OTHERS children,spouses and parents? Don't our politicians CARE that they will go down in history as delaying charges so this administration can keep PUSHING to hide and deny access to evidence? Secret memos - secret meetings, secret oil-pipelines, secret expansion of CONTAINMENT facilities located in our country - contracts for railcars with "restraining devices"? Forced "injections" and "red code" mandatory isolation and movement of large segments of our population?
U.N. law presidence over American DEMOCRACY?
Sick sick sick and we *via our "elected" officials get pulled around by nose rings - like cattle to slaughter.
Bring our "national" security HOME - to our NATION. Keep our jobs, tax dollars and noses right here in America.
Make CHENEY accountable for the raping of America's rights and tax dollar theft.
A few weeks in Gitmo would change his tune, though. And GOD knows he deserves it.
The deplorable state of Walter Reed tells the true story of how much Bushco supports the troops.
That and the fantasy of a budget that he sent to the Hill - flat veteran's healthcare for a few years then declining - that when it has been climbing by more than 10% per year as part of the real costs of the Iraq debacle. That cost increase is a trend that will continue for some time after that misadventure winds down.
But oh yeah Bushco is the outfit that really supports the troops - with fake turkey dinners and Mission Accomplished banners for photo ops.
Nancy, why hope? Both of these neo-nuts are seriously disturbed and dishonest - unworthy of your concern. Nobody in this country believes either one of them unless such person happens to be completely unschooled and unread concerning all current events. You should know as well as anyone that -- without remorse or regret -- they have deceived, deceived and deceived again. Even Bush readily admits to (some of) his deceit, saying he could not tell the truth (e.g. about replacing Rumsfeld) because of the undesired political consequences to him (paraphrase). With these Republican neo-nuts, the ends justifies the means. No morals. No integrity. No decency. So please do not waste your breath pretending that you can expect these leopards to change their spots. Let them call you names. Like McCain did with Obama. Like Obama, take the high road and further expose them for their lack of character. Understandably McCain is now on a downward spiral that can only end in his political embarassment and demise. Although Cheney and Bush's poll numbers are already so low that it's hard to imagine any further drop. However, with Cheney and Bush, I believe they have yet to reach their complete potential. I read yesterday that OJ Simpson already polls higher than Cheney.
- If you ever wore a uniform & served, you'd understand that fact..
.. Our troops where always funded..... Now they are short on body armor, up-armor Humvee kits, training & troop numbers to support the conflicts Bush is creating.
LOL! To quote the great Bugs Bunny, "What a maroon!"
I'm sorry guys, I know I agreed to ignore him too, but the idiot is such a clown and so easy to kick that I just couldn't help myself. OK, I'll go back to ignoring him.
I wasn't. But you probably were.
As for RandyBO - or BS, he wouldn't get the threat of Islamofascism if it fell on him, and I wonder about you too, homespunhippycrite. As for McMath, surprise, surprise, I agree with you on Bush's - and McCain's failed policies of allowing the ILLEGAL to stay, and s-u-c-k America, while sending disruly and el- stupidito kids to our schools. BUT...
Is Botox Nan any better? Hey dummies listen to what she said with the clueless Harry Mitchell, the pro-ILLEGAL guy elected over J.D. Hayworth - YOU NEED TO OPEN THE DOORS OF YOUR SCHOOLS TO THE ILLEGALS REGARDLESS IF THEY PAY OR NOT, OR LEARN ENGLISH OR NOT.
That means we citizens and taxpayers pay for them, bozo dem liars. And yet you think the Dems will be stronger on the ILLEGAL issue - heck, who are the Latino Dem politicians siding with? Care to answer, McMath - or how about you RandyBullSH*T, or Homespunhippycrite.
Yep, knock Bush. Urge our defeat, and say you support the troops. Just like Botox B*TCH is anti-ILLEGAL.
Sorry, but you're pretty pathetic, Dem bozos.
Appearing on ABC's This Week, Cheney was asked why Operation Desert Storm had not gone "all the way" to remove Saddam Hussein from power. "I think for us to get American military personnel involved in a civil war inside Iraq would literally be a quagmire," Cheney replied. "Once we got to Baghdad, what would we do? Who would we put in power? What kind of government? Would it be a Sunni government, a Shia government, a Kurdish government? Would it be secular, along the lines of the Baath party, would it be fundamentalist Islamic? I do not think the United States wants to have U.S. military forces accept casualties and accept responsibility of trying to govern Iraq. I think it makes no sense at all."
AND for the uninformed sheep who think this has made us safer, there was NO connection between Saddam and the Al Qaeda directed attacks on 9/11 AND Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction, particularly no nuclear weapons nor a reconstituted program!
The sheer incompetence, corruption and arrogance of this ill conceived misadventure in Iraq has created the #1 recruiting tool in the world for Islamic extremists - while violating many of the bedrock principles that our republic was founded on - alienating many of the peoples around the world we will need as allies to prevail in this struggle.
Heckuva job, D I C K!
IGNORE LIEBERMAN
Posted by dallison7 at 06:01 PM : Feb 24, 2007
But he's so fun to kick around and he makes it soooooo easy!
Well....ok....I'll ignore him too...as long as I still get to kick singinrick around sometimes.
...well, he's got a point.
Three things seem to drive his agenda. 1. He's still fighting Vietnam. He was with LBJ in the '60s and with Bush in the '00s; he's never seen a fruitless war he didn't like. He's still sure that if not for traitors like Hanoi Jane we'd still be in charge in Saigon. (Does he really wish we still had half a million troops fighting in Southeast Asia 25 years later? No matter.) 2. He shares the neo-con infatuation with American military power, forgetting that America rose to world power in the first place because of its ECONOMIC strength. Worse, he has tied his masculinity to supporting the militarization of American society. 3. He thinks American military intervention in the Middle East is Good For Israel. But helping to recruit a generation of potential terrorists or promoting Iran to regional superpower really didn't help Israel.
American neo-conservatism has generated a virtual army of trash-mouth Coulters and Coulter-wannabes. The Frankenstein monster thus created is starting to define neo-conservatism to the part of the public that hadn't previously chosen sides, partly explaining the electoral turnaround of 2006. Let him continue; that sort of private rhetoric in the heartland that will bury the GOP in 2008.
as for homespunhypocrite, since many of you lefties claim military service - the question is, with whom, I chose to decline to answer. I want us to get Bin Laden but your boy Cliton - whether or not you liked him is irrelevant since you pooh-pooh the current administration - thought that dumping bombs from B-52s on downtown Belgrade was the best way to smash terrorism. Maybe he thought Bin Laden was there.
Cliton thought much more highly of Arafat than the security of American citizens, so when John O'Neill, murdered on 9/11 and Richard Clarke - yes, that Clarke came to him with a plan to finally terminate Bin Laden, he nixed it for fear of alienating Arafat. This was right after the Cole bombing - and any real chance of getting Bin Laden in a known heaquarters went out the window because of the draft dodging perv.
Maybe if YOU DID SERVE, lady, you do dislike the guy. But try selling it to your friends who hate Bush and Cheney because they both wanted Bin Laden and Saddam. Unfortunately you have an entity called Pakistan which we cannot afford to alienate at this time, though I wish we could.
The Dems, trust me, would be no better. Witness Jimmeeee Carter's love affair with the House of Saud - he abandoned the Shah on Human Rights Issues yet enjoyed the Saudi money in his wallet.
Mr. Cheney made the following statement regarding operation Desert Storm in 1991.
"I think for us to get American military personnel involved in a civil war inside Iraq would literally be a quagmire," Cheney replied. "Once we got to Baghdad, what would we do? Who would we put in power? What kind of government? Would it be a Sunni government, a Shia government, a Kurdish government? Would it be secular, along the lines of the Baath party, would it be fundamentalist Islamic? I do not think the United States wants to have U.S. military forces accept casualties and accept responsibility of trying to govern Iraq. I think it makes no sense at all."
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