Hagel Slams Cheney’s Callous Iraq Comments: Not ‘Out Of Character,’ Has A ‘Credibility Gap’
Hagel Slams Cheney’s Callous Iraq Comments: Not ‘Out Of Character,’ Has A ‘Credibility Gap’
Last week, Vice President Cheney made notorious comments exemplifying his distance from the situation on the ground in both Iraq and the U.S. When asked about the sour public opinion on the war, he replied “So?” And when asked about 4,000 dead U.S. troops, he said, “The President carries the biggest burden, obviously.”
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) is having none of it. In two interviews this week on NPR, Hagel ripped Cheney’s callousness towards the public and the troops on the ground.
Hagel told Dianne Rehm on Tuesday that the “So?” comment was not surprising considering Cheney’s “character”:
Well, I don’t think it was out of character for the Vice President. I have always believed that leaders should not be governed by polls, and obviously the vice president does and this president has noted that.
Yesterday, on NPR’s On Point, Hagel again went after Cheney, saying that his sense of Bush’s “burden” in the war is ironic coming from a Vietnam draft dodger:
There is a credibility gap here, at least a little bit, with the Vice President, as far as I’m concerned. Here’s a guy who got five deferments during the Vietnam War, said publicly that didn’t work into his plans.
Listen to audio of both interviews here:
The public agrees with Hagel. A recent World Public Opinion poll found that 81 percent of Americans believe that “when making ‘an important decision,’ government leaders ’should pay attention to public opinion polls; 94 percent want this done “in between elections.”
Cheney’s comments have met Hagel’s ire before. When Cheney said in January 2007 that “the biggest threat” in the Iraq war is the American public not having the “stomach for the fight,” Hagel said Cheney “underestimates the people of this country” and suggested that he tell families of the soldiers “that they don’t have the stomach.”
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MIKE GRAVEL IS RUNNING LIBERTARIAN!
ITS OFFICIAL!
http://www.oldhacks.blogspot.com/
http://gravel08.us
March 27th, 2008 at 5:09 pmNobody carries a bigger burden than W and Cheney – unless it was their time to carry the burden, then carrying a burden “doesn’t work into their plans.” How much blood of other parents’ children is enough for these two?
March 27th, 2008 at 5:11 pmI head Cheney is going to be vacationing in Cuba soon!!
March 27th, 2008 at 5:14 pmhear, not head
March 27th, 2008 at 5:15 pmCheney has a disdain for the common American. He believes that the general public is incapable of running government or setting policies. This is the arrogant dogma of neo-cons. A dictatorship would suit Cheney just fine, as long as he was dictator.
March 27th, 2008 at 5:17 pmPublic opinion always matters in times of war. We won independence from Great Britain in large part because the British public was ambivalent about forcing the colonies to stay at the point of a bayonet. The Union won the Civil War because the electorate returned Lincoln in 1864 instead of electing a candidate who favored conciliation. We withdrew from Vietnam when a significant percentage of the populace lost faith in the concept of having a half million troops in a country with no strategic significance to the U.S. Only when you have an administration on its last legs with no fear of retribution and no moral compass do you see public opinion so callously disregarded.
March 27th, 2008 at 5:20 pmWell said Mr. Hagel. Thank you.
March 27th, 2008 at 5:23 pmOT, but great news:
Siegelman released from prison pending appeal
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/27/17611/8535/516/485612
Now, hopefully Siegelman can put Rove behind bars where he belongs!
March 27th, 2008 at 5:24 pmMIKE GRAVEL IS RUNNING LIBERTARIAN!
ITS OFFICIAL!
So, that’s more likely to take votes away from McCain than Obama. Libertarians are much closer to Republicans in beliefs than they are to Democrats.
March 27th, 2008 at 5:25 pmAt last , If he were in Europe he would be thrown out of power , his statement was more than callous
saying that Geert Wilders’ film about the Quran is opinionated – watch it here
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d9_1206624103
March 27th, 2008 at 5:28 pmGeert Wilders film has some points BUT if we chose our own ( so called Christian ) leaders better and they stopped installing dictators like Saddam and stopped killing Muslims in their millions and had not crusaded for a 1000 years
Geert Wilders film would never been made ( lets install better leaders like Nobel peace prize winners to be presidents rather than the rif raf like Bush , Cheney , Blair , Sarkozy , Merkel etc etc
Tobie tall signing out for two weeks to live it up in India
March 27th, 2008 at 5:38 pmCheney’s credibility gap dwarfs Condi’s dental one.
March 27th, 2008 at 5:38 pmA very important point that I think escapes a lot of the public, and apparently most of our elected officials, is that in our country WE THE PEOPLE are, in fact, the government.
Those WE elect to public office do have a duty to listen to the people. It is hubris for public officials to think WE don’t matter. Or that we matter only every four years as that bubble-head Dana Perino stated earlier this week. They don’t exist if WE don’t want them.
WE matter all the time, and WE can (and should) kick the bastards out if, and when, they think WE do not. WE are the government, and WE do matter, all the time.
March 27th, 2008 at 5:45 pmGreat news about Siegelman. I think he’ll be showing up to testify before a Congressional committee while he’s out.
March 27th, 2008 at 5:49 pmOh, come on, read the first quote again. It’s quite clear if you read the latter, unbolded portion of it that Hagel is DEFENDING Cheney in his dismissal of polls. Hagel believes that, in general, polls should not dictate policy. But that doesn’t take anything away from his obvious contempt for Cheney’s failure to serve during Vietnam.
March 27th, 2008 at 5:53 pmCheney has proven on multiple occassions that he does not have the stomach for the fight with those 5 draft deferments.
March 27th, 2008 at 5:54 pmBTW- The American people DO have a say about war, for they are the ones who pay for it in blood and money.
progressinourminds Says:
March 27th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Remember when your teacher’s used to select passages from the student work and then have the class identify and correct the mistakes? I’ll bet you do!
March 27th, 2008 at 5:59 pmWhen will one member of the Fourth Estate [if not more] ask Cheney is it not hypocritical of him to urge Americans to be patriotic by sacrificing for his or her country while he himself did not come anywhere near a field of combat while wearing a military uniform? Or will those in the press claim that they cannot ask him that logical and relevant question because they have other priorities?
March 27th, 2008 at 6:00 pmprogressinourminds
Unfortunately its yours and our leaders ( in the west) for the last 50 years that has fueled that kind of extremism from a minority of Muslims in the Geert Wilders film . Geert Wilders is himself a politician in Holland
March 27th, 2008 at 6:09 pmwhy is that dickhead still pooping on these threads??
March 27th, 2008 at 6:15 pmmust be special ed spring break somewhere.
March 27th, 2008 at 6:16 pmand now we’re being spammed?
March 27th, 2008 at 6:16 pmprogressinourminds says stupid things.
You don’t have two brain cells to rub together, do you.
themancan’tspell still can’t spell or put a coherent sentence together, new handles don’t make you any smarter, dumb ass.
March 27th, 2008 at 6:26 pmCheney needs to be ’slammed’ into prison, too.
March 27th, 2008 at 6:30 pmCheney is right. The president and vice president should not be swayed from doing what is right because of a poll. Polls can be notoriously fickle with significant changes over relatively short periods of time as the public gains more knowledge and comes to understand the facts and issue. It is not like there has been a long, steady, consistent trend showing the loss of public support for a venture. Nor is like this conflict has taken longer than WWII with little to show for it other than the loss of American lives, squandering of our national treasure and severe over extension of our military. Nor have the polls been driven by the constant failure of the Iraqi government(?) to make political progress in resolving the sectarian differences that led to near civil war.
The president and vice president must buck public opinion when the threat goes to the very viability of our nation as amply demonstrated by the number of innocent Americans killed in the attack on the Trade Towers because these numbers certainly must have exceeded the number of innocents killed during the invasion Polland, France, the Netherlands and the Battle of Britan during WWII. Certainly we have seen numerous countries fall to the influence of radical Islam before engaging on this war just as we saw the Iron Curtain fall over Europe during the Cold War.
No, they must be free to ignore the whims of the citizens that they serve. Bush and Cheney have been charged with a mission by God.
March 27th, 2008 at 6:33 pmJMOHR Says:
March 27th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
No, they must be free to ignore the whims of the citizens that they serve. Bush and Cheney have been charged with a mission by God.
—
I can live with some of the preceding ideas but the only two dudes that were every on a mission from god were Jake and Elwood.
March 27th, 2008 at 6:44 pmIf a majority of members in the House and 60 members of the Senate had any backbone, they would not only impeach them both, but try them as war criminals. Compare the evil that Saddam Hussein did while in power and then look at the 4,000 Americans dead, hundreds of thousands of Iraq civilians dead, not to count the about 5,000,000 displaced and refugee Iraqis – you tell me -
March 27th, 2008 at 6:46 pmwho was worse, Hussein or Bush-Cheney-McCain?
You don’t have to be a dictator to be a monster.
Typographical error; should be “Hegel told…”.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:07 pmI think Hagel is embarassed to be a Republican, in the same party as Bush/Cheney.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:10 pmGod bless Hagel!!
March 27th, 2008 at 7:13 pmHagel shows backbone, while Cheney slithers on his considerable belly..
March 27th, 2008 at 7:42 pmmcavalletto Says:
March 27th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
“Cheney told Dianne Rehm on Tuesday…”
Typographical error; should be “Hegel told…”.
And Diane Rehm.
Who has the best talk show on radio. Just fyi.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:45 pmMy my my, it took all this time up to now for a republican from Nebraska of all places to finally publicly acknowledge that Cheney is a bonafide draft dodger?
March 27th, 2008 at 10:10 pmCredibility gap? Hell, Cheney’s got a credibility canyon!
Watch your back, Chuck.
March 28th, 2008 at 12:08 amThanx for the Cheney 1/24/07 comment. He really is a rat bastard.
March 28th, 2008 at 6:26 amCheney is one of the most dangerous persons in government. He always has a hidden agenda, and he is paranoid about attacking other Countries. Especially if he and his associates (such as Halliburton) can benefit financially.
Besides being an “old fox” he is also a coward: now he refuses taking responsibility for his (criminal) actions and is saying that everything is the President’s responsibility.
He wants people to forget his actions and get clean before leaving government in (can’t wait!!!) a few months. No, we won’t forget. We will always remember what a nightmare those few bastard gangsters created for us, the people.
Besides, they destroyed our economy and killed over 4,000 of our best boys/girls.
March 28th, 2008 at 8:41 amThat God for Chuck Hagel, he’s the ONLY honest man in Washington from either party, with the possible exception of Sen. Webb D-Virginia. I am a die hard Democrat and I’d consider voting for Chuck Hagel for President.
March 28th, 2008 at 9:36 amSenator Chuck Hagel is a straight shooter — maybe, I shouldn’t use those words in an article about Veep Dick Cheney! — that was why I voted for him in his Senate run.
http://OsiSpeaks.com
March 28th, 2008 at 10:21 amI think part of the problem with people like Bush and Cheney (and most other politicians)is that they think of themselves as our leaders.
And the press and even people here refer to them as our leaders.
They are not our LEADERS. They are our REPRESENTATIVES. They are sent to Washington to represent the will of the people. They are not there to do whatever they want!
March 28th, 2008 at 10:33 amHagel makes up stuff! How can a sitting President, and his elected/appointed staff BECOME ‘INCORRECT’? Did they forget to brush one day? The sad part is that the magic neo-con delete button says to the public, often, “subract the dead and wounded, call it an incorrectness, an move on…” What’s sadder yet, is how this flailing site, tries to mirror the adding of negatives. The result has little bearing on PROGRESS, of the the emotional/intellectual core of (forward)American motivation, regarding some or part of our existing policies!!
March 28th, 2008 at 12:39 pmHagel makes up stuff! How can a sitting President, and his elected/appointed staff BECOME ‘INCORRECT’? Did they forget to brush one day? The sad part is that the magic neo-con delete button says to the public, often, “subract the dead and wounded, call it an incorrectness, an move on…” What’s sadder yet, is how this flailing site, tries to mirror the adding of negatives. The result has little bearing on PROGRESS, of the the emotional/intellectual core of (forward)American motivation, regarding some or part of our existing policies!!
March 28th, 2008 at 12:39 pmDick Cheney’s dream is to be 90 years old, a billionaire from the U.S. treasury through contractors and oil companies to him, being interviewed by Fox News for broadcast on their twenty channels, making one last death bed statement:
“Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela are turning the corner, democracy is on its way. Six more months, then we’ll see. Stay the course.”
“Oh, and global warming is real. Gotcha!”
March 28th, 2008 at 12:48 pmThen five defferment Dick a few dys later states that it is important they we pay attention to the fact that the latest polls of Iraqies comfirm the fact that the longer we stay in Iraq the more that they like us being there. I have searched every where and cannot find any poll like this. This is more crap like the intel that the Bush’s dreamed up then concluded it was wrong, no WMD’s, no poll. I can’t wait until these guys get arrested.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:57 pmThe president and vice president should not be swayed from doing what is right because of a poll. Polls can be notoriously fickle with significant changes over relatively short periods of time as the public gains more knowledge and comes to understand the facts and issue. It is not like there has been a long, steady, consistent trend showing the loss of public support for a venture. Nor is like this conflict has taken longer than WWII with little to show for it other than the loss of American lives, squandering of our national treasure and severe over extension of our military. Nor have the polls been driven by the constant failure of the Iraqi government(?) to make political progress in resolving the sectarian differences that led to near civil war.
The president and vice president must buck public opinion when the threat goes to the very viability of our nation as amply demonstrated by the number of innocent Americans killed in the attack on the Trade Towers because these numbers certainly must have exceeded the number of innocents killed during the invasion Polland, France, the Netherlands and the Battle of Britan during WWII. Certainly we hp presario pp2200 battery,hp pavilion nx9600 battery have seen numerous countries fall to the influence of radical Islam before engaging on this war just as we saw the Iron Curtain fall over Europe during the Cold War.
October 15th, 2008 at 5:14 am