Cheney Echoes Nixon: If The President Does It During Wartime, It Is Legal
Cheney Echoes Nixon: If The President Does It During Wartime, It Is Legal
On Fox News Sunday today, host Chris Wallace asked Vice President Cheney, “if the President, during war, decides to do something to protect the country, is it legal?” “I think as a general proposition, I’d say yes,” replied Cheney.
Cheney went on to defend the administration’s actions over the past eight years:
CHENEY: There are bound to be debates and arguments from time to time and wrestling back and forth about what kinds of authority is appropriate in any specific circumstances, but I think that what we’ve done has been totally consistent with what the Constitution provides for.
Watch it:
Cheney’s answer is eerily reminiscent of former President Richard Nixon’s claim that “when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” Nixon made the comment in his famous interview with David Frost, responding to a question about whether “there are certain situations” in which “the president can decide that it’s in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.”
Though Cheney thinks the administration’s actions have been “totally consistent with what the Constitution provides for,” numerous courts have ruled that the Bush administration has overstepped the bounds of the Constitution:
– In June 2004, The Supreme Court dealt a setback to the Bush administration by refusing to endorse the claim that “the government has authority to seize and hold suspected terrorists or their protectors and indefinitely deny them access to courts or lawyers while interrogating them.”
– In June 2006, the Supreme Court “rolled back the sweeping powers appropriated by the Bush administration in the war on terror, ruling it could not order military trials for Guantánamo detainees without the protections of the Geneva convention and American law.”
– In August 2006, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled that “the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional, delivering the first decision that the Bush administration’s effort to monitor communications without court oversight runs afoul of the Bill of Rights and federal law.”
It’s ironic that Cheney’s Nixon comment came during an interview with Chris Wallace, considering that Cheney recently thanked Wallace for defending the Bush administration against comparisons to Nixon.
WALLACE: This is at the core of the controversies that I want to get to with you in a moment. If the president during war decides to do something to protect the country, is it legal?CHENEY: General proposition, I’d say yes. You need to be more specific than that. I mean — but clearly, when you take the oath of office on January 20th of 2001, as we did, you take the oath to support and defend and protect the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
There’s no question about what your responsibilities are in that regard. And again, I think that there are bound to be debates and arguments from time to time, and wrestling back and forth, about what kind of authority is appropriate in any specific circumstance.
But I think that what we’ve done has been totally consistent with what the Constitution provides for.
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The Facist pig, Chenney, should be frogmarched imediatly to prison and delivered at Hague! This week he admited to WAR CRIMES. FACIST PIG!
December 21st, 2008 at 11:12 amWithin the year may he suffer a stroke and live as a self-aware vegetable for at least 20 years.
December 21st, 2008 at 11:13 amMore accurately, if a Republican President does it during an illegal war the Republican President started, it’s legal.
Mr. Logan discusses The Current Problem:
December 21st, 2008 at 11:16 amhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i_vquVDPgU
Hey dead meat, Go Cheney yourself.
December 21st, 2008 at 11:16 amThis is exactly why the Republic666ans love war so much, they always start a war to mask what they are truly doing, masking the reality of their fascist machinations in the guise of “national security” in a time of war.
December 21st, 2008 at 11:24 amCheney is wrong and here’s why: The president does not have the constitutional authority to remove his own constitutional responsibilities. The constitution says that the president must take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Therefore, he cannot order anyone, including the vice president, to intentionally violate the law, as this would be doing the exact opposite of taking care that the laws be faithfully executed.
If it’s illegal and the president does it, it’s still illegal.
December 21st, 2008 at 11:26 amThirty more days, and Cheney pops up on the Hague’s radar.
Merry Christmas.
December 21st, 2008 at 11:31 amWhen you use the Constitution for toilet paper, some parts will be hard to read afterward.
December 21st, 2008 at 11:31 amWhy is Dead Meat Cheney appearing in public again? Does the undisclosed location need a good cleaning or is he making a PR push to keep his guilty ass from being prosecuted?
December 21st, 2008 at 11:33 amDoes the undisclosed location need a good cleaning or is he making a PR push to keep his guilty ass from being prosecuted?
Buckets of Lysol…
And get the pin-ups of Tricia Nixon off the walls.
December 21st, 2008 at 11:36 amIf the people hang him for treason, it’s legitimate.
December 21st, 2008 at 11:47 ami didn’t hear it all, but what i did hear from biden, about bringing war crimes charges (something like that), sounded a little too wishy-washy for my liking… hopefully it’s all about keeping the cards close to the chest, for now…
December 21st, 2008 at 11:53 amanother thought:
’cause if obama allows investigations, indictments and convictions of all the criminality, war and otherwise, of bushco, then he can have pRick warren say all the prayers he wants, whenever he wants.
i’ll take that exchange anytime.
December 21st, 2008 at 11:59 amand if the president wants to define war as “all the time, permanently”, well i guess that means according to dick cheneys logic the president is basically a dictator..
can the president sexually torture children with impunity? sure, why not, says darth dick?\
interestingly enough, sounds alot what saddam was trying to claim…too bad he wasnt running this country, sounds like cheney wouldnt have had a problem with him then..
December 21st, 2008 at 12:13 pmJust another reason that these criminals planned a war way before 9/11; and it wasn’t Afghanistan.
¶ AIO
December 21st, 2008 at 12:16 pmWhat Motivates the Torture Enablers?
By Scott Horton
via C&L
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/12/hbc-90004059
December 21st, 2008 at 12:18 pmCriminals aways think their crimes are justified…
…especialy WAR CRIMINALS.
December 21st, 2008 at 12:24 pmCheney is wrong for another reason: Nowhere in the constitution does it say that the powers not delegated to the COngress, or the States, or the People, and not prohibited by it to the President, are reserved to the President.
Bush and Cheney believe (falsely) that just because the President is acting in his role as “Commander-in-Chief”, that he has no restrictions on his constitutional authority. That is not a constitutional form of government, that is a dictatorship. We MUST have these men brought up on charges so that they can present that argument as a defense and have it declared wrong by the SCOTUS. Otherwise, they are getting away with it.
Just because they are going to be out of office soon is no reason not to prosecute them for their crimes. To not do so would be to show just as much disrespect for their offices as they have shown.
December 21st, 2008 at 12:34 pmKaty – i didn’t hear it all, but what i did hear from biden, about bringing war crimes charges (something like that), sounded a little too wishy-washy for my liking… hopefully it’s all about keeping the cards close to the chest, for now…
I heard him say, after speaking about how wrong it all was and how the new administration is opposed to such behavior, that nevertheless, they are “looking forward,” and not back….because they have such important work to do. Sorry…but this is the same b.s. we heard from Pelosi and Hoyer following the Nov. 2006 election. Indeed, there is important work to accomplish; this country is in a terrible mess. But the most important job of all is restoring the Constitution and the true balance of powers provided by it. If it isn’t done, and these war criminals not tried, convicted and punished, there is absolutely nothing that will stop any future administration from doing the same…or worse. I, like you, hope the incoming administration is merely playing their cards close to their chests, possibly to avoid martial law being declared prior to the inaugeration, and suspension of same. The house needs to be swept clean, and we all know that is going to include some Democrats who went along with the b.s. So be it!!
December 21st, 2008 at 12:35 pmEven if this bizarre theory were true, no such Constitutional protections would kick in unless war was declared by Congress. War was never declared by Congress, so there is no war power to hid3 behind.
December 21st, 2008 at 12:43 pmCheney is a gargoyle.
During a time of war (was it every officially declared by Congress?), is Cheney saying it’s ok to, oh I dunno, commit genocide? It’s during a time a war, isn’t it? According to Cheney’s thinking, that would be ok. I think the nazis would’ve given a hardy sieg heil to a remark like that.
Despicable b*stard.
December 21st, 2008 at 12:45 pmIn an interview with ABC’s This Week, Biden ripped Cheney: “His notion of a unitary executive, meaning that, in time of war, essentially all power, you know, goes to the executive, I think is dead wrong. I think it was mistaken.”
It’s also unconstitutional and therefore treasonous.
Hanging and torture is too good for VP Face of Evil.
December 21st, 2008 at 12:47 pmperhaps we need to pitch in and sign dickhead cheney up for a civics class at the local junior college. most americans from about the third grade on are taught the president is not above the law, regardless of the situation. if that were the case, we’d have a monarch, or dictator, not a president of the people.
December 21st, 2008 at 12:49 pmPsychopaths: They are self-centered and often act impulsively (like telling another Senator FU). They lie a great deal (as he continued to do in today’s interview), and manipulate others for their personal gain (the war in Iraq, the WMDs et al.) — psychopaths do not feel great sympathy for the people they hurt (So?)
Bush is willfully ignorant, stubborn, and belligerent, uncurious and inarticulate. Likely suffering from a pshcological disorder involving his relationship with his parents, going back to their not telling him his baby sister had died, before they went golfing.
So we continue to endure the result of a combination of psychologically disordered individuals leading our country.
December 21st, 2008 at 12:59 pmCheney will only be right if he gets away with breaking the law. As Cheney was a student of Nixon and continue the Policies so will another Republican in the future if Cheney isn’t brought to Justice. This time the Justice Department should no only have criminal charges but civil charges as well. It’s time Law Makers decided if they loyality to their party means more then serving and saving America. At lease Gerald Ford got to see his biggest mistake was pardoning Nixon, as he watched Cheney and Rummy pick up where Nixon left off.
December 21st, 2008 at 1:03 pmThe way these clowns keep repeating their “justifications” for their actions, one could almost get the feeling they might be scared about something.
December 21st, 2008 at 1:03 pmNone of what Cheney and Bush have done has been in the best interest of the nation. It has all been in the best interest of the have-mores. Trashing our Constitution is not consistent with what the Constitution provides for!
It is so depressing to see how deep and how low this nation has fallen thanks to Bush, his lies, his criminal decision to invade Iraq, and now the economy is finally being terrorized by these crooks. Both Bush and Cheney should be EXECUTED for their crimes against America, humanity, and the World!
December 21st, 2008 at 1:10 pmAmerica will rise once more, after we get rid of the dead weight of conservatism. Thirty days, until we jettison these nitwits.
December 21st, 2008 at 1:20 pmCheney makes a fine representative of the Criminal Class that rules pretty much anything of value in this world.
December 21st, 2008 at 1:24 pmKeep talking, Dick…
December 21st, 2008 at 1:25 pm#30 Barfly I hope you’re right. I hope America can regain its footing and move on in the right direction. We have endured 8 years of highly toxic failed policy. The real poisonous type, this last month with the idiot at the helm feels like a year!
December 21st, 2008 at 1:38 pmThe Hague is the only hope of bringing these criminals to justice. This administration is about to embark on the most obscene cluster pardon in history. Parents, shield your child’s eyes.
PEACE
December 21st, 2008 at 1:41 pmThe outgoing traitor-cabal has only the down-fall of America as its interest. Since Max Headroom Ronnie Raygun spewed forth his traitorous 11 words for all to be afraid of: “I am from the government and I am here to help.” No one has listened to the continuous traitorous vile GOP eminations and their desire to circumvent the Constitution at every possible turn. All Rightwing radio, Christ-fascist preachers, K-street “think tank”, and crap like Grover UNdies-in-a-twist, “I want to shrink government to the size it fits in a bathtub and then drown it. HELLO!!! that is MY government, and the ONE your Heir Leader has sworn to defend and uphold. Yeah right. ANd then we have the LOVELY PNAC.
The GOP needs to be executed, entombed in concrete, have lye poured into the tomb, and then blasted off in a rocket to the sun.
The GOP is TREASONOUS.
New 11 words:
December 21st, 2008 at 1:43 pm“I am from the GOP, and I know how to govern.”
Was Chris Wallace’s hand inside Dick(head)’s pants during this interview? I thought so…
After the interview did Chris’s head disappear up Dick(head)’s a$$? He loves to lick GOP tail.
Too bad Chris won’t ask if Dick(head)’s actions and words were damaging the GOP brand and conservatism in general. He’s too shallow and biased to be of any help to this nation. A perfect fit over at Fux nOoze.
December 21st, 2008 at 1:45 pmIf the president does it during Criminal Wartime, it is illegaly criminal!
December 21st, 2008 at 2:04 pmI’d like to hear that the DOJ has served an arrest warrant against Cheney for crimes against the people. . . with a huge F**K you as an addendum
December 21st, 2008 at 2:07 pmIf Cheney says it, does it, or advocates it, very good chances are that it is illegal -whatever “it” is.
December 21st, 2008 at 2:35 pmCool. I’m gonna become Presidunce, and then I’m gonna shoot a hobo.
December 21st, 2008 at 3:10 pmHe is mocking the nation. Arrogantly daring us to prosecute him. And he will probably win this dare. I can hear his demonic Dr. Evil chortles echoing from deep within his underground base.
December 21st, 2008 at 3:13 pmDid I miss a declaration of war? The reason the Constitution demands a legislative declaration of war is to prevent Presidents from making a personal declaration to cover their ass.
December 21st, 2008 at 3:26 pmI always thought Lehy was a damn fool for not taking that opportunity to slug Cheney right in his big fat mouth. He had the opportunity, and the reason, and he did not do anything about it. That sucks. The world would have cheered if Pat had broken Dicks jaw that day. Dick deserved it. Fat old men with heart conditions should not pick fights.
December 21st, 2008 at 4:00 pmBut, you know, we aren’t really at war.
December 21st, 2008 at 4:58 pmYes Dick is wrong. Dead wrong would too much of a good thing.
December 21st, 2008 at 5:20 pm\barfly Says:
Thirty more days, and Cheney pops up on the Hague’s radar.
Merry Christmas.
Barfly! You DO believe in Santa Claus??
December 21st, 2008 at 5:38 pmDoggamn it, let’s get these bastards to Den Hague for some justice!
December 21st, 2008 at 7:06 pmThere will never be a time when there are no terrorists in the entire world. Then a president can always say “we are in a Global War on Terror”. Then they can say “anything the president does is legal”. But saying something does not make it true. They should still be tried for their crimes. Remember: 935 recorded lies, military action is only legal if the UN Security Council approves, and there are laws against torture (including waterboarding).
December 21st, 2008 at 9:53 pmDickles, I’ve got a bottle of the best gin in the back of my freezer. It’s going to come out and make the best Goddamn martini ever made when 1: you are arrested on war crimes charges, or 2: a little blood clot of divine justice makes it’s way into the rancid blackness that exists between your ears and drops you like a sack of bricks. Don’t make me wait, Dickles, I’m thirsty.
December 21st, 2008 at 10:21 pm.
Cheney points to the oath as if it said “defend and protect the United States against all enemies…” But it demands that executives protect the Constitution of the United States.
In pursuing the former rather than the latter, he became that domestic enemy against whom defense was sorely needed.
December 21st, 2008 at 10:38 pmZooey Says:
Cool. I’m gonna become Presidunce, and then I’m gonna shoot a hobo.
When Jon Stewart comes back next year, watch for him to say that he has already broken his New Year’s resolution not to kill a hobo. It’s one of his annual jokes.
December 21st, 2008 at 11:57 pmIt seems to me that several folks have already pointed out the key elements for prosecution of both President Bush, and Vice-President Cheney, both criminally, as well as for acts of treason.
The arguments against both defendents are compelling, and I doubt any judge or jury would fail to convict either person (I will not defile the term gentlemen here, however polite I’m trying to be). I would expect both to hide behind executive privilege, as well as other legalities they’ve used in the past.
Although I doubt anyone will have the courage to indict either, I can always hope, and wonder if anyone has considered or looked into a civil suit against the Bush administration.
I can say that the day an indictment against Bush and Cheney comes down would be the happiest day of my life (apologies to all my loved ones there…)
Peace,
-dh
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:17 amThis evil and arrogant man is a plague on our nation. I can not describe how disgusting he is. A little extra hot corner of hell is awaiting Darth Cheney the pustulant herpes sore that walks like a man.
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:18 amCheney and his happy gang of torturers, rapists, thieves, and murderers have nothing to worry about from the Dems. Pelosi, Ried, Obama, and Biden all know that if they go after Bush and Cheney it will become apparent that the stink of treason goes well beyond this administration and the Repugs. We already know that the Dems knew all about the wire tapping, the water boarding, and the bad intel the bushies were pushing leading up to the war from the very beginning and supported the criminals anyway. That makes them every bit as guilty as the most rabid neocon. If we ever get this bag of excrement open we’ll find that very little of our government doesn’t stink to high heaven. If justice is ever served over this fiasco we’l have to let a bunch of pot smokers back out on the street to make room for the real criminals whether they have a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ behind their names. I’d be willing to bet a special election would be needed to fill all the vacancies.
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:51 am> I’m gonna become Presidunce,
> and then I’m gonna shoot a hobo.
Just make sure and use the magic get out of jail phrase afterward: “I was doing it to fight terror”
December 22nd, 2008 at 3:55 amDick Cheney just let Adolph Hitler off the hook and again proved why he is the #2 terrorist recruitment tool in the world.
Most folks missed the small, prestigious award ceremony last week for #1.
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:08 am
Where in the AUMF does it declare war?
Nowhere.
Wrong again, as usual Dickhead.
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 amLet me, for the moment, actually believe Cheney.
Doesn’t that, then, beg the question on whether calling it the War on Terror wasn’t a self-serving action used to grab more power. After all, there wasn’t an identifiable government, etc.
Or would the “War on Drugs” also trigger the same presidential powers ?
What about a war on the heartbreak of psoriasis ?
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:40 amTrouble is half the idiotic country are still waving “old Glory” and shouting USA! USA! effectively drowning out the fact that “extended war time powers” (and Oil) is exactly why Cheney/Bush gave the war in the first place
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:51 pm