Politico’s Allen And VandeHei ‘Interview’ Cheney So That They Can Write His Op-Ed
Politico’s Allen And VandeHei ‘Interview’ Cheney So That They Can Write His Op-Ed
President Obama is expected to announce today that he will order more than 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan as part of his new strategy to end the conflict there. Vice President Dick Cheney has been a constant critic of Obama, particularly over his decision making process on Afghanistan, saying that the President has been “dithering.”
Despite Cheney’s well-known and worn-out attacks on Obama, Politico’s Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei secured an interview with the former vice president in order to inform their readers today of the shocking revelation that Cheney thinks Obama is projecting “weakness” on Afghanistan. The paper’s top reporters sat down with Cheney for a 90-minute interview and transcribed Cheney’s attacks without challenge, criticism, or rebuttal:
Cheney said the president’s “agonizing” about Afghanistan strategy “has consequences for your forces in the field.” [...]
“Every time he delays, defers, debates, changes his position, it begins to raise questions: Is the commander in chief really behind what they’ve been asked to do?” [...]
“Here’s a guy without much experience, who campaigned against much of what we put in place … and who now travels around the world apologizing,” Cheney said. “I think our adversaries — especially when that’s preceded by a deep bow … — see that as a sign of weakness.”
Of course, not much of what Cheney said is news. He’s been the GOP’s lead attack dog on Obama since the White House decided to release memos earlier this year detailing the Bush administration’s authorization of torture.
This passage in the Politico article best captures the passive, obedient approach that Allen and VandeHei took with Cheney:
Cheney rejected any suggestion that Obama had to decide on a new strategy for Afghanistan because the one employed by the previous administration failed.
Cheney was asked if he thinks the Bush administration bears any responsibility for the disintegration of Afghanistan because of the attention and resources that were diverted to Iraq. “I basically don’t,” he replied without elaborating.
Allen and VandeHei didn’t elaborate either. Did they press Cheney to explain? If not, why not? If they had, they should have come to the same conclusion former Republican senator Rick Santorum came to recently. “Let’s be very clear,” Santorum said, the Bush administration did not give the generals “the resources they need to accomplish the mission.”
Instead of playing Dick Cheney ghostwriters, perhaps Allen and VandeHei can take a lesson from McClatchy’s Jonathan Landay on how to fact check his baseless smears.
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Those Politico Foxsuckers are on Scarborough’s daily tirade almost every day.
And they wonder why “journalism” is having such a tough time these days…
December 1st, 2009 at 12:22 pmYet again, our media fails us.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:24 pmVice President Dick Cheney….. Why do they insist on calling him that? It’s Vice President Joe Biden now.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:27 pmThis is the political equivalent of having the Flat Earthers on to debate Global Warming.
The mainstream media is fixated on finding ‘opposition’ even if it has to leap to the extremes of sanity and reality to find it.
Funny how the MSM never had this same sort of ‘dedication to opposing views’ when Bush was in office….
December 1st, 2009 at 12:28 pm@2. EnnuiDivine…
Well, heck, ED, they’re being hand-fed by a failure and it’s contagious.
Cheney is just being the typical pol; “Not my fault. I bear no personal responsibility.”
Allen and Vandehei could have taken up the topic of the Senate report on the Tora Bora debacle. That’s news too, and it certainly has a bearing on why we’re still in Afghan-i-fracking-stan.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:28 pm“Celebrity journalism” with its seven-figure salaries continues to whore for the rich and the powerful.
It is corporate journalism which only concerns itself with the profit sheet of the corporate masters.
Anything for the benefit of ordinary citizens is condemned as Marxist or distributionist by the likes of the POLITICO whores.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:28 pmPolitico = GOPig/teabagging bulletin board. Fact.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:30 pmPhoto Caption Contest!
December 1st, 2009 at 12:32 pm
@6. Yeah, lord knows us mushrooms just need to know enough to keep making our corporate lords more money. Other than that, keep us in the dark and feed us nothing but sh!t. News Flash, we’re not in a feudal empire anymore. How does this happen?
December 1st, 2009 at 12:32 pm.
Oh, I read the title of the thread too quickly…
… I thought they were writing an Obit. My bad:(
.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:33 pmPolitico serves the Becksturbator crazies.
I gave up on it last year.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:35 pm@10. One day maybe.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:35 pmWhy is Cheney at home being answering questions for an ‘interview’ when he should be in a world court answering charges of crimes to humanity
December 1st, 2009 at 12:39 pmToday’s ignore list:
OSTL
Tracy__5
STORM
TaosJohn
Today, let’s honor World AIDS Day through our own way–-by ignoring the trolls.
Trolls Igno(RED)
December 1st, 2009 at 12:39 pmyet again, I repeat..
If Obama had decided to send troops 2 monthes ago… they would not have been sent until early next year.
There was no dithering.. it was the perfect window to make a decision. Troops were sent at the start of his term.. the next time they were planned to either increase troop levels or not was always planned to be – the start of next year.
God I hate Cheney.. more than any American political figure I can think of..
December 1st, 2009 at 12:39 pmCan someone please tell Dick Cheney to stop dithering in matters that he’s not in charge of anymore?
December 1st, 2009 at 12:40 pmI’m with you, Purple State.
Here’s to you, Dan and Eddie. I miss you both very much.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:40 pmWhen Politico first started out it was touted to have some of the best political journalists out there. It was supposed to be objective and informative. Well, it sure didn’t turn out that way. For starters one of the main and earliest contributors was Roger Simon—certainly not objective. I guess that should have alerted many to exactly what kind of blog we were going to see.
It is sad to see what Politico really became—a net mouthpiece for most Republican talking points.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:41 pmHow many persons identified Dick Cheney as the person who most personified Republican principles in a WaPo poll of 804 self-identified Republicans?
1.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:42 pmWhy is Dickhead Cheney complaining about Obama?
December 1st, 2009 at 12:45 pmCheney dithered on Vietnam for years.
@20. Dithered? No, fled, dodged, ducked, sure. But there was no dithering, he just didn’t go.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:46 pmTo quote from this TP article: “Of course, not much of what Cheney said is news”.
And none of what he says is relevant.
It would have taken President Obama considerably less time to review and decide upon an Afghan strategy if Darth Cheney and GDumbya hadn’t so hopelessly frogged up the effort in the first place.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:47 pmDick, STFU.
Save your lip for your defense before a war crimes tribunal.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:47 pmBig Dick lets it all hang out.
A lie a minute, if you’re willing to listen or pay for it.
This one’s classic Cheney: Cheney was asked if he thinks the Bush administration bears any responsibility for the disintegration of Afghanistan because of the attention and resources that were diverted to Iraq. “I basically don’t,”
Profound, Dick. Any other deep thoughts Politico can ‘wrap their hands around’?
December 1st, 2009 at 12:48 pmIt is better to let Cheney run his mouth off and then use him as the whipping boy in the elections. The Dems can make Cheney, Rush and Beck the symbols of the Republican party. There are a lot of campaign ads that can be developed with their statements. The same applies to the obstructionists in Congress. Dems need to make the Republicans the issue rather than let the Republicans make Obama, Pelosi and Reid the issue. The purpose of the ads is to win the middle of the road independent voters and not to persuade the hard core right Fox News audience. Dems need to get that message out before Luntz has a chance to develop new memes for the Republicans. Every Republican should be the issue by 2010. They should be painted with the theme of doing nothing. If you persuade the voters that the Republicans are obstructionists and crazy, the Dems have a better chance of holding all their seats.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:50 pmAs Andrew Sullivan said of this latest treason by Darth Cheney —
“The former vice president, the man who imported torture into the American constitutional system, failed to capture bin Laden, invaded a country under false pretenses, allowed the Afghanistan campaign to disintegrate, and added $5 trillion to the next generation’s debt burden, is attacking a sitting president on a day he announces a critical military strategy in front of his troops.
“It is, again, a breathtaking piece of dishonor from this bitter, angry man. . . Accusing the president of giving aid and comfort to the enemy is such a disgusting charge, such a deeply divisive, unAmerican tactic, it would be excoriated if it came from some far right blogger. That it comes from a former vice-president, violating every conceivable protocol (as he did in office), reminds me of why Cheney and Cheneyism remain such a threat to core American and Western values.”
December 1st, 2009 at 12:51 pmCheney’s pace maker has got to made of steel. He’s rabid for war and just can’t stand the fact that he’s no longer in a position of power. Obviously it makes him insane, or more insane. He certainly remains focused.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:51 pmAs for Politico, they are so tabloid, create absurd narratives and change the story depending on which network they’re talking to.
@20 you’re right, Cheney dithered on Vietnam for years
Politico’s Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei secured an interview with the former vice president
– - TP left off Cheney’s most damning statement:
“One of their top people will be given the opportunity — courtesy of the United States government and the Obama administration — to have a platform from which they can espouse this hateful ideology that they adhere to,” he said. “I think it’s likely to give encouragement — aid and comfort — to the enemy.”
Accusing the president of giving aid and comfort to the enemy is such a treasonous charge. It would be excoriated if it came from some far right blogger. That it comes from a former vice-president, violating every conceivable protocol (as he did in office), reminds me of why Cheney and Cheneyism remain such a threat to core American and Western values.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:56 pmNo responsibility for the current situation must mean a totally ineffective policy from the previous administration. There’s plenty of proof that they didn’t know what they were doing, but now they know everything Obama does is wrong.
He still doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:57 pm“Here’s a guy without much experience, who campaigned against much of what we put in place.”
Please, Dick(head), tell us about your experience in war. Tell us how you and Georgie did wonderful things in Afghanistan. Tell us about your experiences in Vietnam… oh, wait… you didn’t go to Vietnam, did you. You got 5 deferments to stay out of that quagmire, didn’t you. Let’s see, what’s the word for that? It’s on the tip of my tongue… COWARDICE!!!
December 1st, 2009 at 12:59 pmDick(head Cheney, you are nothing but a blood thirsty, delusional, larcenous piece of dogshit!
O/T: Movement under way in California to ban divorce
Divorce is a perversion against the traditional sanctity of marriage and is against the Word of the bible. It should be banned and outlawed.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:02 pmCheney is the ultimate Neo-Con posing as a Repug. His buddies like Frank Gafney and Wolfiwitz are true war mongers who never would soil their lily white hands in the heat of combat. These men have no problem sending other people’s husbands, wives and children to be sacrificed for the war machine. These men have no conscience or morality.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:02 pmDick says – Grrrr, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei know what’s good for them, not being assassinated by my super secret assassins would be one of the reasons. These lap dogs will do my bidding because they know that Satan owns me and you don’t want to mess with him, just ask all the people I had killed, oh, wait, you can’t, hehehe…I love that joke. Obama needs to stick to my plan, total chaos, the “no plan” plan, just change the objectives randomly. I used a dart board for our war plan and changed directions every week or so, so Obama should continue with the total fcuk up that I planned, how else can we stay in a continuous war without end. Hasn’t he heard of “WAR PROFITS”? TORTURE? HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS DEAD just for controlling the oil there? It was my plan and it worked, chaos, war without end, it’s the American way….hey, moron, did you get my fresh blood from cute kittens and puppies?
George says – Yes, master, I crushed their skulls with my own two hands, I love having blood on my hands, makes me sleep better at night.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:02 pmCaption – I was going to give her one of these, but when she was offended by my shoulder rub, I said screw it, I’ll just get drunk instead.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:06 pmIs or is not Politico smack dab in the middle of the mainstream media? Is or is not the mainstream media a lapdog for the powers that be [both economic and political] in and out of Afghanistan, in and out of Wall Street?
What in the world would one expect from them?
Now, if you were interviewing Cheney what would you ask him instead?
December 1st, 2009 at 1:06 pmJust what does Cheney mean by what “we” put in place?
December 1st, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Iran’s enemy was Iraq, so didn’t taking out Saddam give aid and comfort to our enemy, Iran? That’s all the invasion did since the reasons given weren’t true. Treasonous dick.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:06 pmIf Cheney wants these hacks to do his talking, I’ll let Louis Jordan do Obama’s:
lyrics from:
You Run Your Mouth (And I’ll Run My Business)
Who doubt say, who doubt when I say, who doubt…
You cats keep beetin’ up your chops
I had turn you over to the cops
I dig this spiel I’m going way on your gate
Don’t cop your broom pop or buddy or mate
You run your mouth and I’ll run my business brother
You run your mouth and I’ll run my business brother
You tell everybody I’m busted
You talk so much you got me disgusted
You run your mouth and I’ll run my business brother
Yeh, you run your mouth and I’ll run my business brother
You run your mouth and I’ll run my business brother
You start up telling me you’re my pal
End up telling how to handle my gal
You run your mouth and I’ll run my business brother
You run your juicy mouth and I’ll run my business brother
You run your juicy mouth and I’ll run my business brother
You’re always telling me what to do
Saying “I wouldn’t do that if I was you”
You run your mouth and I’ll run my business brother
You clamp your liver lips and I’ll run my business brother
Just clamp your liver lips and I’ll run my business brother
If I follows your advice on how to make dough
I’d been in the jailhouse long ago
You run your mouth and I’ll run my business brother
Yeh, you run your juicy mouth and I’ll run my business brother
December 1st, 2009 at 1:08 pmJust you run your mouth and I’ll run my business brother
You tell everybody I’m busted
You talk so much you got me disgusted
You run your mouth and I’ll run my business brother
There is no journalism anymore..
yes, they ask their pointed questions, tinged with some form of accusation – but they never have a follow up to the outlandish responses..
It’s like
Reporter: ‘Dick, do you think the mess in Afghanistan is your fault’
Cheney: ‘nope’
Reporter: ‘well, there we have it folks..’
@#%%^@$..
December 1st, 2009 at 1:12 pmwhen is dick going to get an introduction to reality?
December 1st, 2009 at 1:13 pmChickenhawk dick’s reality is making fortunes off of war and conflict.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:17 pmDidn’t President Bush and his henchman take time to decide to escalate the war in Iraq?
December 1st, 2009 at 1:22 pmOff Topic. Wow. Andrea Mitchell is just awful. She seems so inept and slow on the ball.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:23 pmSpeaking of projecting strength, did you know that world terrorism tripled under Cheney’s watch? Verily, the world cowers before those big tough Republicans. ;)
The Merchant Who Thought He Was God
December 1st, 2009 at 1:30 pmAs Secretary of the Defense and Director of Operation Desert Storm under Bush the Elder Cheney strongly against occupying Iraq as it would lead to the US being bogged down in an unending quagmire. In this position he also was deeply involved in arming and overseeing the training of the Taliban in their conflict with the former Soviet Union. Oddly enough as SoD, he also fought Congress throughout his tenure over military budgeting. That’s not the odd part. The odd part is that he fought hard to slash the military’s budget each of the four years that he held this position. The budget shrank yearly from $291 billion to $270 billion by the end. I would posit that it is Dick Cheney(who BTW seems to have NEVER made the right decision for what is best for America over his long Govt career) who has been doing the DITHERING in the middle east for TWENTY ODD YEARS…NEVER got it right, and is still behaving like an un-American blustering old fool living in complete denial of his many and varied disasterous decisions in foreign policy.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:33 pmI distinctly recall a knowledgeable friend telling me that in the year after 9/11 and the initial defeat of the Taliban, American aid to Afghanistan totalled all of $1 million, which is a couple of cents per Afghan.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:33 pmThe Iraq War was on the table on January 20, 2001. W and his cartel only needed a premise to ramp up. September 11, 2001 was close enough, in spite of the fact that Saddam Hussein was clearly innocent and had no deployable WMDs (They were scrapped.).
December 1st, 2009 at 1:37 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
A gasoline tax?
What about not taxing the middle class ?
You people blind!
December 1st, 2009 at 1:40 pmstewarjt says:
“Didn’t President Bush and his henchman take time to decide to escalate the war in Iraq?”
Well, I think that’s what’s bugging Cheney so much. You see Dick Cheney along with his neocon buddies at PNAC drew up their war plan for invading Iraq all the way back when Clinton was in office. They had the plan ready (minus a few tweeks here and there) well before 9/11 when they began pushing for a chance to try it out ASAP. From Cheney’s POV, President Obama should have formulated his Afghan Plan years ago, hence the “dithering”. Dick is just proud of his earnestness at having been ahead of the curve in his war planning and wants everyone to know it. It doesn’t matter to Dick that the justifications were all a pack of lies or that the plan was incredibly bad (were Cheney and Kristol the main authors?) or that in order to implement it they would have to turn their backs on capturing bin Laden. He had a plan dammit and that’s all that matters to five deferment Dick!
December 1st, 2009 at 1:45 pmPolitico used to be quite high in my politics tabs on my browser. But everytime they said something really stupid, I would move them down the list. Not long ago I actually deleted Politico altogether from my shortcuts tab. I just don’t understand what they are trying to do anymore. They seem like Mitt Romney’s secret propaganda outlet – dissing the Obama Administration with fake loaded headlines that end with question-marks. And they also go after Palin, cos Romney and the conservative establishment would be very happy to have her out of the way. They have some good people at Politico, but sadly, the bad eggs appear to outnumber them by a considerable and ever-growing margin.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:48 pm
The CBC think’s they’re helping this guy by treating him with kid gloves… This is WRONG!
They help him by ignoring Obama and taking on the banksters, the national security apparatus, and the racist eugenicist in his administration. But maybe that’s just wishful thinking. After all, the CBC is worried about their next elections, so they will vote and go along with anything anyway..
I miss Cynthia Mckinney lol…That woman had bigger balls than any male sucka MC’s in the CBC! Too bad her Israel position cost her spot.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:49 pmPerhaps our system is “too liberal”. After all, it did allow a bona fide psychopath like Dick Cheney to rise to the pinnacles of power.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:51 pm@43 PD..I think Ms. Mitchell is on some serious meds. She’s slow and sometimes slurs her words…..she seems to space out quite often
December 1st, 2009 at 1:55 pmYou have to consider the source with regard to Politico. It is filled with republican’s (Vandehei, Harris and Mike Allen)—they have an agenda and they push it. Every morning one of them is on Morning Jerk babbling and “setting the agenda for the day.”
Allen was despised when he was at Time Inc., he is nothing more than a meddlesome gossip who reports nonsense as news….I have a feeling he is a Log Cabin republican.
Look at the totally bullshit article that Harris created for yesterday–somethiing about 7 bad things happening to Obama. These clowns at Politico act as if the last 8 years never happened….they adore Bush/Cheney and are all very close friends with former administration officials.
How many “serious” journalist’s read the Sunday New York Times wedding announcements and comment on them and where the announcement is positoned in the paper……answer- Mike Allen….how gay is that?
December 1st, 2009 at 2:08 pmVote? ATF on the Igno(RED) list? Or is he doing a good job at discussing the related topic?
December 1st, 2009 at 2:10 pmCheney is a liar and a fool and so are Allen and VandeHei.
This excerpt from the post is a lie, and they know it because the president has not made his official announcement on Afghanistan yet. Only fools would send our precious soldiers into a war without debating and examining as much information as they could get their hands on and without an exit strategy.
“Every time he delays, defers, debates, changes his position, it begins to raise questions: Is the commander in chief really behind what they’ve been asked to do?” [...]
Besides being a liar and a fool, Cheney is also a chickenhawksh!t@$$
December 1st, 2009 at 2:13 pmShut the hell up, dick.
Somebody’s got to call the Dick Cheney on what he’s doing.
In his own words, it’s “unworthy of national leaders in a time of war.”
From “I Sniff Some Politics” by Howard Fineman, Newsweek, 05/27/02:
“Soon after Bush’s chesty Mansfield Room talk, Team Bush gathered itself, and fought back hard–”whacking the rats,” as the aide put it. They dispatched Vice President Dick Cheney to wave the patriotic flag at a political dinner in New York, where he warned critics not to make “incendiary comments” that are “totally unworthy of national leaders in time of war.” The Bushies even took the unprecedented step of wheeling out Laura Bush to defend her husband. Traveling in Budapest, Hungary, Mrs. Bush stayed up late to watch a Condi Rice briefing. The next morning the First Lady volunteered to reporters that it was “very sad that people would play upon the victims’ families’ emotions, or all Americans’ emotions.”
When’s the “liberal” MSM going to start calling the Dick Cheney on his hypocrisy?
December 1st, 2009 at 3:05 pmBush and Cheney often said Bin Laden was living in a cave but now it looks like they are living in caves and scared to come out. Yes flip out those tapes. Now Osama Bin Laden was protect by the Bush Administration more the American citizens. Cheney is to good for HELL.
December 1st, 2009 at 4:40 pmAs Colbert observed at the ?Press Club Dinner? :
We tell you what to write and you save time by writing it. Don’t waste your time checking it out. Just repeat what we tell you.
December 1st, 2009 at 5:15 pmPolitico has always been a right wing rag…from inception.
December 1st, 2009 at 6:01 pmI saw VandeHei on hardball today. Yup. He is a tool!
December 1st, 2009 at 8:39 pm3. USNClerk,
Part of the normal American SOP / Diplomatic protocol. Certain holders of office retain their titles after their tenure in office.
So we still say President Washington.
December 1st, 2009 at 8:39 pmPolitico is nothing more than a WHAT THE FOX NEWS scam for the conservanazis.
A conservanazi republiklan RAG.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:22 pm“I basically don’t,” he replied without elaborating.
a ahahha. What a tool!!! Yeah, your seven plus years running the show went so well, huh cheney. When will the grim reaper mercifully remove this tumor from humanity??
December 2nd, 2009 at 12:29 am