Dick Cheney has finally hit the bottom of despicability

It is now conceptually impossible that former vice-president Dick Cheney could ever become any more despicable. What an absolute lowlife, even among his twofold ranks of repudiated politicians and confirmed torturers.

One would think that once -- just once -- this slimy, slithering racketeer of boundless, recidivist national torment would actually stand on two human feet and take personal responsibility for something, anything, that went wrong under his watch. Just once. Any admission of real fallibility. Even the Devil would cop to pride.

But not this punk. Hell, if nothing else he hasn't the time, but that's only because he's too busy pointing his stubby little finger at others for all the Bush administration's monumental foul-ups.

I was going to let his typically abrasive National Press Club appearance on Monday pass without comment, because it was, well, so typical, until I read this morning in WaPo about the cloven-hoofed one having "personally over[seen] at least four briefings with senior members of Congress about" the CIA's use of systematic torture, a bull-in-the-china-shop oversight that reinforces suspicion that the U.S. Constitution was debilitated for years by only one principal assassin.

On Monday, however, Cheney made sure to blanket the criminally prosecutable blame: "We all approved it," he said, as he continued his propaganda campaign for the declassification of non-existent proof of torture's non-existent effectiveness.

He also blamed the then-head of the counterterrorism program, Richard Clarke, for "obviously miss[ing]" 9/11's warning signs; and, in effect, he blamed CIA director George Tenet for the colossally imbecilic Iraq War: "The prime source of information on the relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda was George Tenet.... That is not something I made up, that is not something I thought of. That is what the director of central intelligence was telling us."

But, as mentioned, we can always look at the upside: Dick Cheney simply cannot get any more despicable.

Comments

[Truthseeker]

Your article is right on the money. By the way, I, myself, have taken to calling him Beelzebub. However, I really love "the cloven-hoofed one." I tried watching his
National Press speech, but found
I could only watch it in 10 second intervals.

[Victor]

If you think Dick Cheney can't get more despicable, you misunderestimate him.

[Barry Schwartz]

Cheney's openness, though blame-shifting, also signals his willingness to cooperate with a 'truth commission'. 'Truth-telling' would be a way for him to stay out of trouble in both the US and internationally; we should take him up on that, I think.

Sure, it is unlikely that Cheney would be prosecuted -- most of the 'truth commission' talk has been a thinly veiled call for unconditional amnesty -- but the Dickster shouldn't count on it. Better for him if he talks; and, if he does, it may even become fairly safe for him to travel -- though not to stroll on the streets of Baghdad, of course.

[Kevin Schmidt]

Why do you only go half way? dick Cheney is not only despicable, he is also a traitor, a torturer, a mass murderer, an international terrorist as well as a domestic terrorist.

You quote dick Cheney's lies, but you don't write about his crimes that makes him so despicable.

dick Cheney blamed Tenet for faulty intelligence that led to the illegal Iraqi war, yet there is ample evidence to prove it was Cheney who made regular trips to the CIA for the purpose of cooking that very same intelligence. That is treason, which goes beyond despicable.

It is no accident that dick Cheney decided to build his new house within walking (burrowing) distance of the CIA.

dick Cheney blamed Richard Clarke for 9/11, even though there ample evidence to prove it was Cheney himself who caused 9/11. That also goes beyond despicable because that is treason as well as premeditated mass murder for political and monetary gain.

Until you talking heads take the gloves off and start calling for a Constitutional revolution and full prosecution, dick Cheney and the rest of the Neocon-Fascists, not to mention the Plutocracy, will continue to literally get away with murder, the theft of the American Dream, and the enslavement of the American middle class.

[Cole...]

'Hit the bottom'?--Cheney will prove you wrong, his capacity to "sink" is bottomless.

[Nathan Snail]

no, Cheney as venal and scummy as he is, can only continue to go lower, maybe surpassing 'whale shit' in his quest to be the lowest life form on the planet, second only to Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith. Oh, add in there Robert Mueller and John Ashcroft, they're all pretty lowlife filth in their own rights.

[Ann]

Dick Cheney is also a rapist. He and Halliburton raped our national treasury of all of its value. Dick Cheney gave the masses a ruthie and went to work on us.

[Josh]

There's an old saying that goes like this, "Which is worse, the fool or the fool who follows it?"

America is nothing but one huge giant Jerry Springer stage, where you all pull on one another's hair while the owners sit back and laugh, and make money.

Dick Cheney is around and about because you allow him to be. You can't claim ignorance anymore, you sit back and let him rape you, he didn't force you. So stop whining, either arrest the man and his cohorts or shut the hell up damn it!!

[Gene]

Cole...actually Cheney isn't "bottomless"...I used him to wipe my bottom, and then flushed him and Bush down the toilet of history...to p.m. I started reading you recently, great stuff...!

[victor]

Yeah, they all approved it. So string 'em up. String 'em all up. I don't care how many political functionaries swing. There should be at least five thousands scumbags purged.

[mo]

Cheney is in cover up mode - he is in the news now almost every other day.

The amount of people who know the REAL truth about him is in the thousands.

There are crimes that are unamnestiable (ie unpardonable)personal and official, and he tops the list on all counts. Therefore there is zero possibility that he could ever come clean.

If there is ever any justice it will be served by his own clique, after all they anyway couldn't allow any truth to surface.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gene]

Cheney is the worst kind of coward...in blaming Richard Clark for "missing" 9-11, he was using Clark as a "human shield"...he is willing to let Clark take all the flak, while, like a rat, he scuttles away to safety....when you get down to it, the "human shield" model was the policy of the Bush crowd...when something went wrong, blame others, let them take the flak, then scuttle away like the vermin they are...

[Nathan Snail]

as Cheney was a 9/11 co-conspirator and probably in-charge of the false flag attacks on the U.S. that day, he knew torture was never necessary for anything, not even to justify his warmongering and war profiteering at Halliburton/KBR.

there is such a thing as universal justice, even if it doesn't come in an alleged 'court of law' in a country where Rule of Law is DEAD, and so, some fine day his filthy black heart will stop beating, and the world will be rid of one less mass murdering pile of shit.

he'll get his. maybe not in a court, but he'll get his. what goes around does indeed come the fuck around.

[Bill]

Nice piece, and so true too.

[Company Man]

You can be certain he made a deal to keep his doings under wraps, or he never would have conceeded command and control.

[Nathan Snail]

oh, of course, the deal was; "don't declare martial law and let us take over and we won't prosecute you for the criminality you did while you were in office", and this makes the Obombaton an accessory after the fact, and in fact, guilty of TREASON for suborning torture and crimes against the United States. As far as I am concerned, Obombaton is as guilty as Cheney is for protecting the criminality.

[Polaris]

Nope - I don't think he's reached his limit yet.

[wraparound]

' "Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."

"Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

"& someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions.
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That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?

"I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.

"I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty & I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.

"Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them — or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy.

"And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.

"There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?

"On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. & That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq — a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith-based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of you, I don't know what will.

"So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership. '

And btw... Vincent Bugliosi is right.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vincent-bugliosi/the-prosecution-of-george_b_102427.html