Is Cheney in trouble?

[DMB]

See this article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/andrew_sullivan/article5992569.ece

Barack Obama’s most underrated talent is his ability to get his enemies to self-destruct. It takes a lot less energy than defeating them directly, and helps maintain Obama’s largely false patina of apolitical niceness.

Obama is about as far from apolitical as you can get; and while he is a decent fellow, he is also a lethal Chicago pol. His greatest achievement in this respect was the total implosion of Bill Clinton around this time last year: Hillary was next. Then came John McCain, merrily strapping on the suicide bomb of Sarah Palin. With the fate of all these formidable figures impossible to miss, one has to wonder what possessed Dick Cheney, the former vice-president, to come lumbering out twice in the first 50 days of the Obama administration to blast the new guy on national television.

Growling and sneering, Cheney accused the new president of actively endangering the lives of Americans by ending the detention and interrogation programmes of the last administration, and vowing to close Guantanamo Bay. It’s hard to overstate how unseemly and unusual this was.

It looks like big storms ahead for Cheney. What do Americans think is going to happen?

[DMB]

Apparently the Spaniards are on the trail.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/world/europe/29spain.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[Danhalen]

This American thinks he'll get away with whatever he does. I've become entirely cynical toward the US political machine.

[LoneWolf]

No US President or Vice-President will ever be held accountable for anything they did while they were in office once they leave office. If there wasn't enough will to impeach them then nothing will happen once they are out of office. It is just the way it is.

[Linus]

Cheney already had a lower approval rating than Satan so I don't think any TV appearance is going to make a difference.

[Ray Moscow]

But wouldn't it be great to see Cheney indicted, convicted and forced to spend his remaining days in the big house? :)

[Notta]

Nah -- once Cheney has Anakin Skywalker in his back pocket, he'll triumphantly return to the Senate Chambers to promote his new Galactic Empire.

[dancer_rnb]

But wouldn't it be great to see Cheney indicted, convicted and forced to spend his remaining days in the big house? :)

It would be nice on one level, but I'm not so sure on the other hand about it being done by a "law system" I don't know much about, or have any say in. Remember the fatwa against Salman Rushdie?

[Christina]

I don't think that anything will happen to them because of it and that it will be purely symbolic but at this point it's nice to see some government have the balls to take a stand on the war crimes that we've committed, even if it isn't ours.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

I'd rather there not be a war crimes tribunal, etc.

Killed after walking in on a robbery at 7-11 (he just wanted to use the restroom and buy a pack of gum!). Yeah, that'd be better. :evil:

[sohy]

Apparently the Spaniards are on the trail.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/world/europe/29spain.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

I read that earlier today and I was disappointed that they aren't going after Cheney. I don't think my country has the political will to go after a former president or VP. Maybe I'll be surprised but I doubt it. It's never happened before so I don't expect it to happen now.

I've wondered if Obama has been avoiding this issue because he might feel pressured to pardon them, if Bush and Cheney were convicted. We have so many other problems right now and I'm more of a pragmatist than an idealist.

[laughing dog]

I think Cheney is thankfully irrelevant. No one should give a rats ass what that person says or thinks.

[ofro]

It is virtually certain that US prosecutors will not go after Chaney. However, if there is a warrant out for him in Spain, he won't just be unable to go to Spain but anywhere in the European Community. And I hope that this represents at least a real inconvenience for him.

[Ray Moscow]

I'd rather there not be a war crimes tribunal, etc.

Killed after walking in on a robbery at 7-11 (he just wanted to use the restroom and buy a pack of gum!). Yeah, that'd be better. :evil:

Cheney's got 24-hr Secret Service protection for the rest of his life.

However, this does not protect from legal indictment.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

I'd rather there not be a war crimes tribunal, etc.

Killed after walking in on a robbery at 7-11 (he just wanted to use the restroom and buy a pack of gum!). Yeah, that'd be better. :evil:

Cheney's got 24-hr Secret Service protection for the rest of his life.

However, this does not protect from legal indictment.

I'm aware of this.

I just wanted to indulge my "meaningless, trivial death" fantasy for a moment. Hmph.

[Ray Moscow]

Maybe an Iraqi reporter can nail him with a very heavy shoe?

[DMB]

Maybe an Iraqi reporter can nail him with a very heavy shoe?

For some reason that conjures up a vision of the Life of Brian scene where at the end of the stoning several of them come up with a huge rock that they drop on him.

R_hlMK7tCks

[Notta]

Cheney's got 24-hr Secret Service protection for the rest of his life.

However, this does not protect from legal indictment.
Are you sure about the SS detail? I thought I read somewhere that lifetime protection for former presidents & vice-presidents was a thing of the past. A couple of years, but no longer for life.

[tjakey]

Every time I see Cheney or da shrub I think to myself, "There goes a person who really, really needs to be in jail."

And it is sad I think that of an ex VP and POTUS.

[Ray Moscow]

Cheney's got 24-hr Secret Service protection for the rest of his life.

However, this does not protect from legal indictment.
Are you sure about the SS detail? I thought I read somewhere that lifetime protection for former presidents & vice-presidents was a thing of the past. A couple of years, but no longer for life.

Hey, you're right. It turns out that even former presidents only get 10 years protection now (http://www.ustreas.gov/usss/faq.shtml#faq9), if they entered office after 1997.

Apparently even this doesn't extend to former VP's.

[rlogan]

The reason nothing will be done is that too many Americans are just fine with it.

"Any dead Arab will do"...

Cheney and Bush were not some huge outlier. They were elected twice. They reflect a shocking degree of contempt for the rule of law and human rights by ordinary Americans.