Dick Cheney Answers Barack Obama on CNN

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has taken time off from his retirement and working on his memoirs to answer some of the blame being placed on the Bush administration for the current economic crisis by the Obama White House.

Dick Cheney was on the CNN show State of the Union when, in response to President Obama's charges that he had just inherited a mess made for him by the previous Bush administration. Dick Cheney also ascribed some sinister motives for Obama doing so. Cheney said:

"I worry a lot that they're using the current set of economic difficulties to try to justify a massive expansion in the government, and much more authority for the government over the private sector, I don't think that's good. I don't think that's going to solve the problem."

Current White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has been quoted as saying, "Never let a serious crisis go to waste." The idea is that during a crisis one can persuade people to swallow measures that they wouldn't otherwise tolerate. The Obama people don't really have an answer to Dick Cheney's charge, except perhaps to point out some of the war time measures the Bush administration took after 9/11.

Who is responsible for the current economic mess? Dick Cheney's answer is somewhat familiar to those who listen to talk radio or get some of their news from the conservative blogs. People who watch the main stream media exclusively may be hearing Dick Cheney's answer for the first time.

"I think there's no question but what the economic circumstances that he inherited are difficult ones. We said that before we left. I don't think you can blame the Bush administration for the creation of those circumstances. It's a global financial problem.

"We had, in fact, tried to deal with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac some years before, with major reforms that were blocked by Democrats on the Hill - [House Financial Services Chairman] Barney Frank and [Senate Banking Chairman] Chris Dodd. So I think the notion that you can just sort of throw it off on the prior administration - that's interesting rhetoric, but I don't think anybody really cares a lot about that. What they care about is what's going to work, and how we're going to get out of these difficulties."

Dick Cheney has a point. Usually when the economy turns south, the President in power gets the blame whether he merits it or not. But the truth of the matter is that Congress is just as responsible for effecting the economy as is the Executive Branch, if not more so as it holds the purse strings.

An interview with Dick Cheney would not be complete is it didn't turn to the war on terror and the subject of interrogation.

"I think those programs were absolutely essential to the success we enjoyed of being able to collect the intelligence that let us defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11. I think that's a great success story. It was done legally. It was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles. President Obama campaigned against it all across the country. And now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack."

One does not have to be Jack Bauer, ever quick with the electrodes or a nine millimeter slug to the knee cap as a way of extracting the truth, to agree that Dick Cheney has a point. No one attacked the American homeland since 9/11 and that fact is in large part due to Bush administration policy.

Not everyone agrees, of course. Writing for the Huffington Post, Jacob Heilbrunn sniffed, "Cheney claimed that it was 'absolutely essential' to torture and besmirch American values--oh, wait, I forgot. Cheney's claiming that those policies were the only way to uphold the safety of America."

The proof that Cheney is right and Heilbrunn is wrong, one supposes, will only happen if the United States is attacked while under the new, kinder and gentler interrogation rules. People will die in such an attack, perhaps many people. Then Barack Obama will have some explaining to do about how they died to uphold American values.

Source: Cheney: Obama wants 'massive expansion', Mike Allen, Politico, March 15th, 2009

Rahm Emanuel: You never want a serious crisis to go to waste, Beltway Blips

Dick Cheney on CNN: Please, Keep It Up, Jacob Heilbrunn, Huffington Post, March 15th, 2009