...
home...
veep...
news...
bushreport...
gorewatch...
naderwatch...
comedy...
site map...
contact...
...
home...
veep...
news...
bushreport...
gorewatch...
naderwatch...
comedy...
site map...
contact...
 What the Selection of Dick CheneyTells Us About George W. Bush. It has been said that a presidential candidate's choice for vice-president is his first major decision and indicative of the kind of administration we could expect if elected. The Bush-Dick ticket has been called the most conservative in the last 100 years. Based on Cheney's selection of Bush...er...Bush's selection of Cheney, we could expect Poppy II and, perhaps, Gulf War II. Whatever's good for big oil is good for the country. As Secretary of Defense, Cheney worked to privatize the system, awarding a particularly large contract worth millions to Brown and Root, a division of Halliburton. Then, when Cheney became a private citizen, he was hired as CEO of Halliburton and earned around $50 million in five short years to continue to contribute to the growth of that oil company. (An Op-Ed piece in the NYT this morning reports how Cheney's privatization of the Department of Defense plus his Pentagon connections have paid off. In five short years the feds have awarded his company $3.2 billion.) We were particularly dismayed to learn that as Sec. of Defense Cheney was very hawkish as he protected corporate oil interests in the Gulf by proposing to fight a war over the opposition of such a plan by Colin Powell. Cheney tells us that he was surprised that U.S. casualities in the Gulf War were so low. In other words, he was willing to sacrifice many more American lives in the defense of our corporate oil interests. Or should we say, his corporate oil interests? --Politex, 8/3/00 (Image: Wizard of Whimsy) What About Cheney's Defense of the Use of Chemical Weapons Over the Objections of President Bush? Read his letter to the Foreign Relations Committee below...
 HON. JAMES R. SCHLESINGER, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, READS CHENEY LETTER Dr. Schlesinger. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At the outset, I will allow Secretary Cheney to join us vicariously. He has sent a letter, as you indicated, and I shall read it into the record. This letter is dated April 7, from Dallas, Texas.
Hon. Jesse Helms, Dear Mr. Chairman. Thank you for your letter inviting me to join several other former Secretaries of Defense in testifying in early April when the Foreign Relations Committee holds hearings on the Chemical Weapons Convention. Regrettably, other commitments will preclude me from participation. I hope that this correspondence will be sufficient to convey my views on this convention. During the years I served as Secretary of Defense, I was deeply concerned about the inherent unverifiability, lack of global coverage, and unenforceability of a convention that sought to ban production and stockpiling of chemical weapons. My misgivings on these scores have only intensified during the 4 years since I left the Pentagon. The technology to manufacture chemical weapons is simply too ubiquitous, covert chemical warfare programs too easily concealed, and the international community's record of responding effectively to violations of arms control treaties too unsatisfactory to permit confidence that such a regime would actually reduce the chemical threat. Indeed, some aspects of the present convention--notably its obligation to share with potential adversaries, like Iran, chemical manufacturing technology that can be used for military purposes and chemical defensive equipment--threaten to make this accord worse than having no treaty at all. In my judgment, the treaty's Articles X and XI amount to a formula for greatly accelerating the proliferation of chemical warfare capabilities around the globe. Those nations most likely to comply with the Chemical Weapons Convention are not likely to ever constitute a military threat to the United States. The governments we should be concerned about are likely to cheat on the CWC even if they do participate. In effect, the Senate is being asked to ratify the CWC even though it is likely to be ineffective, unverifiable, and unenforceable. Having ratified the convention, we will then be told we have ``dealt with the problem of chemical weapons'' when, in fact, we have not. But ratification of the CWC will lead to a sense of complacency, totally unjustified given the flaws in the convention. I would urge the Senate to reject the Chemical Weapons Convention. Sincerely, Dick Cheney
MORE RICHARD CHENEY VICE-PRESIDENTIAL STORIES.
"Tex" Cheney is his name. The voters are right, he's never in sight Until it comes time to claim
Casper as his voting town Sing the Casper Song With Little Richard
In a flag-drenched campaign pep rally of cheering students in the confines of the Burnt Orange Room at the University of Texas's basketball stadium, the Frank Erwin Center, George and Laura Bush officially welcomed Dick and Lynne Cheney to the Bush campaign for the presidency. Since Cheney is a well-known hawk and ex-Secretary of Defense, it's interesting to note that we have yet to hear a word from Bush's non-hawk foreign policy adviser and aspirant for the key role of White House adviser, Condi Rice. Those who have checked in on the Poppy-led nomination have called Cheney an experienced conservative who knows how to get along with people. They were less forthcoming with their evaluations of Cheney's wife, the controversial Reaganite ideologue, Lynn Cheney, whose ambitions became clear when, early on in the selection process, Cheney actually recommended her to Junior as a candidate for the vice-president slot. E-mail news on the net is focused on questions of insider trading, since Cheney unloaded $5 million of his company's stock less than two months ago when the price was highest. According to today's NYT, it was then that Brent Scowcroft, Poppy's foreign policy adviser, told a surprised President Bush that Cheney was interested in being vice-president in Junior's administration. --Politex, 4 p.m. et, 7/25/00
"Cheney's congressional voting record is conservative enough on all the "litmus-test" issues including abortion to satisfy the Reaganites....[Wife] Lynne Cheney, an articulate speaker and writer, is a heroine to conservatives for her stands on "political correctness" and multiculturalism. --David Broder "Bush promised, just a few days ago, that his choice of a running mate would have people hopping up and down with excitement. To that end, I've been trying all weekend to catch some of that Dick Cheney Fever. Preliminary results: Feet still planted firmly on the ground. Overpowering desire to nap. I think I'm coming down with a touch of a coma....Dick Cheney is a name that signifies "team player." It signifies "Washington insider." It signifies "generic middle-aged white man." He's got gray hair, a round face, he's 59 years old, he's had three heart attacks – he looks like someone who could do endorsements for lawn fertilizer or weed-eaters." --Joel Achenbach
"Dick Cheney enjoys a certain bland respectability. But Dick's wife, Lynne Cheney, who succeeded Bill Bennett [as head of the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1986-1993], is a shrill opportunist who could prove to be a serious liability for the Republican ticket....Lynne seemed pleasant enough 12 years ago, [when we were] impressed by her passionate advocacy of national standards for teaching American and world history ....After the presidency passed from the Republicans to the Democrats...Cheney started campaigning to abolish the NEH and savaging her former grantee, UCLA's National Center for History in the Schools, which was about to issue the very national standards she'd commissioned. Cheney maintained that the panel... had tilted leftward after Clinton's election....She proved to be such a transparent phony that sympathetic panel critics like Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and John Patrick Diggins had to denounce her.... More recently, Cheney held court at a vituperative anti-Hillary Clinton panel at the American Enterprise Institute. There, Lynne criticized Hillary for occasionally holding her husband's hand ("It is just so distressing to me"), and questioned whether Hillary's credibility "has in any way been undermined by her unsympathetic attitude toward the women alleged to have been imposed upon by her husband." The latter formulation may give us some taste of what Lynne Cheney would sound like on the campaign trail. --Timothy Noah, 7/25/00 "If Dick Cheney is selected as the Rep. VP candidate, Lynne Cheney will soon be on the [talk] circuit carrying the flag for her team. I applaud her efforts to do her most screeching, hair-pulling anti-Hillary best and truly define the Republican tendency for scathing diatribes and personal attacks." -- Bill Swanzy, 7/25/00 Lynne Cheney's a "whiney academic." (here) A Bush Watcher writes, "Glad to see that you are focusing on Cheney's wife, Lynne, to such a degree. The heart races to think of the many times she hosted CNN Crossfire on the weekends. Her remarks and demeanor make Mrs. Godzilla look mild-mannered."
Everyone's "worrying about Dick Cheney's ticker, now that he's been declared the default running mate for George W. Bush. According to today's New York Times, last Friday Bush and his daddy asked Denton Cooley, cardiac surgeon to the stars, to quiz Cheney's doctors about Cheney's heart. Evidently, they wanted to make sure Cheney could handle the stress of the campaign....Doesn't anyone find it odd that we're fretting about the vice president's heart? This kind of anxiety used to be reserved for presidents....In the case of President Bush, the anxiety was particularly high because everyone knew his vice president, Dan Quayle, was a moron. Quayle, according to the Democrats and the press, was "one heartbeat away" from the presidency, and an uncertain heartbeat at that. Now the roles are reversed. Everyone, both George Bushes included, is concerned that Cheney might croak, because the whole reason for putting Cheney on the ticket is to make sure George W. has adult supervision in the White House. This isn't just a partisan suspicion. Off the record, most conservative journalists wonder whether Bush can scrape together the brains to win what they regard as an eminently winnable race. The rest of us wonder whether Bush, if he wins, can scrape together the brains to govern. The problem with Cheney's tricky ticker is that it leaves Bush one heartbeat away from actually having to run the country." --William Saletan
Went by the back of the Governor's Mansion around 9 Sunday evening. The spots brightly lit the circular driveway, a police car's parking lights flashing just outside the gated wall. Couple of big black cars in the driveway and lights on upstairs in the carriage house window overlooking the scene. Computers up there, no one in the window. No police cars on the side streets. No men in black suits in position, looking out at the street as we go by. Looks like the Guv may stay overnight at the ranch, about 90 miles up I-35. Guess he's still trying to figure out how to tell Poppy that he still wants to think about "Tex" Cheney. Not relevant. Poppy wants him and has made his desires known. "That's my boy!" The AP tells us Junior has grown to like Cheney, a true Washington insider, over the past months. He'd better. Time to salute, Junior. Take an extra day to get used to the idea. --Politex
BUSH SENDS ROVE, HUGHES, AND BENNETT TO SUNDAY TALK SHOWS TO DEFEND CHENEY'S HEART, OIL CONNECTIONS. (more) TEXAS CEO CHENEY TELLS COLLEAGUES HE'S PROBABLY THE VEEP CHOICE, AND DANFORTH AGREES. (more) CLARENCE THOMAS' CONSERVATIVE ADVOCATE, A PRIEST WHO IS HEIR TO THE RALSTON-PURINA FORTUNE, IS NOW ON BUSH'S VERY SHORT VEEP LIST. "John Danforth, 63: Former senator from Missouri and Missouri attorney general. Appointed by Attorney General Janet Reno in September to oversee investigation of the federal government's actions during the siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993. In the Senate, a chief advocate of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearings. Retired from the Senate in 1993 and returned home to practice law in St. Louis. Graduate of Princeton University and Yale's law and divinity schools. Heir to the Ralston-Purina fortune. Ordained Episcopal priest. Reportedly told Bush he is not interested in being vice president. Hails from a key state and would help Bush nail down conservative base." --AP, 7/22/00 CHENEY, PRESENT BUSH VEEP FAVORITE, WAS A CHECK KITER WHILE IN THE HOUSE While the immediate purpose of the Cheney nod is to take the heat out of the draft-McCain movement of the last few days, if Bush were to actually select another Texan and another member of Poppy's inner circle, folks would surely realize that, in spite of what he says, Junior is lacking in political imagination and is pretty much the captive of the business-as-usual, old line Washington crowd of Poppy republicans. Although Junior has said his administration would not be a rubber-stamp of his father's and all the less than delightful things that implies, his actions speak much louder than his rhetoric. --Politex, 7/22/00 "The WP leads and the NYT fronts speculation that former defense secretary Richard Cheney heads Bush's short list for a vice presidential candidate. Frank Keating, George Pataki, and John McCain have also been considered, but the word is that Bush favors Cheney (who currently oversees Bush's vice-presidential search team) because of his experience with international security. Bush is poised to announce his running mate sometime early next week. All three papers report that the only obstacle to Cheney's nomination is his history of heart trouble, and the LAT notes one black mark on his record: writing 21 bad checks while serving in the house." --Charles Davis, 7/22/00 Cheney Profile. Age 59, lives in Dalla, Texas, Chairman and CEO of Dallas-based Halliburton Corp., an oil engineering and construction company, member of Trilateral Commission. (more) "Been there, done that. As a chief of staff with Gerald Ford and secretary of defense under President Bush, he brings top-level experience to the ticket. A strong conservative -- anti-Equal Rights Amendment, pro-public school prayer -- he could solidify right-wing support. He's said before that he doesn't want the job, and he's had two heart attacks. Having worked with President Bush, Cheney may remind voters of the old guard Republican Party that lost the 1992 presidential contest." --AAS, 7/22/00
by Jerry Politex, 7/18/00 Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating finds himself in the final four of George W. Bush's Veep search, according to Monday's "Washington Times." But back in Oklahoma, the Governor has been accused of violating state and federal laws in 1994 and 1998. Since Keating has been vetted and is presently being screened under the direction of former Defense Secretary Richard Cheney and Karl Rove, Bush's political strategist, one can assume that the matter has come up and could still be in play. In the wake of allegations of "ghost employees" in Oklahoma's Health Department, Keating recently set up a public hot line to catch instances of fraud, waste, cronyism, and other possible violations of the law. This call for information has resulted in an allegation that Governor Keating, himself, was a "ghost employee" who "violated several state and federal [campaign] laws" prior to being sworn in as governor and then violated "state laws and Federal Rico statutes" as governor in '98. Back in the early 80's Governor Keating was named U. S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma by President Ronald Reagan, and fellow-attorney Gary Richardson joined him. After serving in various administrative positions in D.C. during the Reagan-Bush administrations, Keating returned to Oklahoma in the early 90's and was hired by Richardson, who, by that time, was a successful trial lawyer with a Tulsa firm, Richardson and Ward. Chuck Richardson, Gary's son, was also a member of the firm. According to Charlton McIlwain, Communications Director of the Oklahoma Democratic Party, Keating was paid $100,000 by Richardson in '93. Oklahoma Ethics Commission records has Gary giving the $5,000 max to Keating's campaign in '94, the year Keating was elected Governor. At the earliest opportunity, Keating attempted to appoint Chuck Richardson Tulsa District Attorney. Gary Richardson's son had limited experience as an assistant D.A. prior to joining his father's firm, but, as noted in an August, 1998 "Tulsa World" editorial, "wiser heads prevailed." That didn't stop Keating from accomplishing the task two years later. Again, the "Tulsa World": "Richardson's very appointment was steeped in good ol' boy politics. His father...backed Gov. Frank Keating by putting the Gov on the payroll for a year of more when the governor came back to Oklahoma to run for the office....When [the D.A.] resigned in June, it was payoff time for the governor. He appointed young Richardson." In accepting the appointment, Young Richardson said, "Governor Keating knows who I am and what I stand for. He wouldn't trust me with this position if he didn't think I was the right person for it." Keating, who once was Associate Attorney General of the United States, called Richardson "the kind of DA Tulsans want...a nail-chewing, anti-crook, agressive prosecutor." Richardson was under fire almost from the git-go, accused of padding his resume. Although he did not "establish" armed robbery and burglary task forces while serving as assistant D.A., as Keating's office incorrectly reported, Richardson termed the error "semantical" and explained that the true facts were "exactly" explained to the Governor. "He knows what I stand for," Richardson said. Two months later, in late August of '98, Richardson came in third in the Republican primary race for a full-term in the D.A. seat. That same month in a Tulsa court, attorney Gregory Meil was awarded a judgment of over $900,000 against Gary Richardson and Fred Stoops going back to 1993, the year McIlwain claims Keating was given $100,000 by Richardson. McIlwain further contends that no legal work was done by Keating for Richardson's firm, and this "was established by a local court in Tulsa during a case which attempted to settle [that] a departing partner should not be penalized for the payment to Keating. The departing partner maintained that the payment to Keating was not a payment for work done and therefore the departing partner should not be penalized for that payment to Keating." Since, according to McIlwain, the court decided in '98 that Keating was given $100, 000 by Richardson but no legal work for his firm was performed, does that make it illegal? As a recent "Tulsa World" editorial puts it, "There is a crucial difference between state agencies paying former lawmakers...salaries when no work is performed and Keating's arrangement, whatever it was, with his law-firm benefactors. The former involves state tax money...the latter concerns how members of a private law firm wish to spend their own money." True, wrote John L. Harlan in a letter to the "World" on Monday, "but paying a ghost lawyer $100,000 while he is campaigning full time for governor is very likely a disguised illegal political contribution. Oklahomans are limited to $5,000 contributions for state offices." On another page of Monday's "Tulsa World" we learn that Republican Lt. Gov.Mary Fallin is understandably excited about her political prospects. "If Governor Keating gets the vice presidential nomination and they go on and win the November election, we are ready to walk across the hall and be governor," said a Fallin spokesperson. But the first step is Keating must be tapped for Veep by Bush. Don't measure the Governor's office for curtains just yet, Ms. Fallin. 7/18/00
|
IT'S OFFICIAL. POPPY PARTY IS NOW COMPLETE WITH TWO TEXAS OIL MILLIONAIRES, BOTH EX-MEMBERS OF DAD'S ADMINISTRATION
BORED BY BUSH BAMBOOZLES?