Moe Lane

The honorable representative from Arizona, on civility levels these days:

“Not even in our worst days as Democrats did we demean and attempt to cripple the office of president.”

…sayeth the man who cosponsored articles of impeachment against then-Vice President Dick Cheney.  In early 2008, no less, which means that Grijalva had no better motive here than to try to take a cheap shot against the President.  By proxy.  When it was already clear that when it came to this particular subject Bush was right, and Grijalva was wrong.  And if you don’t believe me, go ask President Obama, who has c0ntinued the war policies* that Grijalva wanted to impeach Cheney over.  You won’t get a straight answer from Obama, mind – but then, when did we ever?

We will now pause while various antiwar faction members try to claim that attempting to impeach the Vice President should not be seen as an attempt to “demean and attempt to cripple the office of president.”  I’d say forgive them – after all, at this point this is all that they have – but I find that I have very little forgiveness in my heart for people who’d happily throw any number of non-Westerners onto the pyre, just to win an election…

(H/T: Hot Air Headlines)

Moe Lane

*If not quite as competently.

…by Dick Cheney will make some heads explode.

Maybe I’ll pick it up then. If I do, it’ll be on Kindle: it’s just easier for me to read political books that way.

(more…)

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday, Darth Cheney:

Happy birthday to you.

And may you continue to infuriate the more unhinged members of the American Left for decades to come.

Moe Lane

While I agree with Allahpundit that the single unkindest cut of all would have been for Dick Cheney to criticize President Obama’s counter-terrorism policy from the left, that wasn’t going to happen.  Honestly, when it comes to that sort of thing the President – like virtually all contemporary Democratic politicians, really – still has to be graded on a curve.  It’s going to be a long time before that party is going to be comfortable with electing another Truman (unfortunately for the country, they’re probably capable of electing another LBJ a lot sooner), mostly because a critical generation of power brokers is only now reaching the point where its members are starting to die 0f old age.

Still, Cheney genially praising Obama for showing the elementary good sense to follow George W Bush’s lead on the GWOT is pretty good stuff.  My only quibble there is that the former Vice President didn’t observe that the current President had really ‘grown in office’ in that regard; but then, that can be a killing insult, inside the Beltway.  The doctors probably told Cheney to take it easy until he’s more comfortable with his cyborg body*…

Moe Lane (more…)

Kneel before Zod!

…or else he’ll sic Dick Cheney on you*.

…beats me.  I’m just in that kind of mood.  This probably sparked it off.

Moe Lane

*Don’t think that the President wouldn’t make the trade RIGHT NOW if it was somehow offered.

Don’t.

Guess he’s not counting on the President to campaign for him, then.

Rep. Charles Rangel compared President Obama to former Vice President Dick Cheney Saturday for their shared commitment to the Iraq War, one the Harlem Democrat argues is based on the country’s hunger for oil.

“I challenge anyone to tell me we aren’t there because of the oil,” said Rangel, who kicks off his re-election campaign for a 21st congressional term in Washington Heights Sunday.

“The lack of an honest explanation [for the war] is consistent with Bush and Cheney,” he told the Daily News during an hour-long interview that touched on his ongoing ethics probe, relationship with the President and ability to get work done in Washington.

Via AoSHQ.  Personally, I’m hoping for a nice, nasty, expensive primary here that Charlie Rangel will barely survive.  Michel Faulkner would certainly prefer to face him than somebody with plausible deniability…

Moe Lane

PS: By the way… Barack Obama and Dick Cheney identical?   Not on Obama’s best day, and Cheney’s worst.

[UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers.

Do these people actually understand how this looks?

But debating Dick Cheney on terrorism? The Obama White House says it’s happy to do that anytime, as it did with Sunday’s split-screen standoff between Cheney and Vice President Joe Biden.

The dueling appearances, along with what is a clear administration strategy to play up its newly aggressive approach in Afghanistan, show a White House determined to project a posture of strength on national security and trying to gain the upper hand with Republicans who wish to portray Obama as weak.

“We have never engaged in chest-beating on what we’re doing on terrorism,” said a White House official, who was pleased by how the interviews had played out. “But this dynamic where we’re responding to criticism from the former vice president gave us the opportunity to explain what we’re doing, without just going out and talking tough.”

Except that what they didn’t do was debate Cheney. They whined about him. And then they bragged about whining about him. Anonymously. Joe Biden wouldn’t actually dare go face-to-face with Dick Cheney on this issue. Heck, he won’t dare go face-to-face with Scott Brown.  And don’t get me wrong: that might even be smart strategy on Biden’s, or the White House’s, part.  But this isn’t September 2008: the Democrats aren’t able to have it both ways quite this comprehensively anymore…

Moe Lane

So, by Jennings’ formula Mary Cheney is a conscientious objector and he’s collaborating with the occupying government.  Wait, what?

I was emailed a link to this 2007 article by getting-to-be-beleaguered ‘safe schools czar’ Kevin Jennings:

This isn’t a fight where neutrality is an option, Mary. As Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel has said, “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” Whether you like it or not, politics does play a role here. So get with the program.

I wish Mary’s fantasy, that we could ignore politics, were true. But her baby will find out that her Mom is just deluded soon enough. Children of the “Greatest Generation” routinely asked their Dads “What did you do during the war?” As Antonin Scalia and Pat Buchanan are so fond of pointing out, we’re in a cultural war right now over whether or not LGBT people are entitled to the same level of dignity and respect as other Americans. Some day little Cheney is going to ask, “What did you do during the war, Mom?” Mary (to date) has sat on the sidelines – helping the oppressor. Too bad some day little Cheney will realize her Mom could have been part of the solution, but instead obstinately stuck her head in the sand over and over and thus was just part of the problem. I hope little Cheney can some day forgive her.

Smug fellow, isn’t he?  Since then, of course, Mary Cheney’s father former Vice President Dick Cheney has forthrightly and openly repeated* his support for same-sex marriage; while Kevin Jennings went on to serve a man who’s too much of a coward to follow suit.  The term ‘irony’ is often misused in this culture, but I believe that we have a legitimate opportunity here to use it.’

Also ‘hypocrisy,’ but that’s common with the Democrats on this issue.  Right down the line.

Moe Lane (more…)

(Via Hot Air Headlines) Explicitly, and as part of the pushback to the Cheney interview where the former Vice President weighed the current President in the balance, and found him wanting.

Democrats hit back just minutes after Cheney’s interview aired. The Democratic National Committee fired off an e-mail to reporters disputing Cheney’s argument that the CIA records released last week showed the enhanced interrogation techniques under the Bush administration were effective in gathering intelligence about Al Qaeda. The e-mail, which cited various news reports, also accused the former vice president of being a “strong and vocal proponent of torture,” and pointed to polls that show “American’s don’t agree with Cheney on national security.”

Leaving aside for the moment the wanton cruelty done to the English language with that rogue apostrophe – grammar-boarding, perhaps? – I have to ask: will this official accusation by the Democratic National Committee be acted upon, or even officially noticed, by the President of the United States?  And if not: well, why not?  After all, I assume that he agrees with the accusation – no competent party leader would let his organization go so off-message like this – so you’d think that he’d want to do something about it.

You’d think.

Moe Lane.

Crossposted to RedState.

If Dick Cheney was this uber-powerful, Machiavellian puppet master who was able to control the USA for eight years while having his every whim fulfilled, then why don’t we have federal recognition of same-sex marriage?

Crossposted to RedState.

Susan Estrich used six hundred and six words to convey the argument that gay rights activists really can still get meaningful action from this administration.

I can rebut that argument in four: Proposition 8 exit poll.

Moe Lane

PS: No, not happy about it.  I support same-sex marriage.  You know, like Dick Cheney.

Crossposted to RedState.

Because while Dick Cheney may have won the battle of public opinion, it’s the President who makes the final call.

Now that it’s come out that the President’s stance on Gitmo is deeply, deeply unpopular with the American people (via @BrianFaughnan):

WASHINGTON — Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to closing the detention center for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay and moving some of the detainees to prisons on U.S. soil, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

By more than 2-1, those surveyed say Guantanamo shouldn’t be closed. By more than 3-1, they oppose moving some of the accused terrorists housed there to prisons in their own states.

…he has an unparalleled change to show his leadership. Now is the time for the President to come out with his detailed, specific, and comprehensive plan for closing down the prison at Gitmo and incarcerating its prisoners on American soil.  No matter how unpopular it might be.

We’ll get a response from the White House any moment now.  I’m certain of it.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.