My run-in with Dick Cheney, rising star (Syracuse Post-Standard)

Sunday, January 25, 2009
By Richard Long

... I was a public affairs officer in the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) in the headquarters office in downtown Washington in 1969 ... Richard Nixon was president at the time. He not only hated OEO but he vowed to destroy it. And, to carry out his plans, he appointed a feisty Chicago congressman, Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld appointed Cheney as one of his top assistants ...

"Dick," <the boss> said to me, "I am giving you a new assignment. It is kind of touchy. There is a new guy here by the name of Dick Cheney. I don't know anything about him except that he worked for some congressman up on the Hill. They, the new guys Nixon appointed, want to see all of our press releases. Twice a week I want you to report to Cheney and bring our draft releases to him. He will OK them or ask for corrections ...

Eventually, Rumsfeld and Cheney achieved their objective. OEO employees were either fired or reassigned. I was sent to another agency. I always found it interesting that two of the people who became very powerful in Washington began their careers dismantling a program that was meant to help the poor of America ...

During Katrina I watched on TV as Cheney walked through the poor neighborhoods of New Orleans. Some of these neighborhoods used to receive help from OEO before the terrible blow. As Cheney walked through these neighborhoods, I wondered if he thought about his early days - days when he helped his buddy Don Rumsfeld dismantle OEO and cut off aid to the neighborhoods he was visiting ...

http://www.syracuse.com/opinion/index.ssf?/base/opinion-0/1232704655123590.xml&coll=1

One of my favorite moments of the GWB presidency.

remembered rumsfeld for that job.

There's nothing more to say.