John Nichols: The Balance Begins to Tip Against Cheney

The Balance Begins to Tip Against Cheney
By John Nichols

July 13, 2009



After years of pulling punches, Democrats in the Senate are throwing them at Cheney, following the revelation that the man who operated as something akin to a co-president during George Bush's first term ordered the CIA to withhold information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress.

There "absolutely" needs to be a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation of Cheney's assault on the system of checks and balances outlined in the essential sections of the US Constitution, argued Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Illinois).

"The executive branch of government cannot create programs like these programs and keep Congress in the dark. There is a requirement for disclosure," the chamber's number two Democrat said on ABC's This Week program. "(Any investigation) has to be done in an appropriate way so it doesn't jeopardize our national security, but to have a massive program that is concealed from the leaders in Congress is not only inappropriate; it could be illegal."

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So serious are the charges against Cheney that Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who for too long worked too closely with the Bush-Cheney administration on so many issues, appears finally to be accepting that an inquiry is going to be required.

"This is a big problem, because the law is very clear," Feinstein said as the details of Cheney's wrongdoing began to come to light. "If the Intelligence Committees had been briefed, they could have asked for regular reports on the program, they could have made judgments about the program as it went along. That was not the case, because we were kept in the dark. That's something that should never, ever happen again."

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Of course, there will be push back from the defenders of the indefensible. "It is not out of the ordinary for the vice president to be involved in an issue like this," said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, (R-Arizona). Kyl point is well taken; the Arizonan has worked with several vice presidents who have been "involved in an issue like this." George Herbert Walker Bush was all wrapped up in the Iran-Contra scandal and Cheney's regard for the rule of law is so dismissive as to make him a prime suspect whenever a shredded copy of the Constitution is uncovered.

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http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090720/nichols

. . . is that **DiFi** is calling for his head. When she stops enabling various immoral Rethuglican nonsense in her spheres of influence and actually acts and sounds like a real live Democrat (!!), it's time for wingnuts to worry, and in this case, for Cheney to hunker down in his Undisclosed Location. If this really gets going, couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

All this groping around for the right term like "co-president" is unnecessary. In the days of monarchs, when some idiot son ascended to the throne and was clearly incompetent, a "regent" would run things behind the scenes.

A month or so ago, you couldn't turn on any newsy program without seeing either Crash Cart or his daughter lecturing us all on how much safer we were thanks to a bunch of secret hooey that they weren't at liberty to discuss. Now, we have some actual facts in hand to hold a real discussion, and the Cheneys have scurried back to their hidey holes.