I’ve followed with interest the exchange on TPM over the last few days about Dick Cheney’s change in personality. One of the fascinating stories of the last decade or so is Cheney’s transformation from boring, hardworking, rightwing technocrat to a secretive, really rightwing extralegal cipher. I think this explanation makes the most sense – this side of Cheney was always there, but it took a weakwilled manchild above him to allow him the space to really put it into effect. That said, I don’t think you can discount the idea of some sort of physiological transformation, either. I’ve known a few people who have had serious brain injuries that resulted in dramatic shifts in personality.
But, perhaps now is a good time to revisit this profile of Cheney from July, 2000 in the USA Today (Motto: “Almost like a newspaper!”).
Showing posts with label Dick Cheney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dick Cheney. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Still No Records
Some time ago, I posted about a lawsuit filed against the Bush administration to prevent it making off with vast amounts of records from the most sensitive periods in its administration. As Mr. Bush's final days in office tick past, he remains determined to restrict access to his records. Apparently, entire days of email are missing. Vice President Cheney continues to argue that he has no responsibility to hand over records at all.
As the NYT points out in this editorial, little has changed from the filing of the original lawsuits, and the ease of producing digital records will mean that even following its own dubious reporting standards, the Bush administration will hand over 50 times more documents than Bill Clinton did. That means it will be years before the archive can make sense of it all, and further years before historians can determine what is there, and what is not.
Any administration needs a certain amount of latitude with information in order to govern effectively, but as I've said before, the idea that no one will ever know what our leaders did is fundamentally undemocratic. But then, who knows how much more these guys have to lose.
As the NYT points out in this editorial, little has changed from the filing of the original lawsuits, and the ease of producing digital records will mean that even following its own dubious reporting standards, the Bush administration will hand over 50 times more documents than Bill Clinton did. That means it will be years before the archive can make sense of it all, and further years before historians can determine what is there, and what is not.
Any administration needs a certain amount of latitude with information in order to govern effectively, but as I've said before, the idea that no one will ever know what our leaders did is fundamentally undemocratic. But then, who knows how much more these guys have to lose.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Cheney, Black Flagged
Score one for the historians - a judge has ordered Dick Cheney to preserve his records while litigation pertaining to his ever having to reveal them to the public moves forward.
See the story here.
I don't know what they are so worried about. The historians who WILL be judging the Bush administration have already largely spoken. 98% of them in this poll rate the Bush presidency as a failure, before the economic dislocations of the last week. 61% see him as the worst president ever, and if the US historian next to my office is at all typical, many of the remainder put him in a debatable top three. See this story, and it's pretty graphs, here.
See the story here.
I don't know what they are so worried about. The historians who WILL be judging the Bush administration have already largely spoken. 98% of them in this poll rate the Bush presidency as a failure, before the economic dislocations of the last week. 61% see him as the worst president ever, and if the US historian next to my office is at all typical, many of the remainder put him in a debatable top three. See this story, and it's pretty graphs, here.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Dick's Parting Shot
OK, and then this is it for today...
VP Cheney has apparently decided that since he does not consider himself to be part of the executive branch of the government, he does not need to comply with the 1978 Presidential Records Act which requires him to turn over the documents generated during his time in office to the Library of Congress, which seals them for at least 12 years and then releases them to government historians, who will keep them for additional years writing official histories.
The idea that we might never really understand what the most active and powerful vice-president in US history actually did during his time in office, not just while he is there, but ever, is a fitting ambition for a man who has sought to use his time in office, so far as one can tell, to trample any effort by the other branches of government or the public to restrain him in any way.
A coalition of historians, archivists, and some sort of legal watchdog group in Washington DC, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, have sued the VP's office in an effort to prevent him from hauling off his papers and burning them in his back yard at the Naval Observatory. See their press release here.
Considering that Cheney continues to refuse to submit to congress a list of his staff on the grounds that he is free to ignore the legislative branch, these guys face an uphill battle.
More on this to come, I suspect.
VP Cheney has apparently decided that since he does not consider himself to be part of the executive branch of the government, he does not need to comply with the 1978 Presidential Records Act which requires him to turn over the documents generated during his time in office to the Library of Congress, which seals them for at least 12 years and then releases them to government historians, who will keep them for additional years writing official histories.
The idea that we might never really understand what the most active and powerful vice-president in US history actually did during his time in office, not just while he is there, but ever, is a fitting ambition for a man who has sought to use his time in office, so far as one can tell, to trample any effort by the other branches of government or the public to restrain him in any way.
A coalition of historians, archivists, and some sort of legal watchdog group in Washington DC, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, have sued the VP's office in an effort to prevent him from hauling off his papers and burning them in his back yard at the Naval Observatory. See their press release here.
Considering that Cheney continues to refuse to submit to congress a list of his staff on the grounds that he is free to ignore the legislative branch, these guys face an uphill battle.
More on this to come, I suspect.
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