Axelrod hits back at Cheney: He has not been acting like a ‘statesman.’

[kpete]

Source: Think Progress

Axelrod hits back at Cheney: He has not been acting like a ‘statesman.’
Vice President Cheney has used his public appearances in recent months to launch fearmongering attacks against the Obama administration, in contrast to President Bush, who said Obama “deserves my silence.” Today on CNN’s State of the Union, Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod hit Cheney for not acting like a “statesman”:

AXELROD: (President Bush) has behaved like a statesman. And as I’ve said before, here and elsewhere, I just don’t think the memo got passed down to the vice president.


Axelrod also noted that Cheney’s insistence that he kept America safe flies in the face of reality. “I find it supremely ironic, on a day when we were meeting with NATO, to talk about the continued threat from al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where they’re still plotting against us eight years — or seven years later,” he said. “I think the question for Mr. Cheney is, how could that be? How could this have gone so long? Why are they still in business?”


Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/05/axelrod-cheney/

[tanyev]

1. Cheney doesn't receive memos, he sends them.

[lunatica]

2. Finally! Someone who counts is speaking out against Cheney

I'm sick of the pretense that everything the GOP and their leaders say is acceptable.

As for Bush, firstly, he's always let Limbaugh and Cheney do his bad mouthing for him. Secondly, he's also hoping to get away with his crimes. And thirdly he doesn't have a clue about what to say without someone writing it down for him. And fourthly, he's not curious or interested and never has been

[Faygo Kid]

3. Cheney the puppeteer

W. liked to dress up in uniforms and fly on to the deck of aircraft carriers and reward his rich friends with tax cuts. Stuff like that.

It's increasingly obvious that Cheney took the whole thing far more seriously. Darth Cheney's influence and ties remain in our government, and must be rooted out. He's still with us, and capable of any atrocity.

[Dr.Phool]

4. Cheney acting like a statesman is like

A jackass acting like a hummingbird.

[truthisfreedom]

5. cheney's mafia is still installed in government. It's time for Obama to put together a task force

to root them ALL out.

[izquierdista]

7. Night of the Long Knives

Considering what Cheney and his minions have done, a Stalinist like purge is in order. The people that Stalin and Hitler purged from their respective governments committed a small percentage of the atrocities that Cheney & Co. have. In fact, it was their refusal to carry out Cheney like orders that got them purged.

[UTUSN]

6. Ow!1 Betcha CHEENEE is really smarting with that zinger!1 (Cough.) n/t

[JDPriestly]

8. I hear something else here. Is there a tacit understanding

between Obama and Bush that as long as Bush does not criticize the Obama administration, the Obama administration will not bring charges against Bush? Because Obama has been acting like he is adopting a philosophy of "let bygones be bygones."

Obama needs to note that the Europeans are not anxious to send their combat troops into Afghanistan. I'm wondering whether one cause of their reluctance is that they were burned by the Bush administration, that their support of the Bush War in Iraq could be interpreted as support of the Bush policies on Guantanamo and torture. Europeans are sensitive about the issues of war crimes and torture. Most European countries do not even have death penalties on their books.

If Obama wants to fully restore European trust and regain the kind of support that we got from Europe under administrations prior to the Iraq War, then he needs to let his Justice Department prosecute Bush, Cheney and others in their administration for war crimes and violations of the Geneva Conventions. What European leader wants to be associated with war crimes? This is particularly true of any German leader.

How nice Bush has been to Obama is irrelevant. It is essential for the relations between the U.S. and Europe that the criminals in the Bush administration be prosecuted for their war crimes. There is no other choice.

The world is waiting, President Obama. It is not enough to promise not to torture ever again. It is not enough to close Guantanamo.

[pacalo]

12. I agree that there might be an understanding between them.

Bush doesn't have an ethical bone in his body, nor would he embrace a Democratic president out of fairness.

Good post.

[provis99]

9. "Not been acting like a statesman"? Thats pretty weak sauce, Axelrod

Call Cheney out for what he is: a fascist, murderous, crooked warmongering blood-drinking vampire. Enough of this whining about him not "being a statesman"; how wimpy can you get?

[thelordofhell]

10. Cheney kept America safe??

Yeah, he sure kept NORAD occupied on September 11th. It's time to say that these asshats not only DIDN'T keep America safe on their watch, they caused the most damage to it ever!! Hey Cheney, tell the 9-11 victims how you kept them safe, or the 4000+ troops, or the anthrax mailing targest, or better yet, Louisianna and Mississippi!! This clown has the audacity to tell Obama what to do, and to criticize him? It's quite obvious that whatever Cheney suggests, we should do the complete opposite to keep out country safe.

[llmart]

13. Not to mention that the chickenshit......

yellow-bellied, draft dodging coward hid in an underground bunker all the time.

[bemildred]

11. When did he ever? nt

[glitch]

14. Cheney acts like a b-movie villain.

Apparently he thinks it's a good cover for what he really is, which is unspeakable.

[Amonester]

19. In his case, CRIME PAYS...

and pays A LOT.

The question is: why? Why nobody ARREST that criminal?

[glitch]

20. So far.

I think no one has arrested him yet because he's got some very deadly backers. But that can change in a heartbeat, so he'll always have to live in fear. Small consolation, I am still hoping for his incarceration.

[annabanana]

15. Anyone else think he may be trying to inoculate himself for PR

purposes, should any of the myriad possible charges against him ever be filed?

He could then frame them as "revenge for his honesty in speaking out". .

[Cha]

16. Yes, and it was bush and cheney who were asleep

at the switch when 9/11 happened AND without corporatemedia they would NOT be still in business.

[mountainvue]

17. Shouldn't Dick be off rolling around in his

Iraq war money half drunk with a rifle full of birdshot somewhere? Is Crashcart their bulldog now because no one takes Jindal or Palin seriously? I have been waiting for eight and a half years to watch the pubs flail around like this. Good on Axelrod for caling him out.

[Doctor_J]

18. Way too tame

"Bitter old man", "Disastrous 8 years", "Failed policy initiatives", "Massive corruption". Tell the truth for once.