Salon: Creepier Than Nixon (John Dean Interview) **Must Read!!!**

[kskiska]

This is a fantastic article suggesting the Bush/Cheney plans for America's future.

The man who brought down Richard Nixon says Bush and "co-president" Cheney are an even greater threat to the country.

As Richard Nixon's White House counsel during the Watergate scandal, John Dean famously warned his boss that there was "a cancer on the presidency" that would bring down the administration unless Nixon came clean. In his new book, "Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush," Dean warns the country that the Bush administration is even more secretive and authoritarian than Nixon's -- in fact, he writes, it's "the most secretive presidency of my lifetime."

(snip)

Do you feel the vice president has, after more than three years of secretive governing from an undisclosed location, become a political liability to the president? How likely is it that Bush will drop him from the ticket this year?

Dick Cheney is a political disaster awaiting recognition. In the book, I set forth a relatively long list of inchoate scandals, not to mention problems worse than scandals. They all involve Cheney in varying degrees. Bush can't dump Cheney, for it is Cheney, not Rove, who is Bush's backroom brain. He is actually a co-president. Bush doesn't enjoy studying and devising policy. Cheney does. While Cheney has tutored Bush for almost four years, and Bush is better prepared today than when he entered the job, Cheney is quietly guiding this administration. Cheney knows how to play Bush so that Cheney is absolutely no threat to him, makes him feel he is president, but Bush can't function without a script, or without Cheney. Bush is head of state; Cheney is head of government.

If, say, the Securities and Exchange Commission's current investigation of Halliburton's accounting also discovers that Cheney engaged in insider trading when he left Halliburton (which the facts suggest is highly likely), and this matter erupts before the Republican convention, then Cheney might be forced to step aside. Cheney always has his bad-health excuse anytime he wants to take it -- because it is a fact. He has a certain immunity as vice president, but if he were to be dropped from the ticket (or he and Bush lose), I believe Cheney would have serious problems which he would no longer be able to deflect. Thus, he will stay and fight like hell to win.

I quote Cheney from his time in the Ford White House when he said, "Principle is okay up to a certain point, but principle doesn't do any good if you lose." I think this statement sums up Cheney's thinking nicely.

more…
http://salon.com/news/feature/2004/03/31/dean/index.html

[RainDog]

1. OMG

At least until recently, the Bush administration has successfully used the public's fear of terrorism to advance its agenda. You go so far as to agree with Gen. Tommy Franks' dark prediction that another major terror attack on U.S. citizens will drive the country to suspend the Constitution. Why do you fear that?

As I state in the book, I agree for reasons that probably differ from those of Gen. Franks. The short summary of what is really a thread that runs through the book is that when you have a presidency that has no regard for human life, that develops and implements all (not just national security) policy in secrecy, and is driven by political motives and a radical philosophy, it is impossible not to conclude that they will overreact -- and at the expense of our constitutional safeguards. Bush and Cheney enjoy using power to make and wield swords, not ploughs. They prefer to rule by fear. We've had three years to take the measure of these men. I've done so and reported what I found in a book I never planned to write, but because others were not talking about these issues, I believed they needed to be placed on the table.

Bush and Cheney have exploited terrorism ever since 9/11. Now they are exploiting it to get reelected. Should there be an even more serious threat, they have found that when Americans are frightened they can be governed like sheep, which suits Bush and Cheney perfectly. Rather than taking the terror out of terrorism by educating and informing Americans, they have sought to make terrorism as frightening as possible -- using terrorism to launch a war of aggression that is breeding a new generation of terrorists and getting the Congress to pass the most repressive new laws imaginable and calling it an act of patriotism.

---

this, American Dynasty, The Sorrow of Empire...there are plenty of warnings out there now...Bush's "funny" comment about his job would be easier if he were a dictator...combined with his remark to Woodward that he doesn't have to answer to anyone...

this is a sad time to be an American.

...btw, what did you make of Dean's closing comment about people dying now because they have opposed Bush??? THAT was...unusual.

[donhakman]

2. Beliefs

When Cheney basicly says the ends jusrtify the means it is not unreasonable that a welcomed or orchestrated "Pearl Harbor event*"
would serve as a means.

* Rumsfeld's repeated phrase from his pre 9-11 papers regarding a necessary ingeredient for new weapon systems to be brought on line.

[salin]

3. Am reading his book now. A must read.

For those of us reading the news closely for the past 2-3 years there isn't that much "new" (though there is some) - but the level of documentation contained, and the arguments made - particularly around the use of secrecy and the actual and potential threats to democracy posed by such actions - are coherent and convincing. Great fodder for speaking with fence sitters who are still (due to cognitive disonance? - trying to reconcile the image of "good/noble country" with the implications of intent when one really considers the what and whys of what the bush cheney government is doing and pursuing). Gives logical questions to ask them, with great information.

[teach1st]

4. Kick for the evening crew. A must read! N/T