Cheney’s To-Do Lists, Then and Now (NYT)

[struggle4progress]

By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: February 11, 2007

RETURNING to the White House after the Memorial Day weekend in 1975, the young aide Dick Cheney found himself handling a First Amendment showdown. The New York Times had published an article by Seymour M. Hersh about an espionage program, and the White House chief of staff, Donald H. Rumsfeld, was demanding action.

Out came the yellow legal pad, and in his distinctively neat, deliberate hand, Mr. Cheney laid out the “problem,” “goals” while addressing it, and “options.” These last included “Start FBI investigation — with or w/o public announcement. As targets include NYT, Sy Hersh, potential gov’t sources.” ...

“He’s had the same idea for the past 30 years,” said Kathryn S. Olmsted, a history professor at the University of California at Davis, who wrote about the Cheney file in her 1996 book, “Challenging the Secret Government.”

“His philosophy is that the president and the vice president and the people around the president decide what’s secret and what’s not,” she said. “They thought they had to aggressively go after the press and Congress to reclaim the powers the president lost in Watergate.” ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/weekinreview/11liptak.html?_r=1&ref=weekinreview&oref=slogin

[boobooday]

1. Sy Hersh vs. Dick Cheney -- A 30 years' war

Poster boy for the free press vs. a long-festering wound on the heart of democracy that is now a raging infection.

His tendencies are clear in those early notes. But instead of being obvious brutes, as Dick the bully wanted, they elected to use more covert means (infiltration -- see the raft of obediently bogus stories in the run-up to Iraq).

Perhaps if they had turned Dick loose back in the day, he would have revealed the depravity of that whole crew, and they could have been booted with their mentor, Tricky Dick.

Sy has been trying to tell us for a long time.

The article is great. K&R

[A Simple Game]

2. "a long-festering wound on the heart of democracy that is now a raging infection"

I like that, is it yours?

[boobooday]

4. Yes, thanks!

I was just thinking about Dick lurking in the shadows all these years, trying to undermine our constitution.

:hi:

[A Simple Game]

5. I don't have any trouble seeing the picture you paint in that sentence either.

My God, I may have nightmares tonight!

[goforit]

3. Cheney psychological profile hasn't changed. Manson only wished to be as bad