A Look at How Cheney Opposed Head Start, MLK Day, Mandela Release

[BlueNomad]

Anyone hear/see this on Democracy Now..sounds interesting...

Wednesday, October 6th, 2004
A Look at How Cheney Opposed Head Start, MLK Day, and the Release of Mandela

John Edwards blasted Dick Cheney's voting record as a congressman where he voted against the release of Nelson Mandela, instituting a holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr., Head Start and more. We speak with John Nichols of The Nation magazine and author of Dick: The Man Who Is President.

John Nichols, of The Nation Magazine. His new book is called Dick: The Man Who is President.

AMY GOODMAN: Let's go to the rest of the record. Dick Cheney. I have to say, reading your book, John Nichols, I felt there was someone else reading it, and it was John Edwards on this issue of Cheney's record.

JOHN EDWARDS: The Vice President, I'm surprised to hear him talk about records when he was one of 435 members of the United States House, weighs one of ten to vote against head start. He was one of four to vote against banning plastic weapons that can pass through metal detectors. He voted against the Department of Education. He voted against funding for Meals on Wheels for seniors. He voted against a holiday for Martin Luther King. He voted against a resolution calling for the release of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. It's amazing to hear him criticize either my record or John Kerry's.

AMY GOODMAN: John Nichols.

JOHN NICHOLS: You're right. There's a chapter in the book, it's actually entitled “Apartheid's Congressman.” It's about Cheney's service in the house from 1979 to 1989. One of the things that is done in that chapter is a list of the dozens and dozens of votes on which Cheney was one of less than ten members of the house putting him at the extreme edge in voting for very right-wing, very bizarre positions. And I was very delighted about this -- I was delighted to hear finally in a national political debate someone bring up that Mandela vote. I have talked to Nelson Mandela about these issues. He's very blunt about it he says one of the many reasons why he fears Dick Cheney's power in the United states, and Mandela does say, he understands that Cheney is effectively the President of the United States, he says, one of the many reasons that he fears Dick Cheney's power is that in the late 1980's when even prominent republicans like Jack Kemp and Newt Gingrich were acknowledging the crime of Apartheid, Dick Cheney maintained the lie that the ANC was a terrorist organization and a fantasy that Nelson Mandela was a terrorist leader who deserved to be in jail. Frankly it begs very powerful question. If Dick Cheney's judgment was that bad in the late 1980's, why would we believe that it's gotten any better in the early 21st century? ....

<http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/06/1444205>

[leftylefty]

1. I was watching the Veep debate at Stetsons

in DC (you know, the bar where the Bush twins get hammered on a regular basis) and the crowd loved it when Edwards brought that up. Too bad the media hasn't mentioned it since.
Democracy Now rocks!

[kerryin2004]

5. Too many other important things for the media..

Like Martha Stewart and Scott Peterson.

[doni_georgia]

2. What was his reasoning for opposing meals on wheels - are old folks

terrists too? This guy's record was the most extreme of the extreme. he made Newt look like a moderate.

[CityHall]

3. Spectacular delivery on that bit

But I timed it at 40 seconds. Wasn't he only supposed to have 30?

[Pithy Cherub]

4. A beautiful and compelling

indictment by Edwards that lists each vote Ceasar Cheney cast against a huge democratic constituency!