When White House spokesman Robert Gibbs ridiculed Cheney’s remarks, this was the echoed reaction of network news correspondents at the White House: “Can I ask you, when you referred to the former vice president, that was a really hard-hitting, kind of sarcastic response you had,” said Chip Reid of CBS. “This is a former Vice President of the United States. Is that the attitude–is that the sanctioned tone toward the former vice president off the United States from this White House now?”
But let’s give President Obama the last word on Cheney’s outrageous claim. This is what the president said about the torture/terror issue on 60 Minutes yesterday:
I fundamentally disagree with Dick Cheney. Not surprisingly. You know, I think that Vice President Cheney has been at the head of a movement whose notion is somehow that we can’t reconcile our core values, our Constitution, our belief that we don’t torture, with our national security interests. I think he’s drawing the wrong lesson from history.
The don’t facts bear him out. I think he is, that attitude, that philosophy has done incredible damage to our image and position in the world. I mean, the fact of the matter is after all these years how many convictions actually came out of Guantánamo? How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney? It hasn’t made us safer. What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment. Which means that there is constant effective recruitment of Arab fighters and Muslim fighters against U.S. interests all around the world.
Thanks for revisiting this. The complicity by Ed Henry, John King, and the other White House reporters to deflect attention from Danner's piece and Cheney's interview by whipping up false controversy about Gibb's response was disheartening and despicable. And deliberate, in my opinion. There has been no mention at all about Obama's response to Cheney last night in the 60 minute interview, instead the focus is on "punch-drunk." What to make of this?
#1 Posted by Tom Traubert, CJR on Mon 23 Mar 2009 at 07:02 PM
" And yet, there is something newly numbing about their specificity, and their repetition."
Thanks for that, It perfectly captures the emotional impact of the piece.
#2 Posted by Sarah Burke, CJR on Tue 24 Mar 2009 at 06:26 PM
“We think time and elections will cleanse our fallen world but they will not.”
Exactly right. Of course we must move forward, but as we do so we must not neglect the unfinished business of exposing, condemning, and punishing those who made these nefarious things happen.
I think it's a shame that the former Vice President is not in prison. By defending immoral actions, he removes the last shred of doubt in my mind that he knew about, condoned, and even ordered them.
#3 Posted by D. B., CJR on Tue 24 Mar 2009 at 08:54 PM