Cheney's back in the Bunker, apparently. He hasn't been seen his disastrous "corrupt, shameless, dishonest" speech before the AEI ten days ago and then a brief appearance with the turkey the next day. What's he up to?
:scared:
AFP - Mon Nov 21, 1:33 PM ET
US Vice President Dick Cheney addresses the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. Cheney launched a blistering new attack on critics of the Iraq war, as the administration confronts growing doubts about the 2003 invasion.(AFP/Tim Sloan)
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/051121/photos_wl_me_afp/0511211820115i93fmhk_photo4Reuters - Tue Nov 22, 3:25 PM ET
http: //news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/051122/ids_photos_ts/r784665178.jpg
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10183319/site/newsweek/Isolating Cheney?The White House change of mind on Padilla is another sign of the deepening rifts in the administration over detainees’ rights
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Michael Hirsh
Newsweek
Updated: 4:22 p.m. ET Nov. 23, 2005
Nov. 23, 2005 - The Justice Department’s abrupt decision to indict alleged “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla-after keeping him in legal limbo for three-and-a-half years-is the best evidence yet that the cracks inside the Bush administration over detainee treatment are growing into serious chasms. And Vice President Dick Cheney may have just fallen into one of them.
While the administration is fighting with itself on a number of issues, including anti-torture legislation proposed by Sen. John McCain, nowhere is Cheney more isolated than on the issue of rights for detainees suspected of terror.
NEWSWEEK has learned that only Cheney’s office rejected language clarifying the rules for military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay. Those regulations were hashed out last week by Sen. Lindsey Graham, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and White House Counsel Harriet Miers, with crucial support from arch-conservative Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan. “Gonzales wanted to fix it, the White House was friendly to the idea, the Defense Department was on the fence and the vice president's office was off in a ditch,” said a Republican official on Capitol Hill who was involved in the negotiations.
In the end, the official added, while Cheney is still taking the lead in resisting McCain’s efforts to ban abuse of all kinds from interrogation rooms, the veep was left alone on the separate but related issue of detainee rights being pursued by Graham. The reason is that the other agencies decided to compromise, said the official. “The DoJ, White House and DoD interests won out over the vice president’s efforts to keep executive power free of
control,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of upsetting the deal.