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In reply to the discussion: They Got Away With It. [View all]Solly Mack
(90,758 posts)47. And Cheney and Iran Contra (while in Congress)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/opinion/09wilentz.html?pagewanted=all
But there were dissenters. A number of House Republicans on the committee cheered Colonel North on. One who led the way was Dick Cheney of Wyoming, who praised Colonel North as the most effective and impressive witness certainly this committee has heard.
Mr. Cheney the congressman believed that Congress had usurped executive prerogatives. He saw the Iran-contra investigation not as an effort to get to the bottom of possible abuses of power but as a power play by Congressional Democrats to seize duties and responsibilities that constitutionally belonged to the president.
At the conclusion of the hearings, a dissenting minority report codified these views. The reports chief author was a former resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Michael J. Malbin, who was chosen by Mr. Cheney as a member of the committees minority staff. Another member of the minoritys legal staff, David S. Addington, is now the vice presidents chief of staff.
The minority report stressed the charge that the inquiry was a sham, calling the majority reports allegations of serious White House abuses of power hysterical. The minority admitted that mistakes were made in the Iran-contra affair but laid the blame for them chiefly on a Congress that failed to give consistent aid to the Nicaraguan contras and then overstepped its bounds by trying to restrain the White House.
Mr. Cheney the congressman believed that Congress had usurped executive prerogatives. He saw the Iran-contra investigation not as an effort to get to the bottom of possible abuses of power but as a power play by Congressional Democrats to seize duties and responsibilities that constitutionally belonged to the president.
At the conclusion of the hearings, a dissenting minority report codified these views. The reports chief author was a former resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Michael J. Malbin, who was chosen by Mr. Cheney as a member of the committees minority staff. Another member of the minoritys legal staff, David S. Addington, is now the vice presidents chief of staff.
The minority report stressed the charge that the inquiry was a sham, calling the majority reports allegations of serious White House abuses of power hysterical. The minority admitted that mistakes were made in the Iran-contra affair but laid the blame for them chiefly on a Congress that failed to give consistent aid to the Nicaraguan contras and then overstepped its bounds by trying to restrain the White House.
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One thing I've noticed about BushCo: They were very into making portraits
TwilightGardener
Mar 2013
#1
To this day I can't look at that lying, bow-legged, fake-cowboy, chickenhawk, pig-fucker without ...
11 Bravo
Mar 2013
#15
If we said what we REALLY thought, the Secret Service guys would be coming to visit...
lastlib
Mar 2013
#122
That's it. Yeah, they're all just out for a stroll on a lonely Texas backroad...
TwilightGardener
Mar 2013
#17
"the media ate it up" -- They say that Operation Mockingbird was discontinued. Maybe it wasn't.
AnotherMcIntosh
Mar 2013
#50
I thought to myself "boy, Bush really looks like Butthead" and then I remembered this
tularetom
Mar 2013
#10
Technically, those targets of drone killlings are no longer American citizens..
dixiegrrrrl
Mar 2013
#104
The Problem is, Only the Leaders of Weak or Defeated Sides are tried for War Crimes
Wolf Frankula
Mar 2013
#13
If any of the Bush gang leave this country they will be subject to arrest by the World Court.
xtraxritical
Mar 2013
#107
So long as it is a Dem who did not aid and abet them. I will never support any Dem who voted
sabrina 1
Mar 2013
#37
Cheney and Rumsfeld were part of the Nixon Administration. They were present when
sabrina 1
Mar 2013
#40
And here, I thought that shit about Nixon and the Paris talks was old news.
Warren DeMontague
Mar 2013
#112
She probably sees herself as loyal and steadfast. I see her as complicit in war crimes.
Solly Mack
Mar 2013
#49
It looks like a publicity shot for a show about rich, evil assholes, like a Dallas or something.
Arugula Latte
Mar 2013
#57
Of all the things that anger people over the invasion/this "anniversary",that they got away with it
Solly Mack
Mar 2013
#64
Yes, Judge Garzon. But that the UK actually held him was a victory for universal jurisdiction.
Solly Mack
Mar 2013
#87
K&R at least there is a chance that Poodle (Blair) is in trouble. And just might get his arse
idwiyo
Mar 2013
#80