Here is Jon Meacham writing an op piece for Newsweek, "Gallup is not asking about him in its prospective polling, and his daughter Liz's recent Fox News Sunday allusion to a presidential run provoked good-natured laughter, as though the suggestion were just a one-liner. Float the hypothetical in political conversation, and people roll their eyes dismissively.
But I think we should be taking the possibility of a Dick Cheney bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 more seriously, for a run would be good for the Republicans and good for the country. (The sound you just heard in the background was liberal readers spitting out their lattes.)
Why? Because Cheney is a man of conviction, has a record on which he can be judged, and whatever the result, there could be no ambiguity about the will of the people."
I disagree, Cheney is a man who SHOULD BE CONVICTED. Those thinking of a cheney run for President should read this article about Angolagate, guns for oil deal in which the french, the israelis, the russians, and the US were involved. The source is a very liberal paper, however, I think they have the cast of suspects correct. Dick Cheney and Halliburton and KBR are involved, as is Condi Rice (who served on board of Chevron, oil company, which also named a supertanker after Rice, since renamed). long and short of it, back stabbing the government of the Angolan leader (Reagan called him the George Washington of free Africa) and instead giving guns, money to his opponent, all in the name of oil contracts. thus, guns for oil. Also, blood diamonds are thrown in too. So we have guns, diamonds and oil contracts. cheney and Rice were involved, this is a major political scandal in France, no mention of it here in US (so much for free press, investigative journalism, Ha!). First, I believe Cheney is the source of the bs yellow cake Saddam was seeking in Africa, never happened, he set up Sec of State Powell to make a fool of himself in UN; second, cheney is figure in guns diamonds for oil scandal in Angola; third, cheney is source of leak in the Joe Wilson affair outing wilson's wife Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. All of these must have been impeachable offenses while cheney was VP, in two of the cases, outright treason.
Heres another piece on cheney from CorpWatch, calling cheney the benchmark for the "revolving door" of Washington DC:
Vice-president Dick Cheney has brought new meaning to the term "revolving door" says Bill Hartung, senior research fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York. His easy transition from the army to private industry and then to the White House has earned him millions, Dallas-based Halliburton billions.
Cheney made a fortune in the oil industry when he took over as chief executive of Halliburton, the world's largest oil services company in 1995. In 1998 he took home $4.4 million in salary and benefits and in 1999 he was paid $1.92 million, according to the company's own financial reports. In May 2000 he cashed in 100,000 Halliburton shares to net another $5.1 million and then sold the rest of his shares in August 2000 for $18.5 million, adding up to a total of almost $30 million in just two years, a fortune for a man with no previous experience in running a company, let alone an oil multinational.
Well, Cheney comes with even better qualifications; he was Secretary of Defense during the Gulf War and worked in the Washington scene for 25 years before he took the job with Halliburton. He brought with him a trusty Rolodex and his former chief of staff, David Gribbin, whom he appointed as chief lobbyist. In the last two years the pair of them notched up $1.5 billion dollars in federal loans and insurance subsidies compared to the paltry $100 million that the company received in the five years prior to Cheney's arrival.
The federal subsidies supported Halliburton's oil services contracts in Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh and Russia. In addition the company garnered $2.3 billion in U.S. government contracts in that time, or almost double the $1.2 billion it earned from the government in the five years before he arrived.
Most of the contracts have been with the U.S. Army for engineering work in a variety of hot spots, including Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and Haiti. Not surprisingly all this work stems from a new scheme to privatize operations of the U.S. military that were drawn up by Halliburton itself under contract to Cheney in 1992.
Today the company is working on major contracts to build oil infrastructure in Brazil and Nigeria for companies like Chevron, Petrobras and Shell. And Cheney also oversaw the company's merger with Dresser Industries, one of the companies that helped Saddam Hussein rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure after the Gulf war despite the fact that Cheney was one of the architects of the economic sanctions against Iraq. Under his leadership, Halliburton used two foreign subsidiaries to do $23 million worth of business with Iraq, more than any other U.S. company.
Get that? Cheney wanted sanctions against Iraq while Sec of Defense, paid Halliburton to conduct a study of contracting out with the Army, then became CEO of Halliburton after leaving office, obtained $1.5 billion in contracts and loans for Halliburton , also negotiated contracts with Iraq to rebuild oil infrastructure after the gulf war, of which he was a key architect. Whats that expression? Heaven doesnt want him and hell's afraid he'll take over?
Cheney for President in 2012 would divide the country, he didnt get any pardon in advance upon leaving office, I dont understand why he isnt charged with something right now. Probably Obama is afraid of Cheney's friends, opening up a can of worms about US policy toward Angola, who knows how many democrats were in on these deals?
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