Cheney In 2012?! (Cenk At Huffington Post)

By Cenk Uygur

At first when I heard Ross Douthat, the new conservative op-ed writer at the New York Times, had , I thought he was another ridiculous right-winger. I thought he was seriously going to argue that Cheney would have won. But it turns out he had a different point, a very interesting point.

Douthat's argument was that no one represents the conservative viewpoint in America better than Cheney does. So, if you really want a litmus test of whether the Republican Party is losing elections because they are too far left or too far right, what better way of doing that than running the man who best represents the right?

This way, if he had won, we would have found out the Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys of the world were right. The problem with the Republican Party had been that they were being too soft and moderate. No one is harder than Cheney. But if he lost, they could get it through their thick skulls that the country is not that far right and the Republican Party erred by going too far away from the American middle.

But you know, it's not too late! Why not run him in 2012? He'd be younger than John McCain was when he ran in 2008. Cheney certainly seems lively and engaged in the national debate now. It's not like he's withdrawn from national politics. In fact, you might be hard pressed to find a more prominent Republican leader right now.

The only reason I can think that the Republicans wouldn't run him as their dream conservative candidate is that they know they are full of shit. They are perfectly aware that Cheney would get slaughtered, eviscerated, destroyed, pwned and waterboarded by almost any Democrat in a national election, let alone the widely popular Obama.

These conservative talk show hosts claim that the Republican Party does not defend its positions forcefully enough. They certainly can't say that of the former vice president. He's out there defending torture and intensely aggressive foreign policy every week.

If you ask me, it looks like he is pleading with Al Qaeda to hit us again so that he can be proven "right" in his mind. It seems like he's trying to send a not so subtle message to Osama bin Laden to strike so that he could run around gloating that we were hit as soon as we stopped torturing people. But that's not how the right sees it. They think he's doing God's work out there, defending the seemingly indefensible. And that he is the one man trying to keep this country safe. Ok, great. Then have at it, hoss.

Why not run on this ideology in 2012? Use the same fear tactics Bush used twice, that the conservative talk show hosts love and see if you can get the American people to buy into it. Do you believe or don't you? If torture rocks so much, why don't you get its biggest advocate to defend it and fight for it on the campaign trail?

Come on, I dare you. I triple dog dare you...

for the entire piece with Huffington Post comments.

for the entire piece with DailyKos comments.

He'll either really really be dead or pull a Kenny Boy.

Other Homelanders already admire him as their IDEAL REPUBLICON for his approval of torture and his record 5 (FIVE) military deferments.

Republicons will just ADORE them some Cheney when he scores another Wide-Stance Republicon Family Values Deferment -- this time from Death -- courtesy of his Doppleganger.

Now if only he'd return to that undisclosed location and STFU.

;)

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Nothing but a losing proposition all around for them.

And by good I mean good for us!

400 or more EVs..at LEAST.

BRING IT ON!! :D

The hard right may be down but they never really die.

I'd pay double to watch him demonstrate how waterboarding isn't torture. K&R! :kick:

"dick" for president in 2012?:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

The last one worked out so well!

:kick:

of the population!

:crazy:

People seem to forget that Bush didn't get a 28% approval rating on his own- HE HAD HELP. Funny, according to conservatives, when liberals are "far-left"; they're fanatical but when liberals are more moderate; they're rational. Double standard anyone?

I really really like Cheney spouting off at the mouth on TV, I hope he does more of it. It's almost like a nazi bragging about the holocaust; he thinks he's rallying the troops and emphasizing a heavily doubted ideology but eventually every word he says will be used in history as an exhibit of dangerous ignorance;

and in the more immediate future his words may be used as evidence in a court of law. He already dropped a doozy; saying bush signed off on and affirmed the torture doctrine. Keep talk'n Dick! Please!

Who knows? He is batshit insane.

Cheney looks like he's been living on death's door for some time now.

The man has a defibrillator permanently installed in his heart.

I'm surprised he made it through the entire Bush regime, frankly.

Besides... he's already had 2 terms as president.

Cheney is in a political death spiral. This is just sitting there, in all it's glory.

ABC pegged Cheney, among others, as designing, "choreographing" and approving torture.
This isn't approving it on a broad basis. This is sitting there and, well, you read it...

A Bureaucracy Mired in the Details of Torture

We found out last week that the vice president and senior Bush appointees "discussed and approved" the highly abusive interrogation techniques applied to U.S. detainees, according to reports by ABC News and the Associated Press. Those techniques include waterboarding, sleep deprivation, and physical assault.

In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News. ABC News, Apr. 10, 2008

The list of officials includes Vice President Cheney, along with Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, and John Ashcroft -- who were cabinet members at the time -- and Condoleezza Rice."

They "discussed and approved" torture scripts that were followed to the letter The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic. ABC News, Apr. 10, 2008

Link
All it takes is a little investigation of this report, never denied, and they're all finished.

what a gift that would be! isn't his "approval" rating like in the teens?

His heart is too weak and his vile, sinister disposition
is killing whatever life is left there.

K&R