Obama Held Hostage by Cheney on National Security, Says MoDo
By Anita Finlay ("Ani") on May 20, 2009 at 7:00 PM in Barack Obama, CIA, DNC idiocy, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, New York Times, Obama's Broken Promises
Lord knows I miss no opportunity to take Maureen Dowd to task for her near criminal Hillary bashing, but today her column is a scathing satire entitled “Cheney’s Third Term” which depicts the former Vice President and Don Rumsfeld sharing a fancy Washington dinner while gamely bragging they are controlling President Obama on national security. Hmmm. Here are a few excerpts:
…It isn’t so much that Dick and Rummy are back. It’s that they never left.
They had no intention of turning America’s national security over to the Boy Wonder. The two best infighters in Washington history weren’t yielding turf to a bunch of peach-fuzz pinkos who side with terrorists.
Let W. work out at the S.M.U. gym in Dallas, waiting for history to redeem him; Dick and Rummy are leaning forward into history, as they always do. Cheney is tawny with TV makeup; there’s no point taking it off. The gigs are nonstop, and he has a big Obama-bashing speech Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute.
…“That was funny when you were on Fox and Neil Cavuto called you Obama’s ‘ball and Cheney,’ ” Rummy grins, taking a gulp of his brunello.
“The punks thought they could roll over us,” Vice mutters. “Nobody puts Baby in a corner.”
… “I can’t believe how easy it was to bring Obama into line,” Rummy says, gnawing on Gorgonzola. “We wouldn’t have needed waterboarding if everybody cracked like a peanut. It was even easier than getting the bit into Junior’s mouth. Way simpler than if we’d had to contend with McCain. In the end, the right guy won.”
…“You’re running national security now and everyone knows it,” Rummy says. “You got Obama to do an about-face on the torture photos. He’s using our old line about how it would endanger the troops. He’s keeping our military tribunals. His Justice Department invoked our state secrets privilege to try to get that lawsuit on torture and rendition dismissed. He’s trying to stop any sort of truth commission, thank goodness. He’s got his own surge going in Afghanistan. He’s withdrawing from Iraq more slowly. He’s extended our secret incursions over the Afghan border into Pakistan.”
“Transparency bites,” [Cheney] snarls.
…”Well,” Dick says. “He’s got to keep Gitmo open. It’s rich that his own party won’t give him the money to close it. The NIMBY factor works every time — no terrorists in my backyard. He’s got to stop this pansy diplomacy with Muslim nations. He’s got to let Bibi take out those Iranian centrifuges. He’s got to stop his Kodak moments and Commie book club with Hugo Chávez. He’s got to release those C.I.A. memos proving that we were right to rip up the Constitution. And, of course, he’s got to pardon Scooter.”
“Can we get him to do all that, Dick?”
Dick twinkles. “Yes, we can.”
But here’s my point, Maureen. While you’re making a funny about Obama looking like GWB’s third term, which most everybody here predicted he would, do you really think Cheney would be able to do this to Hillary Clinton or John McCain if either of them were occupying the Oval Office right now? Are you intimating that our current President doesn’t have enough of a spine? What’s wrong, Maureen, are you running out of people to snark so now you have to take on “Obambi”?
MoDo, still happy you backed the “Boy Wonder,” as you call him, with such a vengeance?
Inquiring minds want to know.
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