Vice President Dick Cheney, in an interview on Fox, exchanged some heavy fire with Vice President elect Joseph Biden, mocking Biden’s ideas on the role of the Vice President and defending his own view of the expansive powers of the Presidency during wartime. From the Washington Post:
Cheney, offering no regrets or apologies for his aggressive role in guiding national security policies over the past eight years, openly mocked Biden for citing the wrong part of the Constitution during a campaign debate and for pledging to pursue a less expansive agenda than Cheney has.
“If he wants to diminish the office of the vice president, that’s obviously his call,” Cheney said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” He added: “President-elect Obama will decide what he wants in a vice president and, apparently, from the way they’re talking about it, he does not expect him to have as consequential a role as I have had during my time.”
In an interview on ABC’s “This Week” Biden said he would work to restore a “balance” to the Vice Presidency.
Biden said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” that Cheney was “dead wrong” in his views about unfettered presidential powers during wartime and that the approach “has been not healthy for our foreign policy, not healthy for our national security, and it has not been consistent with our Constitution.” He said he intended to “restore the balance” in power between the presidency and the vice presidency.
I assume that Biden’s reference to “balance” infers that he believes the President should have some say in policy. That would have to be considered an area of strong disagreement with Cheney.
Cheney did express one area of disagreement with Bush, over the removal of Don Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.
With less than a month left in office, Cheney was blunt and unapologetic about his central role in some of the most controversial issues of the past eight years, including the invasion of Iraq, warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens and harsh interrogation tactics. Cheney acknowledged that he had disagreed with Bush’s decision to remove embattled Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in late 2006, saying that “the president doesn’t always take my advice.” “I was a Rumsfeld man,” Cheney said. “I’d helped recruit him, and I thought he did a good job for us.”
Cheney and Rumsfeld go way back together, all the way to the Nixon-Ford years. Cheney certainly is a Rumsfeld man, and that should tell us all we need to know about why our efforts in Iraq were essentially run into the ground.
Biden did also criticize Cheney’s view that in wartime the President accrues vast power to act in ways that some might consider unlawful.
In his ABC interview, which was taped ahead of broadcast yesterday, Biden said Cheney was “mistaken” in his view of “a unitary executive, meaning that, in time of war, essentially all power goes to the executive.” Biden said the view served “at a minimum to weaken our standing in the world and weaken our security. I stand by that judgment.”
Cheney’s views seem to mirror, in some fashion, those of President Richard Nixon, who said “if the President does it it is not illegal”. Republican Dicks span the decades, but some things never change.
Bill Manzi.com 
Your Honor,
This is the dumbest entry you ever made. You have taken the Washington Post (in the tank for Obama et al.) talking points and combined it with a movie quote for and opinion.
I see some movOn.org and Huffington Post ideas in this hit piece.
I, on the other hand, am looking for Biden who has been assigned the job of making the life of Middle Class families better. I assume he will consult Deval Patrick of the Tax cuts promise.
I can hardly wait.
Jules
LikeLike
Beautiful!! You couldn’t have summarized that any better….thankfully I have the option of whether or not to tune into discussions by insignificant Dicksters that are out of touch with reality…
“Republican Dicks span the decades, but some things never change. “
LikeLike
No ideas on Cheney and Nixon beyond my own. The similarity in belief of Nixon and Cheney is striking. And the posting gave a fair representation of what Cheney believes, including a video. We are “fair and balanced” here at billmanzi.com
LikeLike
Your Honor,
Fair and balanced???? I do remind you that it was you who bragged, “this is a left blog, and it’s my (Manzi) blog and I can write what I want. How is that fair and balanced?
Of course if it was fair and balanced it would be boring.
The Bush administration has prevented us from a terrorist attack since we were attached, We also had 6 out 8 years of a strong economy and Dick Cheney was part of that administration.
If we were attacked you would have been up front criticizing the “Bush/Cheney regime”.
Since the 2000 election these guys never caught a break from you. You, sadly, like Jim, have the BDS illness.
I would respond to Jim, but his entry is completely incomprehensible. (I think there is an insult of me somewhere in his entry).
Merry Christmas guys.
Jules
LikeLike
Now Jules I may have a faulty memory, but I do not ever remember saying that “I can write what I want” or calling this a lefty blog. I do recall you pointing out that I carried the syndication feature called “lefty blogs” and therefore I was likely a rabid socialist because of that. I repeat that I gave more play to cheneys remarks than to Biden’s, but pointed out the extreme similarity of Cheney’s views to Nixon’s. I stand by that. I notice that you do not dispute the actual post, but rather try to paint the whole thing as Bush hating. Well my friend I submit that it is really Cheney who is guilty of underestimating Bush. After all Cheney never let Bush have any input on the major decisions of the day. With that I wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year. We won’t have George Bush to kick around any more in 2009. (Wasn’t that what Nixon said in 1962?)
LikeLike
Your Honor,
You once said it was my blog in response to an issue. I was not insulted because you are right.
I can’t figure out how to counter your partisan hatred of Cheney (and Bush) There is no way either of us can argue what we have not been part of. So I leave the argument simply by saying you are wrong.
Let’s let George go and work on Obama. He’s made promises and now we get to see him at work. Just keep in mind, community organizing is not a school in Defense or economy so he’s going to be depending on “experts”. Will he be dependent on these experts until he gains experience just as you imagine Bush relied on his master Cheney?
We will see.
Do have a wonderful Christmas and a Deval New Year.
Jules.
LikeLike
Your Honor,
I never considered you a rabid Socialist. Just a moonbat.
Your are still one of the better mayors I have ever met.
Jules
LikeLike
Jules,
I didn’t even have you in mind on my last post (jules doesn’t rhyme with Dick) but seeing as how YOU brought it up…
Merry Christmas!
“(I think there is an insult of me somewhere in his entry).”
LikeLike
Jim, Then what is an “insignificant Dickster”?
Happy New Year.
Jules
LikeLike
Certainly not you Jules! I admire your tenacity, wisdom and bulldog approach when it comes to defending yours and foxsnooze ideals…even on such a left-leaning blog as this one. Without you, we’d have nothing to discuss because the mayor’s points are usually ‘spot on’. 😉
A case in point for an insignificant dickster would be the lame duck vp…personally I don’t care for what he has to say (I never have), and I choose not to view his ‘penguin (ala Burgess Meredith) lip curl’, nor listen to what he has to say.
LikeLike
Jim,
So are you ready to move onto the great orator, Joe Biden, as he begins his new career?
I am.
So I wish you and yours a healthy new year. I got to sharpen my knife for the Bidener. After all, he going to make our economy all better for us middle classers.
Jules
LikeLike