Cheney's Stay-Out-of-Jail Strategy

by: tremayne

Sun Mar 15, 2009 at 23:03

Matthew Yglesias says of Dick Cheney "I’d be laying low thanking my lucky stars that I’m not on trial for war crimes not going on television to talk smack." Nevertheless, here he is:

Now, why is he callng attention to himself and bad things done during his administration? Inside for that.

I think he's doing it because 1) he knows really bad stuff is going to come out and he wants to get ahead of it. Stuff such as this leaked report:

After the beating I was then placed in the small box. They placed a cloth or cover over the box to cut out all light and restrict my air supply. As it was not high enough even to sit upright, I had to crouch down. It was very difficult because of my wounds.... I don't know how long I remained in the small box, I think I may have slept or maybe fainted.... A black cloth was then placed over my face and the interrogators used a mineral water bottle to pour water on the cloth so that I could not breathe. After a few minutes the cloth was removed and the bed was rotated into an upright position. The pressure of the straps on my wounds was very painful. I vomited.

2) Cheney wants to influence the discourse on this issue. He doesn't want "torture" and "illegal acts" and "unconstitutional" to dominate the narrative because if it does it will eventually lead to him in a box instead of the guy quoted above. He needs, instead, for the discourse to be about "policy" and "terrorism" and "counter-terrorism" and "tough interrogation" and "keeping America safe."

President Obama said during his campaign that he didn't intend to criminalize policy differences. For Dick Cheney that statement is his lifeline. If he can make this a simple difference over policy then, even though he has lost that policy fight already (um, there was an election all about this Dick), he can keep himself out of court. As long as he can keep making the Bush-Cheney policies seem at least arguable then it's "just a policy difference" and not a war crime.

The problem for Dick Cheney is that there is no one left to make the case for him. Sure, there's Rush Limbaugh and other talk show goons, but who can go on CNN or the broadcast networks and make a policy argument in favor of torture? There are damn few elected Republicans left who will make this argument and even if some still exist most talk shows are no longer interested in having a debate over "should we torture terrorism suspects?" That ship has sailed and the shows have largely moved on. But Dick Cheney, former Vice President, can still get some attention and he needs this "policy issue" to remain relevant.

Dick Cheney and George Bush authorized war crimes. And they know they did. It's possible Bush is a wee little bit embarassed about it but Cheney is surely not. And Cheney damn sure doesn't want to go to jail. As long as the John King's of the world allow him to act like this is just about policy he could succeed.

As an aside it's worth noting that some Democrats are complicit in the Bush-Cheney torture plan. One of them is Senator Jay Rockefeller and there are others. But that fact should not stop us from holding "the deciders" accountable. And to do that we need to keep the focus on the laws that were in place when Bush-Cheney took office and what they did to break those laws. And on documenting the torture.