Based on Dick Cheney’s record, we’re certain a little diminishing of the office of vice president would be good for the US, said International Herald Tribune in an editorial on Tuesday. Excerpts:
Vice President Cheney has a parting message for Americans: They should quit whining about all the things he and President Bush did to undermine the rule of law, erode the balance of powers between the White House and Congress, abuse prisoners and spy illegally on Americans. After all, he said, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln did worse than that. So Cheney and Bush managed to stop short of repeating two of the most outrageous abuses of power in American history — Roosevelt’s decision to force Japanese-Americans into camps and Lincoln’s declaration of martial law to silence his critics? That’s not exactly a lofty standard of behavior. Then again, it must be exhausting to rewrite history as much as Cheney has done in a series of exit interviews where he has made those comments. It seems as if everything went just great in the Bush years. The invasion of Iraq was exactly the right thing to do, not an unnecessary war that required misleading Americans. The post-invasion period was not bungled to the point where Americans got shot up by an insurgency that the Bush team failed to see building.
The horrors at Abu Ghraib were not the result of the Pentagon’s decision to authorize abusive and illegal interrogation techniques, which Cheney endorsed. And only three men were subjected to waterboarding. (Future truth commissions take note.) Cheney mocked Vice President-elect Joseph Biden for saying that he does not intend to have his own “shadow government” in the White House. Cheney said it was up to Biden to decide if he wants “to diminish the office of vice president.” Based on Cheney’s record and his standards for measuring these things, we’re certain a little diminishing of that office would be good for the country.
