George W. Bush's Evil Genie

He tells senators to 'go fuck themselves' and calls congressmen 'midges.' He wasn't a bright student, nor was he a great athlete. But Dick Cheney has become, by many accounts, the most powerful vice president in American History. According to this article in France's Liberation, he looks like an evil genie, and that's the way he likes it..

By Christine Legrand, Special Correspondent

Translated By Mike Goeden

November 14, 2005

Original Article (French)

The history books have not recorded the exact phrase used by the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, against the Democratic senator from Vermont, Patrick Leahy, on June 22, 2004. Certain witnesses heard "fuck you," while others remember hearing "go fuck yourself;" in any case, both expressions are generally frowned upon by polite society. Mr. Leahy had dared to request an investigation into reconstruction contract for Iraq awarded to Halliburton, which Cheney headed until his election in 2000. The vice president had responded "frankly", according to his spokesman. The incident was quickly declared over and done with. When the Senate is not in session, exchanging insults is not considered in breach of etiquette.

Behind the retired fly fisherman facade, 64-year-old Dick Cheney hides a certain brutality. He has been known to regularly employ rather brash language toward the Democrats, the press, and even members of Congress, whom he once referred to as "midges." He has no fear of confrontation. Even though he managed to avoid serving in Vietnam, he was Secretary of Defense from 1989 to 1993. He has even referred to himself as a hawk "who never met a weapons system he hasn't voted for."

Little is known of Dick Cheney. His biographers have themselves admitted to being disappointed in this regard, including the journalist John Nichols, author of the polemical Dick, the Man Who Is President (2004). He writes that, despite his 35 years in the public arena, Mr. Cheney "has succeeded in keeping the lowest of low profiles." The vice president sometimes attributes his rise to power to this very same discretion, which he also at times describes as his strongest quality. But very much against his will, Mr. Cheney is finding himself more and more frequently on the front page. Halliburton, the energy plan, Iraq: his name is linked to various fiascos of the Bush presidency.

About 49% of Americans have a negative opinion of him. "He's weakened," comments Steven Clemons, of the New America Foundation. His senior advisor, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted October 28 in a case involving press leaks, linked to Iraq. His own name appears three times in the prosecution's 22-page report. He is likewise engaged in a titanic struggle with Congress on the use of torture. Despite the Abu Ghraib scandal, despite Guantanamo, the vice president of the United States is currently campaigning against members of the legislature. who want to declare so-called "light" torture inflicted on suspected terrorists illegal.

As news source as impartial as The New York Times published an exceptional editorial on November 3. [READ]. The first sentence reads: "It's maddening. Why does the Bush administration keep forcing policies on the United States military that endanger Americans wearing the nation's uniform - policies that the military does not want, that do not work and that violate standards upheld by the civilized world for decades?" The last sentence has two a double meaning: "After all, the sign on Dick Cheney's door says he is the vice president." The newspaper emphasized vice - as in, the opposite of virtue.

Dick Cheney became vice president by default, appearing as though surprised to have been chosen. Contrary to his old friend of thirty years, Donald Rumsfeld - Princeton graduate and university wrestling champ - Cheney has nothing in particular to brag about. He was a Yale undergraduate, although he dropped out before graduating [after a year]. John Nichols describes him as "a false athlete, a false intellectual and a false Westerner" (he grew up in Nebraska). Just the same, he has become "the most powerful [vice president] the country has ever known," according to John Dean, Richard Nixon's former legal advisor. The political establishment didn't take long to understand the division of labor.

The vice president chose a few dossiers: energy and, of course, Iraq. In Bob Woodward's book, Plan of Attack, Dick Cheney makes his appearance in the second line of the section detailing the planning stages of the invasion. Woodward portrays him in the process of asking Bill Clinton's defense secretary, William Cohen, to "brief" the new president "on Iraq and the different possibilities." George Bush has yet to reach the Oval Office. This scene takes place nine months prior to September 11. The story would repeat itself on the morning of 9-11: Cheney was at the White House while Bush was in Florida reading a children's story. Five days later, Cheney presented himself as the nation's protector during the important televised news show Meet the Press. The assembled editorialists noted that Cheney had taken control. He was the one that had ordered the halt to air traffic. And it was Cheney who had advised the president to stay safe, far from Washington, in an underground shelter in Nebraska.

The old guard no longer understands Dick Cheney. He seems to have left the realist school of Bush Senior to join the ranks of the neoconservatives. ÏI consider Cheney a good friend - IÌve known him for thirty years, " stated Brent Scowcroft, national security advisor to Bush senior, last week to the New Yorker.[READ]. "But Dick Cheney I donÌt know anymore.Ó

Certain political analysts are quick to point out that Cheney and Rumsfeld have always been "warriors" and that they were already plotting against Henry Kissinger during the Gerald Ford presidency (1974-1976), whom they considered too weak regarding the Soviet Union. That's how Rumsfeld grabbed the defense assignment and Cheney integrated the White House, as senior advisor to the president.

The media emphasizes that Dick Cheney has nothing to lose. He doesn't plan on succeeding George Bush and so does not fear stating his opinion. For him, the Guantanamo detainees are very well treated. "They live in the tropics," he states with the utmost tranquility, "They're well fed. They have everything they could ever want. No other country in the world would treat such persons, determined to kill Americans, in the manner in which we're treating them."

In January 2004, the vice president was still insisting during interviews that links existed between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda. Since the speeding up of events surrounding the leak scandal, Cheney has given no more interviews. His appearances are now limited to his own circles of supporters and military assemblies. He claims the greatest indifference regarding his image. "Am I the evil spirit no one ever sees leaving his hole?" he asked himself in January 2004, in an interview with the newspaper USA Today. Before answering his own question, he remains as enigmatic as ever: "That's not a bad way to work, in fact."