Cheney confident on Iraq future

Vice President Cheney warned in an interview Wednesday that a premature withdrawal from Iraq would invite “further attacks” against the United States and said he has been surprised by the weakness of the Democratic Congress.

Most striking were his virtually taunting remarks of two men he described as friends from his own days in the House: Democratic Reps. John Dingell (Mich.) and John P. Murtha (Pa.).

In a 40-minute interview with Politico, he scoffed at the idea of two men who spent years accruing power showing so much deference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the big spending and energy debates of the year.

But his implication was clear: When asked if these men had lost their spines, he responded, “They are not carrying the big sticks I would have expected.”

Throughout the interview, Cheney was dismissive of virtually everything Democrats are trying to do in Congress — “that probably wouldn’t surprise anybody” — on the war, spending and anti-terrorism policies.

“They’ve produced absolutely nothing that I can see that’s of benefit or consistent with the promises that they made when they went out and ran for election,” Cheney said.

Pelosi, in a statement responding to the vice president’s remarks, dismissed his comments and called on the White House to spend its time finding compromise.

“I am hopeful the president will tone down his rhetoric, put down his veto pen and work with Congress to make progress for the American people.”

Cheney offered an upbeat assessment of the Iraq war, predicting that when he and Bush leave office in January 2009 a self-governing democracy would be firmly established in Iraq.

Few military experts in either party share his optimism. But Cheney said much more work needs to be done.

But the vice president, who has been widely criticized for overly sanguine — and sometimes flat wrong — projections in the past, sounded as confident as ever that the Bush administration will achieve its objectives in Iraq.

He warned that if Democrats succeed in forcing a quick end to the war, the American people will be at greater risk.

“I think, among other things, it would encourage [Al Qaeda terrorists] to launch further attacks,” he said. “I think it would encourage them, if we were to operate in way that said, ‘You’re right, if you kill enough Americans, you can change U.S. policy,’ they’ll kill more Americans.

“I think the policies we put in place … have been directly responsible for our success at defeating all further attacks that have been launched against the United States since 9/11,” Cheney added.

“I think we’ve got people on the other side who don’t believe as I do, where there are honest and legitimate differences,” he said.

“I think people who want to change those policies, or want to stop them, have an obligation to explain and deal with the consequences that I believe would flow out of stopping those programs.”

Cheney was cautious in his language when discussing Democrats and terrorism, warning of the “great temptation” in the news media “for people to try to sensationalize this stuff.”

But throughout the interview, Cheney left no doubt that he takes pride even in some of the most-criticized policies of the Bush administration, including the wiretapping of suspected terrorists, and the long-term imprisonment and aggressive interrogation of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“We’ve been very successful,” he said. “It’s not an accident; it’s because those programs have been there.”

Cheney, in a seemingly relaxed and unhurried mood, chatted in his shirt sleeves, not wearing glasses, with his big chair swiveled to the side to meet his visitors.

His private office was dominated by a Christmas tree decorated with berries, pine cones and birds.

In contrast to President Bush’s paper-free Oval Office desk, Cheney’s is a working desk, stacked with reference and reading material, including a pictorial directory of Congress and the latest issue of Politico.

If Cheney chose his words with care when discussing the Democrats’ approach to national security, he was much more baldly critical of their handling of the dual House-Senate majority for the past 11 months.

“I don’t think they’re doing all that well,” he said. “That probably wouldn’t surprise anybody. I just think — I think if you look at the track record on what they’ve been able to move, on important items that are sort of basic, need-to-do-every-year kinds of things, like the appropriations process, I think the record is pretty dismal.”

“The refusal to move the war supplemental to support the troops until after the first of the year is a mistake. I say that in part as a former secretary of defense,” he said.

“It’s a terrible way to run a railroad. … I’m, frankly, surprised at why, after all of the efforts they’ve made to try to hook up various provisions on Iraq to the spending bill, they’ve been unsuccessful.

“I’m puzzled why they are so wedded to their political view that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid [the Senate majority leader] aren’t going to move that legislation — said ‘absolutely not, there won’t be another vote on this matter in this Congress,’” the vice president added.

Turning to progress in Iraq, he said: “We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re sort of halfway through the surge, in a sense. We’ll be going back to pre-surge levels over the course of the next year.”

But Cheney said that by the middle of January 2009, it will be clear that “we have in fact achieved our objective in terms of having a self-governing Iraq that’s capable for the most part of defending themselves, a democracy in the heart of the Middle East, a nation that will be a positive force in influencing the world around it in the future.”

It was a remarkable prediction by any measure, and one that is certain to infuriate congressional Democrats.

Nearly as surprising, Cheney said he has no reason to question the intelligence released this week showing that Iran is not an imminent nuclear threat, putting him at odds with conservatives such as former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, a presidential candidate, and others who have raised doubts or disputed the findings.

“I don’t have any reason to question what the [intelligence] community has produced,” he said. “Now, there are things they don’t know. There’s always the possibility that circumstances will change. But I think they’ve done the best job they can with the intelligence that’s available.”

However, the vice president said the administration remains “concerned” about Iran’s enrichment activities

“We still think there’s a need to continue the course we’ve been on to persuade the Iranians not to enrich uranium,” he said.

“The long pole in the tent in terms of developing nuclear weapons, traditionally, historically, has been developing fissile material, either highly enriched uranium or plutonium. In this case, they’re embarked upon the program to develop uranium, obviously.”

Asked how badly the National Intelligence Estimate would complicate the administration’s strategic objectives, the vice president replied: “We don’t get to say we only pursue those policies if they’re easy. It’s very important, I think, and the president clearly does, that we proceed down the road of trying to persuade Iran diplomatically to give up their efforts to enrich uranium. That has not changed. There’s nothing in the NIE that said we should be — not be concerned about their enrichment activities.”

Cheney said the assessment was released because “there was a general belief that we all shared that it was important to put it out — that it was not likely to stay classified for long, anyway,” he said.

Cheney said that “especially in light of what happened with respect to Iraq and the NIE on weapons of destruction,” officials wanted to be “upfront with what we knew.”

He said he agreed that was “the right call.” So he thought it might leak? “Everything leaks,” he said with a chuckle.

On politics, the vice president was asked about the current state of the Republican Party. “It looks to me like the Democrats have got at least as many, if not more, problems,” he said. “I think the Republicans are going to do well next year.”

On the personal side, Cheney said he is reading “The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War,” the recently released final work of the late David Halberstam.

ROFLMHO!

CHENEY TO MURTHA AND DINGELL: My, my, but you boys are so “whipped” — Nancy Pelosi has your nuts in her lockbox!!

“They are not carrying the big sticks I would have expected.”>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I really love the man.

He's right you know. Reid and Murtha are both gurly men, whussy pipped.

There is an outside chance that neither of them will survive their next election cycle.

Vice President Cheney had a lot of powerful comments, but my favorite is the one referenced by Enchante...

Murtha “and the other senior leaders … march to the tune of Nancy Pelosi to an extent I had not seen, frankly, with any previous speaker,” Cheney said. “I’m trying to think how to say all of this in a gentlemanly fashion, but [in] the Congress I served in, that wouldn’t have happened.” But his implication was clear: When asked if these men had lost their spines, he responded, “They are not carrying the big sticks I would have expected.”

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Nancy has definitely performed a sexchange on that old bull! LOL!!!!

I don't care what anybody says, Jaz, we definitely as a nation dodged a bullet in 2000 and 2004.

I hope and pray we can do it again in 2008...

You couldn’t be more right, Smooth. To even think about either of those turkeys being the CIC for the last seven years gives me nightmares.

It’s really hard to imagine that algore and jon carey got the votes they did, doesn’t speak well for our electorate.

I’m hoping and praying with you on ‘08, we’ll still need a strong CIC.

Vice President Cheney rocks!

“The refusal to move the war supplemental to support the troops until after the first of the year is a mistake. I say that in part as a former secretary of defense,” he said.

“It’s a terrible way to run a railroad. … I’m, frankly, surprised at why, after all of the efforts they’ve made to try to hook up various provisions on Iraq to the spending bill, they’ve been unsuccessful.

we definitely as a nation dodged a bullet in 2000 and 2004.

ESPECIALLY in 2004!

Instead of this --

We got them --

Right on, Justa!

Hope your shopping for the troops went well and the weather stayed cleared for you. :-)

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