MEAN, DIRTY & NASTY

Excerpts from Politico's interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney.

"When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry,” Cheney said.

Protecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business,” he said. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.”

“The United States needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected. Sometimes, that requires us to take actions that generate controversy. I’m not at all sure that that’s what the Obama administration believes.”

Cheney said “the ultimate threat to the country” is “a 9/11-type event where the terrorists are armed with something much more dangerous than an airline ticket and a box cutter – a nuclear weapon or a biological agent of some kind” that is deployed in the middle of an American city.

“That’s the one that would involve the deaths of perhaps hundreds of thousands of people, and the one you have to spend a hell of a lot of time guarding against,” he said.

“I think there’s a high probability of such an attempt. Whether or not they can pull it off depends whether or not we keep in place policies that have allowed us to defeat all further attempts, since 9/11, to launch mass-casualty attacks against the United States.” (Read entire article here)

CHENEY SAYS HOUSE DOESN'T SUPPORT TROOPS

Panic in the streets! Vice President Cheney questions Democrats patriotism!

MANALAPAN, Fla. - Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday accused the Democrat-led House of not supporting troops in Iraq and of sending a message to terrorists that America will retreat in the face danger.

"They're not supporting the troops. They're undermining them," Cheney told a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition at the oceanside Ritz-Carlton hotel in Manalapan, Fla., about 60 miles north of Miami.

He's right, but that won't matter. The Sunday talk shows will be going nuts tomorrow with this latest "outrage" from Cheney. Isn't it amazing how one can be chastised for telling the truth?

WHY I LOVE DICK CHENEY

During the 2004 election cycle I got to hear Dick Cheney speak and got to meet both him and Lynne. I think the thing that most struck me about him was what a genuine and funny guy he was.

I remember when talk first surfaced in 2000 about who W's possible VP picks were. I said, "Who is Dick Cheney?" I have come to see and learn that W couldn't have picked anybody better, IMHO.

This past week he has just had me cheering. First, he called McCain on his hateful comments about Rumsfeld. Here is some of what he said:

"John's entitled to his opinion. I just think he's wrong," said Cheney, a friend of Rumsfeld. He also disclosed that the Arizona senator had apologized to him for a previous comment that the vice president had "badly served" President Bush on Iraq.

"John said some nasty things about me the other day, and then next time he saw me, ran over to me and apologized. Maybe he'll apologize to Rumsfeld," Cheney said in an interview with ABC News.

He scored a home run on 2 accounts. He defended Rumsfeld and he made McCain look like a wimp.

Second, he slammed the Democrats' approach to the Iraq War.

"I think if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we will do is validate the Al Qaeda strategy," the vice president told ABC News. "The Al Qaeda strategy is to break the will of the American people ... try to persuade us to throw in the towel and come home, and then they win because we quit."

Naturally, Pelosi has whined to high heaven about the remarks. Yet, Patrick over at The News Buckit spells out how right Cheney is.

UPDATE:
Later in the day after I posted this Rush Limbaugh called Dick Cheney his hero :-)!! Go here to see an excerpt of his comments.