Editorial

Those were words to live by in the strange world occupied by Richard B. Cheney, the outgoing Vice President in the Bush Administration. The words were uttered by Richard Nixon, in whose White House Dick Cheney worked under Donald Rumsfeld.

Cheney has repeatedly made it clear he believes presidents, and perhaps even vice presidents, are above the law. He arrogantly declares he is proud of what he did in enhancing the power of the Vice Presidency; his, he says, has been a ‘consequential’ Vice Presidency, and who could disagree. It’s clearly consequential when you seek to disregard and cast aside the Constitution from inside the government. It hardly seems like it should be necessary to point out that Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush took an oath on a bible, swearing to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the nation, but for these men that seems to have taken a back seat to their zealotry.

Extraordinary renditions, imprisonment without charges or trials – contempt for Habeas Corpus – and an overweening attempt to cloak executive department action in blackout secrecy are all hallmarks of the Bush/Cheney Administration. This should not be surprising, since dark deeds often require darkness.

Now Mr. Cheney has become fond of dredging up historical points to justify the actions of the Bush/Cheney Administration, and he and Mr. Bush are particularly fond of suggesting that they should be compared to Harry S. Truman, who had very low approval ratings when he left the presidency but history later concluded his was in fact a very good presidency during a very dark period.

Clearly Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush are implying that history will similarly judge them more warmly than their contemporaries. But it is a false comparison, as is so much of what Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney postulate. During a very good period, their executive actions brought darkness.

Harry Truman’s popularity took a nosedive because of reasons largely orchestrated by the right-wing GOP of his time, which was embarking on the Congressional witch hunts that led to the era of McCarthyism.

It is worth recalling that Republican Sen. Joe McCarthy declared Truman’s State Department and in fact his administration was riddled with Communists, when in fact initially the charges were simply a cover to drive out the most liberal members of the old FDR New Deal. But publicity coupled with hearings and repeated, outrageous charges made it appear President Truman was ‘soft on Communism,’ and his ratings plummeted.

Plus, Truman was caught in the ‘Korean Conflict,’ and was facing the massive ego of Douglas MacArthur, who knew he could trust his Republican friends in Congress to support him. MacArthur was more than a little responsible for the debacle in Korea, despite his brilliant maneuver that at the last minute landed reinforcements behind the North Korean lines and beat them back. Then, with success, Gen. MacArthur disobeyed direct orders and sought to move U.S. troops close to China with the apparent goal of conquering all of Korea, rather than simply restoring the 38^th parallel status quo.

When ultimately it appeared his actions would lead to a full scale war with the Chinese and possibly the Russians as well, Pres. Truman met with him and when MacArthur once again treated him patronizingly, Truman fired him. This led to the GOP orchestrating a massive campaign honoring MacArthur, declaring him a national hero who was thwarted from defeating the Communists by the same Democratic President who had “lost” China in the first place. Truman, of course, didn't 'lose China,' but the Nationalist Chinese, the darlings of the GOP, did lose China by their corrupt, autocratic and dictatorial policies that perpetrated a feudal system that was ripe for revolt.

That GOP outcry over the firing of their favorite general created publicity that resulted in considerable hysteria, especially among the GOP's conservatives, and that generated more publicity, all of which served to denigrate Mr. Truman in the eyes of the public, since the GOP had already learned how to paint anyone who disagreed with them as a 'Pinko' Communist sympathizer.

But when historians coolly looked at Harry Truman’s presidency, it was clear he had done what was needed and what common sense dictated for the good of the country, despite internal pressures, therefore his reputation has been restored and even enhanced.

That will not happen with George W. Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney. Their administration sought to undermine or destroy all the traditional checks and balances that have kept the nation a beacon of freedom to the world, and in the process they allowed the economy to be looted and the treasury emptied, causing a worldwide Recession that may yet become a Depression.

There will be no historic redemption of the reputations of G.W. Bush and R.B. Cheney. History will show that the low opinion of their contemporaries, their fellow citizens, is more than justified. It is quite likely that the verdict of history will be that they indeed are the worst president and vice president in American history.

1/2009