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Did Dick Cheney Give Bush Plausible Deniability?
Dick Cheney was an assistant at the White House when Watergate was unfolding. By the time the scandal forced Richard Nixon to resign the presidency in 1974, the young Wyoming Republican had returned to the private sector. The new president, Gerald Ford, called him back. Cheney became deputy to Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld, seen here on right when the two were named on Nov. 7, 1975. And when Rummy left (to run the Pentagon, but that's another story), Ford promoted Cheney. At 34, Richard Bruce Cheney became the youngest person ever to serve as White House chief of staff.
In his new book "The Way of the World," author Ron Suskind argues that Cheney concluded from his perch at the White House during those years that Nixon fell not because of his abuse of government -- he asked agencies such as the IRS and the FBI to shadow his enemies. Or because of the break-in of the Watergate offices of the Democratic National Committee by criminals with ties to CREEP (The Committee To Re-Elect the President). Or even because of the cover-up.
Suskind believes Cheney concluded that Nixon had been "overbriefed" and that his aides had failed to give him "plausible deniability." And so, a la Suskind, that is what Cheney set out to give George W. Bush.
Asked about it last night on Keith Olberman's "Countdown" on MSNBC, John Dean, White House counsel in the Nixon presidency, said Cheney has been so successful at this that it will prevent impeachment proceedings against Bush.
"Cheney's been very effective in setting up his deniability and always being the failsafe for Bush. Unless they start waterboarding the vice president, which it not too likely, he is the man, the trail ends right there."
Dean, the one who told Nixon there was "a cancer on the presidency," was convicted of obstruction of justice and admitted supervising hush payments to the break-in defendants. The author of a book called "Worse Than Watergate," Dean argues that the sins of the earlier Nixon era "didn't kill anyone," whereas those of the current administration include torture and war.
© 2008 The Los Angeles Times
24 Comments so far
Show All...Cheney concluded that Nixon had been "overbriefed" and that his aides had failed to give him "plausible deniability."... that is what Cheney set out to give George W. Bush.
It's a management style not uncommon with people at the top. Rupert Murdoch, for instance, is known for operating within a "carefully constructed carapace of privacy and mystery" from which he only sets down broad goals, and the most ruthless of his lieutenants then try to outdo each other in getting results and achieving recognition. The big guy doesn't want to know details, especially if they're related to bad news. There was another leader in the political realm who had a similar management style.
I doubt that bush has any sort of plausible deniability, after all ignorance of the law isn't a valid excuse for the rest of us is it? cheney might not have briefed bush on some issues, but I highly doubt that bush was left out of discussions which concerned who to torture and how to do it. I also doubt that bush was unaware of the fact that there weren't WMD in Iraq and that the reason he wanted to invade had to do with oil profits and 'outdoing' his father (neither of which are legitimate reasons to launch a war). bush is an idiot, but he's still responsible for the actions of his presidency.
Didn't Grant have a claim of ignorance when it came to scandals in his administration? If I recall right, he was damned for them even if he did have 'plausible deniability,' right?
The president has no plausible deniability. He took an oath to uphold the constitution. That is an active oath, not a passive, hey, if I hear something I'll take care of it responsibility. If he allows himself to be out of the loop, he is in violation of his oath.
Dean argues that the sins of the earlier Nixon era "didn't kill anyone,"
tell that to the Cambodians.
and half the names on The Wall.
what's Deano been mainlining?
re vdb August 7th, 2008 1:51 pm:
yeah, i noticed that too. maybe he got into a bag labelled "those who repeat history are doomed to forget it?"
Nixon's "sins" didn't kill anyone?
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Fred Hampton?
Bush Junior as President has a responibility to know what is going on..it is called Management Accountability....it trumps deniability. It is often called "Criminal Negligence"
The President has a "Duty of Care" to all Americans to ensure that those working for him did not break the law...Junior has "Breached" that duty and is liable for the damages.
Plausible denialbility worked with Ronald reagan during Iran Contra. All he had to do was claim he fell alseep at the meetings.
He is still worshipped.
Given the media of today, along with a compliant congress, it seems to be working fine.
History will record Dick Cheney as malign a figure in American history as Cardinal Richelieu was for France.
Did Dick Cheney give Bush Plausible Deniability??
Well, if he did, I understand they've developed some really effective new drugs for that........
.
....IMPEACH both George W. Bush and Richard Cheney....NOW
.
Doesn't matter if Bush was "out of the loop" and Cheney was behind everything. Pelosi won't start impeachment proceedings on either one of them. Therein lies the problem. This whole "plausible deniability" story is a smoke screen, they are all to blame.
vdb August 7th, 2008 1:51 pm:
--- "Dean argues that the sins of the earlier Nixon era "didn't kill anyone,"
tell that to the Cambodians.
and half the names on The Wall."
Dean is referring to Nixon re Watergate, not Vietnam.
Does this mean when Cheney used a remote control to fly the planes into the twin towers then demolish them, he kicked his office door closed first?
Or that Bush was carefully videotaped with little school children, far away, his surprise real for the rolling cameras?
Or Both?
Cheney is one of the single largest reasons humans must remain mortal. Death by old age is too good for him, but at least the world is rid of him.
So a great criminal mind learns from the missteps of his predecessors.
I know that being for the death penalty is against the leftist grain, but can we make an exception for Bush and Cheney? I truly do not think that impeachment is nearly enough. They both need to be tried, convicted, and executed.
This is why Mr. Bugliosi is my new hero.
Presence. My comment was not about needles. My reference was to a needle, singular, to use, as I specifically said, to dip into a one gram vial of L, that is one million micrograms, hence the need for a needle's point to pull out only 3-400 micrograms.
It was to this I clearly referred.
Thus, I made no "comment about needles," Anymore than someone advocating lighting a joint is "making a comment about fire."
Have I misread you Namaste?
I be hoping not.
Everyone's correct that 'plausible deniability' is not available to those elected and sworn to be responsible. Claiming it is an admission of guilt. I'd go further and disallow some additional civil rights to elected officials on the grounds they form the very government against which individuals are afforded certain protections by those rights, not the other way round. It's already part of how corporations are treated under the constitution, but would require a general revisiting of those ideas. Using the apparatus of state to promote personal interests is a fundamental betrayal nobody wants to acccept. Ideas like 'executive privilege' and 'national security' just wrap another layer of protection for that sort of betrayal. If they claim they don't know, or can't be forced to testify, etc, those rights should not apply.
God Presence, What an ass-whipping post. I am gratified to be clarified, if you will.
Have you found The Four Agreements relevant? Of interest?
I think you are a rare one that lives these agreements without having to have heard of Miguel Ruiz.
I thank you for the metaphor about appreciating the beauty of the road traveled and not distressing about the rocks upon it.
To paths.
Naked and in chains, in the middle of a hog barn.
Nixon dung still around in the 21st century? Of course. If you don't clean house it stays dirty.
Chaney probably briefed Bush on enough to be able to hold it over his head later.
If the people of the USA and the rest of the world, want to see G.W. Bush and his cabinet, escape any or most of the criminal charges that they are much deserving of; and impeachment proceedings are the answer.
If instead the people of the USA and the rest of the world want to see the G.W. Bush and his cabinet answer to the world for their many terrible crimes against humanity, democracy and self rule in general then they should pack the little criminal and his cabinet up, take them to the Hague and charge them for war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and see to it that this never happens again by setting the example to the world that the people of the USA are honorable people, and exempt no one from the rule of law.
Without that there is no criminal court that they could be taken to that they would not receive pardons from the next president, who ever it would be.
On a legal aspect I am not a citizen of this country. Even though I was born here, educated here to graduate degree level; as well I served the US Military, honorably, during the last 'great war of liberation'. I was born here in 1952, legally and according to the Geneva accords, a "prisoner of War". I do not vote because of this very reason; to do so would be to surrender my position as a member of a "Domestic Dependant Nation"
Therefore I am qualified to speak as a close observer of the USA; and the world in general and I would recommend that as soon as Mr. Bush and his cabinet have relinquished office, they should be apprehended, and as judiciously as possible be transferred to the above mentioned International Authority, and held up for trial.
Without that, the USA will have lost all credibility and subject themselves to the absolute and total fear of the entire Globe.
To coin an old Roman proverb;
"It is Great when you are loved as a people, is is very dangerous when you are feared"
In management: Authority can delegated but not responsibility. The person at the top is always responsible. Of course, the vicious Bush military junta will find someone else to blame for their misdeeds. For instance; Carl Rove tried to blame the democrats for starting the Iraq war.