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Being Dick Cheney
Center For American Progress 5/20/04
In a series of public statements over the last few months, Vice President Cheney has given the American public a glimpse of how the world looks from his perspective. In Cheney World, Fox News is a bastion of journalistic integrity, Wal-Mart's poverty-level wages represent all that is good about the American economy, Don Rumsfeld's mishandling of/lying about Iraq makes him the best Defense Secretary ever, and Halliburton is a shining beacon of integrity even as it shafts American taxpayers and U.S. troops.
CHENEY TOUTS FOX NEWS AS PINNACLE OF ACCURACY:
Last month, the WP reported, "Cheney endorsed the Fox News Channel during a conference call with tens of thousands of Republicans." Although it is "unusual for a president or vice president to single out a commercial enterprise for public praise," Cheney said, "I end up spending a lot of time watching Fox News, because they're more accurate" than other media. Of course, a University of Maryland poll last year found that Fox viewers were far more likely than viewers of any other network to have at least one misperception about the war in Iraq. All told, 80 percent of Fox News viewers believed at least one inaccurate fact about the war, compared to just 23 percent of PBS viewers.
CHENEY TOUTS WAL-MART AS PINNACLE OF AMERICAN ECONOMY:
In a visit to Arkansas, Cheney cited Wal-Mart as "one of our nation's best companies" and claimed that "the story of Wal-Mart exemplifies some of the very best qualities in our country - hard work, the spirit of enterprise, fair dealing, and integrity." Cheney did not mention that Wal-Mart pays its workers poverty-level wages, regularly violates environmental laws, and provides such paltry health care benefits that many of its workers are forced to rely on public assistance. Meanwhile, according to a study by the House Education & the Workforce Committee, "in the last few years, well over 100 unfair labor practice charges have been lodged against Wal-Mart throughout the country, with 43 charges filed in 2002 alone. Since 1995, the U.S. government has been forced to issue at least 60 complaints against Wal-Mart at the National Labor Relations Board." Wal-Mart's labor law violations range from "illegally firing workers who attempt to organize a union" to locking workers into workplaces, to "illegal doctoring of hourly employees' time records" to skimp on its already miniscule wages. Instead of noting this sordid record, Cheney said the problem was not Wal-Mart, but pesky workers who dare to challenge the behemoth's behavior. He said the answer is "litigation reform" to limit workers' ability to fight back against abuses.
CHENEY TOUTS RUMSFELD AS BEST DEFENSE SECRETARY EVER:
In the midst of the prison abuse scandal and with American casualties rising in the absence of a clear exit strategy, Cheney said "I think Donald Rumsfeld is the best Secretary of Defense the United States has ever had." Cheney's comments reward the fact that Rumsfeld and President Bush signed off on a secret order that "opened the door" to the abuse. It also ignored the fact that none of Rumsfeld's pre-war claims about Iraq's WMD have come true; he continues to lie to a national television audience about his pre-war claims; and he repeatedly pushes to slash benefits for troops, their families and veterans.
CHENEY TOUTS DISCREDITED INFO AS 'BEST SOURCE' ON IRAQ:
Earlier this year, when unable to provide any evidence the Saddam-al Qaeda link he said existed, Cheney said an article in the Weekly Standard was the "best source of information" to prove his point. He made this claim despite the fact that the Department of Defense had already dismissed the conclusions of the article as "inaccurate" and had condemned the leak of classified information as illegal. When asked about this by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) at a hearing, CIA Director George Tenet said that harsh criticism of Cheney's statement was "a fair point" and that "I will talk to [Cheney] about it."
CHENEY TOUTS HALLIBURTON AS SHINING EXAMPLE:
In the midst of an SEC investigation into its irregular accounting practices that may have bilked employees, Cheney gave a speech to tout Halliburton. He said, "I have great affection and respect for Halliburton. It's a fine company, and I'm pleased that I was associated with the company." Later, he said "Halliburton gets unfairly maligned simply because of their past association with me," even as Halliburton was itself admitting that it "accepted up to $6 million in kickbacks" in its no-bid contract work in Iraq, and the Pentagon cited the company for serving American troops in Iraq unsanitary food. Finally, he claimed "I severed my ties with Halliburton when I became a candidate for Vice President in August of 2000" – even though he "still receives about $150,000 a year" from the company, and owns more than 433,000 yet-to-be exercised Halliburton stock options that the Congressional Research Service said "represent a continuing financial interest" and "a potential conflict of interest." |
