Obama’s Cheney Dilemma: Barack Don’t Know Dick … Yet
Cheney pushed for expanded presidential powers. Now that he’s leaving, what will come of his efforts? The new president won’t have to wait long to tip his hand.
Stuart Taylor Jr. and Evan Thomas | NEWSWEEK:
Dick Cheney, who will step down as vice president on Jan. 20, has been widely portrayed as a creature of the dark side, a monstrous figure who trampled on the Constitution to wage war against all foes, real and imagined.
Barack Obama was elected partly to cleanse the temple of the Bush-Cheney stain, and in his campaign speeches he promised to reverse Cheney’s efforts to seize power for the White House in the war on terror.
It may not be so simple. At a retirement ceremony recently for a top-level intelligence official, the senior spooks in the room gave each other high-fives. They were celebrating the fact that terrorists have not attacked the United States since 9/11.
In the view of many intelligence professionals, the get-tough measures encouraged or permitted by George W. Bush’s administration — including “waterboarding” self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed—kept America safe….
