Deconstructing Cheney and the usurpation of presidential powers

james carroll opens his boston globe editorial with this comment...

The indictment of the vice president's chief of staff for perjury and obstruction of justice is an occasion to consider just how damaging the long public career of Richard Cheney has been to the United States.

among the other lowlights of cheney's dark record, carroll reminds us of this often overlooked event...

The 9/11 Commission found that, from the White House situation room, Cheney warned the president that a "specific threat" had targeted Air Force One, prompting Bush to spend the day hiding in the bunker at Offut Air Force Base in Nebraska. There was no specific threat. In Bush's absence, Cheney, implying an authorizing telephone call from the president, took command of the nation's response to the crisis. There was no authorizing telephone call. The 9/11 Commission declined to make an issue of Cheney's usurpation of powers, but the record shows it.

it's an excellent synopsis and well worth reading in its entirety... you'll ask yourself, as i did, how have we tolerated this kind of behavior for so long in a public servant...?

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