The man is insane
Cheney Again Assails Critics of War
Rejection of 'Revisionism' Comes as His Standing Drops in Polls
By Michael A. Fletcher and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 22, 2005; Page A01
Vice President Cheney yesterday accused critics of engaging in "revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety" in the Iraq debate, in a major speech that reflected the uncompromising style that has made him a touchstone for many of the controversies shadowing President Bush.
In remarks before the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research organization where he once served as a research fellow and a trustee, Cheney said Democratic critics of the war are lying when they say Bush lied about prewar intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.
Vice President Cheney speaks at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington Monday, Nov. 21, 2005. Cheney charged that some Senate Democrats were "dishonest and reprehensible" for suggesting Bush lied to the nation about going to war in Iraq. (J. Scott Applewhite - AP)
"Any suggestion that prewar information was distorted, hyped, fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly false," Cheney said, decrying the "self-defeating pessimism" of many Democrats. He added that to begin withdrawing from Iraq now, as some lawmakers have suggested, "would be a victory for the terrorists."
The 19-minute speech cast the vice president in a familiar role: as the no-nonsense purveyor of a Bush administration policy that he was central in developing. Yet Cheney's defiant public image concerns even some White House aides.
The speech came amid a determined White House effort to answer critics of a war that polls show is growing increasingly unpopular, and that in recent weeks has helped erode Bush's standing with the public to the lowest of his presidency.
But the war has hurt Cheney's reputation even more. A recent Newsweek poll found that only 29 percent of Americans regard him as honest and ethical. The same poll found that more than one in four Republicans agreed with that dim assessment of Cheney's integrity -- a finding that surprised some top White House aides, who were already concerned about how the public views the vice president.
Beyond Iraq, Cheney's popularity is sagging under the weight of the indictment of his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, in the CIA leak case and by his determined campaign to exempt the CIA from anti-torture standards, which has provoked opposition even from Republicans on Capitol Hill.