Wilkerson: CHENEY-'became VP well before Bush picked him & Began To Manipulate From That Point'

[kpete]

Vanity Fair at its juiciest:
January 8, 2009, 8:33AM

"Farewell to All That: An Oral History of the Bush White House,"

by Cullen Murphy and Todd S. Purdum, February 2009.

A taste:

Lawrence Wilkerson, top aide and later chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell:

Farewell to All That: An Oral History of the Bush White House

The threat of 9/11 ignored. The threat of Iraq hyped and manipulated. Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib. Hurricane Katrina. The shredding of civil liberties. The rise of Iran. Global warming. Economic disaster. How did one two-term presidency go so wrong? A sweeping draft of history—distilled from scores of interviews—offers fresh insight into the roles of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and other key players.

by Cullen Murphy and Todd S. Purdum February 2009
With assistance from Philippe Sands.

January 20, 2001 After a disputed election and bitter recount battle in Florida whose outcome is effectively decided by the Supreme Court, George W. Bush is sworn in as the 43rd president of the United States. In foreign affairs he promises an approach that will depart from the perceived adventurism of his predecessor, Bill Clinton, in places such as Kosovo and Somalia. (“I think the United States must be humble,” Bush said in a debate with his opponent, Al Gore.) In domestic affairs Bush pledges to cut taxes and improve education. He promises to govern as a “compassionate conservative” and to be “a uniter, not a divider.” He comes into office with a $237 billion budget surplus.

.............

Lawrence Wilkerson, top aide and later chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell:

................. We had this confluence of characters--and I use that term very carefully--that included people like Powell, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, and so forth, which allowed one perception to be "the dream team." It allowed everybody to believe that this Sarah Palin-like president--because, let's face it, that's what he was--was going to be protected by this national-security elite, tested in the cauldrons of fire. What in effect happened was that a very astute, probably the most astute, bureaucratic entrepreneur I've ever run into in my life became the vice president of the United States.

He became vice president well before George Bush picked him. And he began to manipulate things from that point on, knowing that he was going to be able to convince this guy to pick him, knowing that he was then going to be able to wade into the vacuums that existed around George Bush--personality vacuum, character vacuum, details vacuum, experience vacuum.

more at:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/02/bush-oral-history200902
via:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/artappraiser/2009/01/vanity-fair-at-its-juiciest.php

[TahitiNut]

1. So, Cheney is a vacuum cleaner? I agree. He sucks.

:puke:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. Don't forget -

Cheney picked Cheney. He was given the task of finding veep candidates, and he came up with (SURPRISE!) himself.

He'd been planning on trashing the country since he worked for Nixon. He and Rumsfeld saw Chimpy Fucknuts as their way back into the Oval Office, and, consequently, into power.

Nice, huh?

[Solly Mack]

3. I was about to say just that

[malaise]

8. The problem I have with this is that

Poppy must have wanted this to happen or Cheney could not have pulled this off.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. Not just Poppy -

the Carlyle Group, who owns the whole Bush tribe, and the Carlyle Group is, in turn, owned by the Saudi royal family.

Remember how Chimpy Fucknuts got the whole bin Laden family out of Washington immediately on 9/11? Guess who was in charge of that?

Right.

Cheney.

Same with every member of the Saudi royal family who was in the US that day - every one of them out of here on private jets.

What will drive me nuts until my dying day is that this so-called "administration" was never called to answer for those actions. Everyone knew and no one said a word.

Not a word.

[bdamomma]

9. yes, he appointed himself and had to settle a score of giving

more power to the executive gutted the 3 branches of government.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

12. Nixon's Imperial Presidency

didn't go far enough for Cheney.

Well, I hope he's real proud of what he did. To us.

I don't believe in life after death, but a large part of me wishes the souls of the American soldiers who were murdered in Iraq, as well as the Iraqi citizens who did because of our invasion - how many hundreds of thousands died, we'll never know - haunt that sonofabitch for the rest of his life and beyond..........................

[PerfectSage]

4. "very astute, probably the most astute, bureaucratic entrepreneur"

is that some sort of codeword phrase for sociopath?

[Kaleko]

7. It's the modern version of what used to be warlords and robber barons

[Political_Junkie]

5. Man,

was that ever painful! Like reliving the whole freakin' nightmare all over again!

[12string]

6. Vanity Fair

Did an excellent job here.Worth the read IMHO.K&R.

[bridgit]

10. To this day nobody seems to understand...*they* picked *bush*, in bush they seen...

the mindless, wandering, narcissistic egomaniac that would sign anything anything!! they put under his nose so long as he got a fresh bag of pretzels hand delivered on a silver, Paul Revere serving platter come on, it's as simple as that. Maybe a, "Nice drive, Mr. President!" or two and voila!! The free world and it's treasury, it's blood was sold down the river ker-plunk!