ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist&reg;.com: Duke's Damage Control</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style1 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="116" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="24" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="465" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="18" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="283" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr height="26"> <td width="624" height="26" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#149; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#149; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#149; <a href="teflon.html">THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#149; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">REACTIONS</a> &#149; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="1"> <td width="116" height="2574" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="489" height="1" colspan="3"></td> <td width="18" height="2574" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> <tr height="2573"> <td width="489" height="2573" colspan="3" align="left" xpos="116" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="5"><b> <br /> Cheney&#39;s GOP Battle</b></font><p><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>by John M. Curtis<br> (310) 204-8700</b><br> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright May 21, 2009<br> All Rights Reserved.</i></font></p> <p><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="style1">&nbsp;</span></span><span class="style1">W</span>hen Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele had his dustup with conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh Feb. 28, the battle for the GOP began.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Steele insisted that he, not Rush, was the head of the Republican Party, calling the 58-year-old conservative icon an  entertainer, proclaiming himself the head of the Party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Vice President Dick Cheney chimed in May 20, urging the GOP to follow Rush.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>He was asked whether former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell should be considered head of the new Republican Party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cheny quipped sarcastically,  he didn t know whether Powell was still a member of the Party. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When Powell endorsed Obama over his Party s candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Oct. 20, 2008, he wrote his own obituary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Attempts now to remake the GOP and jettison former President Ronald Reagan have backfired.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Cheney continues to hammer away at Presdient Barack Obama s credibility, defending former President George W. Bush s record on terror.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cheney insisted that Barack s decision to shutter Guantanamo Bay, release former White House  torture memos and ban  enhanced<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>interrogation techniques have made the country less safe. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;</span>U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder now considers whether to indict former Bush officials for violating U.S. laws regarding torture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cheney insisted that the Bush administration  never tortured, despite revelations that terror suspects Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were waterboarded 266 times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Despite denials by Cheney, most military and human rights groups regard waterboarding as torture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Coercive methods were banned by the 1949 Geneva Convention, prompting the Bush White House to define prisoners as  enemy combatants. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;</span><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Now that there s a possibility of Bush White House officials getting prosecuted, Cheney has been exonerating himself and his colleagues in the court of public option.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>His attacks on Obama terror policy directly excuse  enhanced interrogation techniques, claiming they yielded actionable intel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cheney s PR offensive directly relates to the growing possibility that former Bush White officials could face indictments or, at the very least, congressional investigations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> He is such a wildly unpopular figure trying to defend such discredited policies that Democrats would like to be able to find a way to pay him to give more of these kinds of speeches, said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>With the GOP trying to find itself, Cheney has tried to highlight the Bush White House s biggest accomplishment:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Preventing another Sept. 11-like attack.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Cheney, like Limbaugh, has cleverly captured headlines from Obama, now acting as a titular GOP spokesman. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;</span>Regardless of Cheney s past approval ratings, Democrats underestimate, at their own peril, the mistake of letting the former VP divert attention away from Democrats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cheney speaks with more authority on matters of national security than most the current White House officials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>He s closely aligned with the GOP s conservative base, including Rush Limbaugh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Both Limbaugh and Cheney have ganged up on former Secretary of State Colin Powell, turning the GOP base away from wannabe moderates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Powell hasn t yet accepted that the GOP base doesn t welcome moderates, especially crossover Republicans that voted for Obama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Whether they liked McCain in the last election or not, supporting Obama was tantamount to treason, disgusting Party loyalists.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;</span><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>White House or congressional strategists make a big mistake giving Cheney a forum in which to debate national security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cheney s positions play well to the Party s base, independents and security-minded Democrats that don t want to close Guantanamo Bay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Democrats miscalculate the so-called  torture issue, where most voters accept Obama s ban on  enhanced interrogation techniques yet also understand why the Bush administration used these methods to extract intel after Sept. 11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Cheney knows his talking points and makes a lot of sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Giving him access to the press steals the headlines from Obama at a time when the administration needs to control the airwaves. Obama loses the battle of dueling speeches with Cheney because, regardless of his logic, he gives Cheney access to the media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Like Limbaugh, Barack should ignore Cheney, robbing him of a national spotlight.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Obama administration officials are destined to lose the national security debate with Cheney.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cheney makes a logical argument for why the Bush administration was successful in preventing another Sept. 11-like attack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>It s easy to blame Guantanamo Bay but far more difficult to deal with dangerous terrorists committed to retaliating against the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> The administration asserts that transferring terrorist from a detention facility on an isolated island to a prison inside the U.S. will make America safer . .  said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), agreeing with Cheney that closing Guantanamo makes the country less safe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama must convince voters that Guantanamo is public relations disaster for U.S. foreign policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>He must also convince voters that banning  enhanced interrogation techniques&quot; doesn t compromise U.S. intelligence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>So far he s done neither.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cheney seems to be making more sense.</p> <p><u><b>About the Author</b></u></p> <p><b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.&nbsp; He&#39;s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet </a>and <a href="books.html">Operation Charisma</a>.<u><br> </p> <p></p> </td> <td width="1" height="2573"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2573"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="116" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="116" height="1"></td> <td width="24" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="24" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="283" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="283" height="1"></td> <td width="18" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="18" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>Home</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> || <a href="articlesindex.html">Articles</a> || <a href="books.html">Books</a> || <a href="teflon.html">The Teflon Report</a> || <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">Reactions</a> || <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">About Discobolos</a></strong></font> <div align="left"> <p><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">This site designed, developed and hosted by the experts at</font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"> <a href="http://www.cmeonline.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">&copy;1999-2002 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>