Hands Off My Gun

At Amazon, Hands Off My Gun: Defeating the Plot to Disarm America.

Russian Hacking Could Be 'Act of War' (VIDEO)

It's former Vice President Dick Cheney, at the Economic Times' Global Business Summit:

Dick and Liz Cheney's Exceptional is Out in Paperback

I blogged this book a lot almost exactly one year ago, upon its release.

It's now available in paper, and more timely than ever.

At Amazon, Dick and Liz Cheney, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.

Obama the Villain in Exceptional

Here's the book, which I hope to start reading as soon as this weekend, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.

And at the New York Times, "Review: In ‘Exceptional,’ the Cheneys Make Obama the Villain":

Former presidents may keep quiet about those who occupy the White House once they leave, but the code clearly does not extend to vice presidents. Nearly seven years after leaving office, Dick Cheney has produced a book that amounts to a stinging indictment of President Obama as an ineffectual, America-hating, military-destroying, soft-on-terrorism appeaser whose tenure has damaged the country.

It is a case he prosecutes relentlessly. To the witness stand, Mr. Cheney and his daughter and co-author, Liz Cheney, summon the ghosts of presidents past, including Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Reagan, to testify to the greatness of America and what they call the bipartisan postwar tradition of muscular leadership on the world stage.

This is a tradition Mr. Obama has shirked, the writers argue, making him a modern-day Neville Chamberlain. “The damage that Barack Obama has done to our ability to defend ourselves is appalling,” they write in “Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.” “It is without historical precedent. He has set us on a path of decline so steep that reversing direction will not be easy.”

But while styled as a condemnation of Mr. Obama, this book — appearing just as the Republican primary contest is getting underway in earnest — is actually a prod to the Republicans seeking to succeed him. Although Mr. Cheney noted during a speech in Washington this week that he is no longer running for office, he clearly is seeking to influence those who are.

The Cheneys are championing a strain of national security conservatism that waned even within their own party because of the flawed intelligence leading to the Iraq invasion in 2003 and the later travails of the occupation. Even Mr. Bush’s brother Jeb Bush has said that if he had been president, he would not have authorized the invasion had he known then what he knows now, a position shared by other Republican candidates.

And yet, the post-Iraq isolationist streak that seemed on the ascendance for a while has also begun to fade with the rise of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) in Syria and Iraq and Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. Although today’s candidates are not showcasing the unpopular Mr. Cheney in their campaigns, they are, to some extent, voicing a more hawkish message on foreign policy, especially amid the debate over Mr. Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran.

Whether Mr. Cheney is the right messenger for the moment is open to question. While even some Democrats agree with his criticisms of Mr. Obama — that he has given away too much to Iran, that he has not done enough to help Ukraine against Russia, that his withdrawal from Iraq paved the way for the Islamic State — Mr. Cheney all but invites the “well, what-about-you” counterargument...

Okay, yeah, what about you?

The Bush administration's foreign policy looks better with each passing day. For example, see Glenn Reynolds, "SO THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION DID ALL THE STUFF THEY ACCUSED BUSH OF DOING. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS, BUSH WON THE WAR, AND THEY LOST IT."

They lost it alright.

But back to the New York Times.

Dick Cheney Discusses Iran Nuclear Deal at American Enterprise Institute (VIDEO)

Well, Cheney slams the Iran nuclear deal at the American Enterprise Institute.

Watch the full video, at AEI, "The nuclear deal with Iran and the implications for U.S. security."



And see the New York Times, "Dick Cheney Denounces Nuclear Deal With Iran as 'Madness'," and Politico, "Cheney: Deal would allow Iran to nuke U.S."

Dick and Liz Cheney's New Book is Out Today!

I'm looking forward to diving in.

Get your copy, at Amazon, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.

And ICYMI, "Restoring American Exceptionalism."

Dick and Liz Cheney on CBS 'This Morning'

The Cheneys' new book's out tomorrow, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.

Restoring American Exceptionalism

Dick and Liz Cheney's new book is here, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.

And they write at today's Wall Street Journal, "President Obama has dangerously surrendered the nation’s global leadership, but it can be ours again — if we choose his successor wisely":

In 1983, as the U.S. confronted the threat posed by the Soviet Union, President Ronald Reagan explained America’s unique responsibility. “It is up to us in our time,” he said, “to choose, and choose wisely, between the hard but necessary task of preserving peace and freedom, and the temptation to ignore our duty and blindly hope for the best while the enemies of freedom grow stronger day by day.” It was up to us then—as it is now—because we are the exceptional nation. America has guaranteed freedom, security and peace for a larger share of humanity than any other nation in all of history. There is no other like us. There never has been.

Born of the revolutionary ideal that we are “endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights,” we were, first, an example to the world of freedom’s possibilities. During World War II, we became freedom’s defender, at the end of the Cold War, the world’s sole superpower. We did not seek the position. It is ours because of our ideals and our power, and the power of our ideals. As British historian Andrew Roberts has observed, “In the debate over whether America was born great, achieved greatness or had greatness thrust upon her, the only possible conclusion must be: all three.”

No other nation, international body or “community of nations” can do what we do. It isn’t just our involvement in world events that has been essential for the triumph of freedom. It is our leadership. For the better part of a century, security and freedom for millions of people around the globe have depended on America’s military, economic, political and diplomatic might. For the most part, until the administration of Barack Obama, we delivered.

Since Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed us the “Arsenal of Democracy” in 1940, Republican and Democratic presidents alike have understood the indispensable nature of American power. Presidents from Truman to Nixon, from Kennedy to Reagan, knew that America’s strength had to be safeguarded, her supremacy maintained. In the 1940s American leadership was essential to victory in World War II, and the liberation of millions from the grip of fascism. In the Cold War American leadership guaranteed the survival of freedom, the liberation of Eastern Europe and the defeat of Soviet totalitarianism. In this century it will be essential for the defeat of militant Islam.

Yet despite the explosive spread of terrorist ideology and organizations, the establishment of an Islamic State caliphate in the heart of the Middle East, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and increasing threats from Iran, China, North Korea and Russia, President Obama has departed from this 75-year, largely bipartisan tradition of ensuring America’s pre-eminence and strength...

Keep reading.

And again, don't miss this essential book, at Amazon, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.

Dick Cheney Ramping Up New Policy Push

I mentioned the new book coming out previously, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.

I'm looking forward to it.

Meanwhile, at the Wall Street Journal, "Former vice president to release book and mount lobbying campaign that is likely to play into 2016 presidential election":

CASPER, Wyo.—Few people noticed the 74-year-old in the tan Stetson at a high-school rodeo here. Dick Cheney was happy to blend in.

That is about to change. The former vice president is looking to make a splash on the national stage with a new book to be published in September and a group he and his daughter Liz launched to advance their views.

The effort is sure to play directly into the 2016 presidential debate, in which national-security policy is already a point of difference between the Republican candidates, many of whom are looking to turn the page on George W. Bush’s administration.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal at the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds, Mr. Cheney previewed some of his likely positions:

• He characterized one leading GOP contender, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, as an isolationist. “He knows I think of him as an isolationist, and it offends him deeply,” Mr. Cheney said. “But it’s true.”

• An early critic of nuclear talks with Iran, he thinks the U.S. should be prepared to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. He also favors additional arms shipments to U.S. allies in Eastern Europe and further military exercises in Poland to send a signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• And he scoffed at the debate that tripped up Mr. Bush’s brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, over whether or not he would have invaded Iraq with the virtue of hindsight. (Mr. Bush, after some back and forth, eventually said he wouldn’t). Mr. Cheney instead said Republicans should scrutinize the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq under President Barack Obama.

Mr. Cheney’s overarching message, and the theme of the book he is co-authoring with his daughter Liz Cheney, is that the U.S. needs to assert itself more on the world stage. “We thought, looking forward to 2016, it was very important to make sure those issues were front and center in the campaign,” he said.

By weighing in, Mr. Cheney is bound to make himself a flash point in the 2016 debate, stoking further questions about which policies of the George W. Bush administration Republicans embrace and which they reject, from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the bulk collection of phone records and interrogation policy. That could prove particularly uncomfortable for Jeb Bush, who has struggled to define himself apart from his brother.

Mr. Cheney already exerts quiet influence over his party, making semiregular trips to the Capitol to address House Republicans and advising some GOP White House hopefuls. He wouldn’t discuss those conversations. Two of his top foreign-policy aides have signed on with Jeb Bush. And he is headlining donor events all over the country for the Republican National Committee.

“The party is very fortunate to have an active and engaged Dick Cheney for this upcoming political cycle,” said Reince Priebus, the party’s chairman, noting the number of candidates and elected officials who turn to the former vice president for advice. “He’s a top fundraising draw, in high demand.”

Holly Shulman, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, said “there’s no one happier about Dick Cheney becoming a foreign policy surrogate than we are…If he needs any assistance getting out his message, our team would be happy to help book him for interviews.”

Keep reading.

Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America

I love the title of Dick and Liz Cheney's forthcoming book, being published by Threshold Editions.

Here's the press release, "THRESHOLD EDITIONS TO PUBLISH NEW BOOK BY FORMER VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY AND LIZ CHENEY."

And at Amazon, Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America.

Heh, the epic title of a neocon manifesto. Leftist heads are going to explode.

Dick Cheney: Obama the 'Worst President We've Ever Had...'

The Obama administration is "one of the most radical regimes we've had in history," former Vice President Dick Cheney tells Hugh Hewitt.

Listen: "Dick Cheney: Obama 'The Worst President We Have Ever Had'."

HUGH HEWITT: Is he naïve, Mr. Vice President? Or does he have a far-reaching vision that only he entertains of a realigned Middle East that somehow it all works out in the end?

DICK CHENEY: I don’t know, Hugh. I vacillate between the various theories I’ve heard, but you know, if you had somebody as president who wanted to take America down, who wanted to fundamentally weaken our position in the world and reduce our capacity to influence events, turn our back on our allies and encourage our adversaries, it would look exactly like what Barack Obama’s doing. I think his actions are constituted in my mind those of the worst president we’ve ever had.

Anti-Torture Protesters Arrested in Front of Dick Cheney's Home

Priorities.

At the Hill:

Police arrested two anti-torture protesters in front of former Vice President Dick Cheney’s home in McLean, Va. on Saturday.

About 20 protesters from the anti-war group Code Pink, some wearing orange prison in jumpsuits, walked onto Cheney’s property to mark the 14th anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, Reuters reported.

Police asked the group of protesters to leave and all obliged except for two members of the group, who were then arrested on trespassing charges.

Code Pink said Tighe Barry, 57, and Eve Tetaz, 83, were unfairly singled out for arrest.

Tighe Barry of @codepink arrested outside of Dick Cheneys house! Police won't say why! 83 y/o woman arrested too!! pic.twitter.com/y22QZmaCTC

— CODEPINK (@codepink) January 10, 2015

Death Wishes Pour In for Dick Cheney

From the ever so classy progs, via Twitchy:

'Curl up and die': Death wishes pour in for Dick Cheney after MTP appearance http://t.co/ysscGTtBsH

— TwitchyTeam (@TwitchyTeam) December 14, 2014

Dick Cheney's Answer of the Year

Via William Kristol, "2014 Answer of the Year."

Dick Cheney Slams Joe Biden's Debate Performance

Dick Cheney was the model of the dignified, accomplished vice president, ready to step into the role as commander-in-chief, with absolutely no one questioning his fitness to serve.

The same can't be said for Joe Biden. It's a scary thought just imagining that crazy freak assuming the office.

Dick Cheney Recovers After Heart Transplant Surgery

I'm glad he's okay.

See the New York Times, "For Cheney, 71, New Heart Ends 20-Month Wait."

In appearances since he left office in 2009, Mr. Cheney has appeared gaunt and increasingly frail. Last August, he published an autobiography, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir,” written with his daughter Liz Cheney, in which he reported that a team of doctors assessed his heart condition before George W. Bush chose him as his vice-presidential running mate in 2000. He also described writing a letter of resignation shortly after taking office and giving it to his counsel, David S. Addington, to be delivered to President Bush if he were incapacitated.

In a government career with few parallels, Mr. Cheney, who was vice president for all eight years of Mr. Bush’s presidency, has been chief of staff to President Gerald R. Ford, represented Wyoming in Congress and served as defense secretary under the first President George Bush.

He is widely considered to have been among the most powerful vice presidents in American history, working behind the scenes on policies as varied as energy and counterterrorism and advocating an aggressive assertion of presidential power.

He was a lightning rod for critics of the Bush administration, and his influence as vice president during Mr. Bush’s second term was considerably diminished. But he remains revered on the political right and in the Republican Party and has been one of the Obama administration’s toughest critics, speaking out regularly despite his fragile health.

And see Lonely Conservative, "Dick Cheney Recovering from Heart Transplant, Liberals React as Expected – Updated with More Lefty Hate." And Memeorandum.

James Taranto: Dick Cheney for President in 2012

Sam Stein's not too pleased, "Cheney In 2012? Some Key GOPers Aren't Kidding." But James Taranto makes a lot of sense at the video:

Hat Tip: Freedom's Lighthouse.

See also, Johanna Neuman, "Cheney in 2012? Now There's a Real September Surprise," and Memeorandum.

Dick Cheney Fox News Sunday Interview (VIDEO)

Yid With Lid has the full interview, "Full Transcript of Dick Cheney Fox News Sunday Interview." See also, "RAW DATA: Transcript of Cheney on 'FOX News Sunday'." And the Swamp, "Cheney: Torture probe 'Offends Hell Out of Me'" (Via Memeorandum).

Andrew Sullivan, hysterical as always, isn't happy with Chris Wallace's mode of interviewing:

Now look: there are softball interviews; and then there are interviews like this. It cannot be described as journalism in any fashion. Even as propaganda, which is its point, it doesn't work - because it's far too cloying and supportive of Cheney to be convincing to anyone outside the true-believers. When it comes to Cheney, one of the most incompetent vice-presidents in the country's history, with a record of two grotesquely botched wars, war crimes and a crippling debt, Chris Wallace sounds like a teenage girl interviewing the Jonas Brothers.

Lots more commentary at Memeorandum and RealClearPoltics (video).