Could there possibly be anything more absurd than the presidential candidacy of congressional munchkin, Dennis Kucinich? Actually, yes, there is. It is his tireless — and brainless — campaign to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney (also known as Darth Vader in paranoid liberal circles).
And what exactly are the charges with which Kukucinich hopes to nail the malevolent vice president? Well, according to a congressional resolution offered up on Nov. 6, he accused Cheney of being “in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of vice president” and said that Cheney had “purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the U.S. Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security interests.”
Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo. Where are the men in the white suits with the butterfly nets when you need them? And by the way, why Cheney and not Bush? Because everyone knows Cheney is the evil puppet master and the real power in this administration. A president who can’t put together two consecutive grammatically correct sentences couldn’t possibly have conceived and orchestrated the plot himself.
Back on Planet Earth, these lame charges of lying, fabricating and manipulating continue to strain the credulity of all sentient beings not afflicted with Cheney Derangement Syndrome. How many times does it have to be said that every reputable intelligence agency on earth believed Saddam had WMD, that Cheney could not possibly have manipulated them all and that Saddam’s behavior gave every indication that he had them?
In addition, how many quotes from prominent Democrats during the latter part of the Clinton administration need to be cited in which they said Saddam had WMD and huffed and puffed about regime change, even if they never quite did anything to actually make it happen?
Apparently there is a large pool of Bush- and Cheney-haters out there who don’t specifically remember a 1998 congressional resolution which Democratic Senator Tom Daschle said would “send as clear a message as possible that we are going to force, one way or another, diplomatically or militarily, Iraq to comply with international law.”
President Clinton himself asked the nation to consider the question: What would happen if Saddam “fails to comply, and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route which gives him yet more opportunities to develop his program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to press for the release of the sanctions and continue to ignore the solemn commitments that he made? Well, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction.”
Clinton went on to say that “if we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow. Some day, some way, I guarantee you, he’ll use the arsenal.”
Of course, there was no regime change then. UN chief Kofi Annan struck up an inspections deal with Saddam, temporarily saving his hide. Less than a year later, Saddam kicked out all the inspectors for good. After that, there was a pinprick bombing here and a missile lobbing there and some more hot air and that was about it. It took the Bush administration to do what Clinton and his fellow Democrats said needed doing.
And now, a bizarre and deluded little fellow named Kucinich is simultaneously seeking to impeach the current vice president while seeking the presidency himself. As they say, it could only happen in America.
Greg Strange provides conservative commentary with plenty of acerbic wit on the people, politics, events and absurdities of our time. See more at his website: http://www.greg-strange.com/.
