Excerpt on Cheney interview
JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): Now, let's -- responding -- we were watching Vice President Cheney.
And, Ruth, we had to restrain you...
RUTH MARCUS, Washington Post columnist: You did...
JEFFREY BROWN: ... at certain moments.
RUTH MARCUS: ... have to restrain me.
I wasn't sure that I was going to have anything new to say about Vice President Cheney, because I have seen him interviewed before. But I have to say he had my blood boiling in the discussion about deficits, because let's get serious.
When President Bush and Vice President Cheney came into office, they inherited a surplus. The reason that we are facing deficits now and deficits and we have piled on so much debt in the future is in significant part because of the tax cuts that they instituted and refused to find a way to pay for.
He talks about entitlement problems, because of the largest increase in entitlements guarantees, the prescription drug plan, which they instituted and refused to pay for, and because of the wars. So, don't -- I'm sorry. Don't blame President Obama for all of it.
JEFFREY BROWN: David. OK. David.
RUTH MARCUS: And your turn, David.
DAVID BROOKS, New York Times columnist: I agree about the Bush-Obama tax cut, which the president -- the current president has fully endorsed, the prescription drug plan...
(LAUGHTER)
RUTH MARCUS: Not fully endorsed, not fully endorsed.
DAVID BROOKS: ... which Obama has fully endorsed.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVID BROOKS: I think they are all consistent.
One thing I would like to say about Cheney, he got a lot of heat for something he mentioned, and it ties back to something that was earlier in the program, and that was Syria. He describes in the book, apparently, a meeting...
RUTH MARCUS: He's changing the subject.
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes, I see.
DAVID BROOKS: I agree with Ruth on everything she said.
RUTH MARCUS: All right. I will be quiet now.
DAVID BROOKS: So, on Syria, they had a meeting in the White House, "Should we bomb the Syrian nuclear reactor?" several years ago. And one person said yes. And that was Dick Cheney. Everyone else said no.
But he was actually right about that. If the Israelis had not taken out that reactor, imagine where we would be today, where we heard in the news summary about thousands of people being killed by the Assad regime. What if they had nukes right now? This would be a very scary world.
And so I'm not a big Cheney fan. I was more on the Rice side of things, but I think he was right about that one.
JEFFREY BROWN: We heard Judy at the end ask him about the Romney comment. That makes me wonder, what is Dick Cheney's position in the party today and in American politics?
DAVID BROOKS: You know, it's funny. I would say that, in general, the Bush/Cheney regime has a very small position in the party. They are not well-thought-of. That may come back in a few years. They don't want anybody outside the party disrespecting to Bush and Cheney, but the Bush/Cheney years within the party right now are not seen as successful years, in part because of what Ruth mentioned, in part because of the spending and the deficits.
RUTH MARCUS: And you have to wonder, if Dick Cheney had taken the opportunity to throw his arms around Mitt Romney and endorse him, whether that would have made Mitt Romney happy. It certainly wouldn't help him in a general election, which is clearly what he is looking at.
Ah, yes, the G.W. Bush era spin-mister and "we didn't screw up" dribble. Also, "buy my book" salesman and conservative love-child.
As to civil liberties, the problem is We-the-People cannot know because what is exactly done is secret (behind closed doors). Essentially we have to trust "them" and that is the core problem. My view is, I do not trust the NSA as far as I can throw an elephant.
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