[Mb-civic] WORTH A LOOK: Opening the Door to Debate, and Then Shutting It - Dana Milbank - Washington Post Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

Opening the Door to Debate, and Then Shutting It

By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, November 22, 2005; Page A04

Vice President Cheney protested yesterday that he had been misunderstood 
when he said last week that critics of the White House over Iraq were 
"dishonest and reprehensible."

What he meant to say, he explained to his former colleagues at the 
American Enterprise Institute, was that those who question the White 
House's use of prewar intelligence were not only "dishonest and 
reprehensible" but also "corrupt and shameless."

It was about as close as the vice president gets to a retraction.

President Bush, traveling in China on Sunday, appealed for calm in the 
acidic debate over Iraq, which reached its low point Friday night when 
Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), in office little more than 100 days, implied 
that Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a decorated Vietnam veteran, was a 
coward. Bush said there should be an "honest, open" discussion about 
Iraq and "people should feel comfortable about expressing their 
opinions" without their patriotism being questioned. "This is a worthy 
debate," he asserted.

Cheney tried to follow his boss's edict. "I do not believe it is wrong 
to criticize the war on terror or any aspect thereof," he said.

But exactly three minutes later, the vice president added this caveat: 
"What is not legitimate, and what I will again say is dishonest and 
reprehensible, is the suggestion by some U.S. senators that the 
president . . . misled the American people on prewar intelligence." 
This, he said, "is revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety."

He floated the notion that "one might also argue that untruthful charges 
against the commander in chief have an insidious effect on the war 
effort itself" -- before adding: "I'm unwilling to say that."

It was a delicate act: Celebrating debate and criticism while declaring 
that a key element of that debate -- whether the administration 
exaggerated prewar intelligence about Iraq -- is off-limits. But Cheney 
achieved it with matter-of-fact indignation.

As vice president, Cheney has always played the hard-line Cardinal 
Ratzinger to Bush's sunny John Paul II. Before the war, Cheney asserted 
that Iraq had "reconstituted nuclear weapons." Since the invasion, he 
has gone further than others in the administration in asserting Iraq's 
ties to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He caused a stir when he directed 
an obscenity at a Democrat on the Senate floor, and he has sparred with 
senators in both parties in his bid to block a ban on torture.

The single-mindedness has appeared to harm Cheney's image: A poll this 
month, after the indictment of Cheney's chief of staff in the Valerie 
Plame affair, found that only one in four Americans had a positive view 
of the vice president. Cheney has retreated from public questioning and 
interviews, while Colin L. Powell's former chief of staff accuses him of 
leading a "cabal" and longtime colleague Brent Scowcroft says he no 
longer knows his old friend.

If Cheney still has friends in Washington, they are to be found at the 
AEI, with which his wife, Lynne, is still affiliated. Norm Ornstein and 
the other AEI fellows in the first two rows led a standing ovation for 
Cheney when he entered. Introducing Cheney, AEI President Christopher 
DeMuth was lavish: "We have greatly admired and hereby heartily salute 
the leadership and fortitude of our esteemed former colleague, who is in 
the arena to America's great good fortune."

Cheney had little time for such folderol. In his 19-minute speech -- 
aides made clear there was not even the possibility of him taking 
questions -- he doled out the bare necessity of thanks, then stuck 
closely to his written text, stealing only quick glances at his largely 
silent audience.

Like Bush, Cheney praised Murtha as "a good man, a Marine, a patriot" 
and said his call for an immediate pullback from Iraq is part of "an 
entirely legitimate discussion." Similarly, he said, there is nothing 
wrong "debating whether the United States and our allies should have 
liberated Iraq in the first place."

The concessions were done. Cheney then branded any accusation that the 
administration "distorted, hyped or fabricated" intelligence as not only 
"utterly false" but also illegitimate, dishonest, reprehensible, 
irresponsible, corrupt, shameless, insidious and, quoting Sen. John 
McCain (R-Ariz.), "a lie."

The vice president's string of adjectives did not sway the Democrats 
from the behavior Cheney had deplored. An hour after the vice president 
spoke, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) fired off a six-page 
list of administration claims that seemed to overstate the prewar 
intelligence. "They continue to ignore the facts and lash out at those 
who raise legitimate questions," Reid said.

It may not qualify as the "worthy debate" Bush had in mind, but there 
could be no doubt both sides took seriously his admonition to "feel 
comfortable" expressing themselves.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/21/AR2005112101375.html?nav=hcmodule
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