The Cheney-Perino trifecta

The Washington Post says in its four-part series on Dick Cheney that the vice president and his legal team purported to gut the rules on how the United States treats detainees in 2001 — and that neither then Secretary of State Colin Powell nor then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice even knew what had happened until nearly two years later.

Asked about the charge today at the White House, Dana Perino pulled off an incredible hat trick of spin. All at once, she declined to comment on the report, insisted that it wasn’t true and declared that she knew nothing about what had actually happened.

Behold this thing of beauty:

Reporter: [The Post’s] story today portrays the vice president’s team as basically helping to draft that memo about how detainees are going to be held and tried, etc., where the limits are on torture, and that basically it took two years before the secretary of state, Colin Powell, and the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, even knew that this memo had been written; this vast policy on the war on terror, the secretary of state and the national security adviser did not know for two years. Is the president comfortable with the vice president essentially cutting out two of his top national security officials on this critical policy?

Perino: Look, I’m not privy to internal deliberations of that level. I don’t know. And I am not — I’m not going to comment on any type of internal deliberations.

Reporter: Does he really think that’s the way a White House should operate?

Perino: Look, I’ve been around, not as long as a lot of people, but long enough to see how the process works here. And I can assure you that the debate is vigorous and it is held — people have strongly held views and they voice them, and they voice them loudly. And I am very comfortable with the process that we have in terms of how those debates get settled.

Reporter: But how can you say it’s a vigorous debate if the secretary of state and the national security adviser were not involved in the debate for two years?

Perino: I’m not commenting …

Reporter: So how can you make the claim, if you’re commenting …

Perino: I’m commenting on my personal experience at the White House.

Reporter: But how can you make the claim that there’s a vigorous debate? The top two national security officials were not involved in that debate. How can it be…

Perino: I don’t know that to be true, so I’m not commenting.

Reporter: Could you send out [here someone] who can? You’re stonewalling. Is the president a member of the executive branch? Is he answerable to any law, to any executive order? I mean, what is this? What’s going on here?

Perino: The president, of course, is head of the executive branch…

Reporter: Any accountability to the American people?

Perino: Absolutely.

— Tim Grieve www.salon.com

Our great Bonnaroo 2007 adventure began on Thursday, June 14 with a huge back up on Highway 24 heading into Manchester, Tennessee. The new exit directly into the Bonnaroo music festival site entrance off the interstate was backed up 17 miles, we chose to drive our 1987 Dodge conversion van past that exit into Manchester and take the back way into the site which worked like a charm last year. Unfortunately we were not as lucky this year. We made a quick stop at the local Wal-Mart, where I was forced to forgo my 5-year boycott of the discount retailer in a vain search for a low-slung beach chair and more ice for our coolers. Our son’s girl friend Anna called us “hippie-crits for shopping at Wal-Mart before attending Bonnaroo. Our secret back entrance into Bonnaroo is not so secret anymore…an hour and forty-five minute back up on the back country road ensues which is only broken up by the locals sitting out on their lawns watching the parade of hippies going by, young boys getting out of their vehicles to pee in the woods and my favorite sign of the day “Sparajuana for the Hempless” I thought the creator of the sign should be rewarded for creativity alone!

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The Republican dominated South Carolina state legislature just finished up a six month legislative session without accomplishing much of anything. A tax hike on cigarettes is dead for the year, maintaining South Carolinas distinctive rank of having the nations lowest per pack taxation rate and efforts to help funnel those extra funds toward health insurance for the state’s poorest children will go unfunded for another year. Efforts to toughen penalties against drunk drivers are dead again for another year, killed by the extremely well funded DUI attorney lobby. If only the victims of those killed by drunk drivers could be equally as well funded and as effective in their lobbying efforts. For all the hue and cry over immigration in this law and order state, bills that would have required employers to verify a worker’s legal status and enforce federal immigration laws are dead for the year. I’m sure that bill fell victim to the lobbying efforts of home builders and other industries that rely on the lower paid illegal work force that most of the conservative Republicans are working so hard to deport from the U.S.

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