Dick Cheney dies at 84
His was one of those lives that really does merit the description “controversial.” Cheney was a former House member when Bush II chose him as VP. Cheney served during 9/11 and during the Afghan and Iraq war years, during which time he was hated by the left. In his last few years he ended up a NeverTrumper who defended his daughter and endorsed Kamala Harris – an act I doubt helped her.
He had such serious heart problems even as a youngish man (starting at age 37) that I never thought he’d make it through Bush’s presidency. Yet he made it to 84, courtesy of a 2012 heart transplant along the way.
RIP.
He was the Secretary of Defense from 1989 to 1993 and Pres. Ford’s chief of staff from 1975-77.
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RIP
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He’d been married for 61 years and his daughters appear to be fond of him if not of each other. Grandfathers usually have an appreciative constituency among their grandchildren, especially granddaughters. That’s the salient thing you can say about anyone’s life.
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As for his career and that of his son-in-law, they’ve contained a number of troublesome elements, some not alluded by his detractors to or alluded to only during the Iraq war. His daughter’s excursions over the last dozen years and his endorsement of them are a disagreeable coda to that career.
I liked Dick Cheney. He did some good things as SERCDEF and VP.
When I sent him a copy of my book, which took place mostly in Wyoming, he was kind enough to send me a handwritten note.
It’s sad that he had such a low opinion of Trump, but both Trump’s personality and condemnation of the Iraq war
got under his skin. Very sad to see him endorse Kamala.
Anyway, he served this country to the best of his ability, and I honor him for that. Deepest condolences to his family. May he RIP.
Anyway, he served this country to the best of his ability
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No, not really. He appears to have been a satisfactory family man.
Ace has a fair description of Dick being the guy who got to fully field test “neoconservative nation building” & see it fail miserably. Yep.
Such that most of us turned away from such folly in disgust. Also “yep.”
RIP.
As with Bush jr. I once supported Chaney. His refusal to learn from Iraq that a culture must be compatible for a representative democracy to be successfully ‘grafted’ onto that society was an indication that pride was foremost in him. He simply couldn’t acknowledge that however sincere his beliefs, he’d erred. Then, his refusal to see that, with first Hillary and then Harris, there really was no alternative to a braggadocios Trump, effectively led to again choosing pride over country. Sad.
There is considerable room for improvement in the level of public order and economic dynamism in Iraq. I gather the people kvetching about ‘nation building’ would prefer Uday or Qusay to Iraq’s parliamentary politicians.
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As for Afghanistan, somehow the U.S. military managed to arm and train and armed force that had no cohesion and could not function without air support supplied by foreigners. I don’t think the problem there was ‘the nation’ or the lack of it.
“ In his last few years he ended up a NeverTrumper who defended his daughter and endorsed Kamala Harris – an act I doubt helped her.”
Indeed. It’s a if the Bushies and Cheney simply resented Trump’s successes….
Has anyone read a coherent fact-based critique of Trump by establishment Pubbies that wasn’t (merely, amazingly!) a cry against his style?
I mean, it’s not like the National Review crowd hasn’t had enough time and space to give us a compelling tale— and if there is one, who has?
Looking at a few other sites I frequent, I see the remarks on Cheney are repellent. Mike Royko used to say we live in the Age of the Jerk. Yep.
NeverTrump is a Capitol Hill / K Street / Acela corridor phenomenon. It’s promoters aren’t talking straight with anyone. The complaints are improvisations.
Cheney redefined gun control and he proved the old adage ” Blood is thicker than water”.
Cheney redefined gun control and he proved the old adage ” Blood is thicker than water”.
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Not everyone’s blood.
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The Federal Election Commission has a database of people’s contribution to political campaigns and political action committees. Not sure how complete the database is; it has entries going back to 1980. Political contributions by Richard Bruce Cheney, his wife, his daughters, and his son-in-law are all noted in the database, though not as many as you might wager. Between them, Richard Cheney and his daughter have run for federal office 11x since 1980. Those of their proximate relations alive for some portion of that period have included his mother and father, his brother, his sister, his wife’s brothers, and his wife’s three nieces (Lizard’s only 1st cousins). That adds up to nine people. Seven of the nine are absent from the database. Lynne Cheney’s brother is recorded as having given $50 to the Republican National Committee in 2008, a year when neither his b-i-l nor his niece were on the ballot. Lynne Cheney has a niece living in suburban Minneapolis; she’s some sort of insurance executive and has given quite a scrum of contributions, nearly all of them to her company’s PAC and not one to her cousin running for office. Lizard put out an embarrassing commercial during one of her campaigns which had her kids reciting their family history in Wyoming (because, well, Lizard has scant history as a palpable resident herself). Well…
Perhaps my strongest memory of Dick Cheney is the way he calmly and easily mopped the flippin floor with John Edwards in a VP debate.
His more recently expressed opinions are unfortunate and, to some extent, sour my opinion of him.
Killing terrorists is good.
Dick Cheney killed terrorists.
Dick Cheney was good.