DICK CHENEY sat with BOB SHIEFFER Sunday morning for another one of his mind-boggling exit interviews on the performance of the BUSH administration.  It was a bit of a love fest, with SHIEFFER starting out the interview recollecting his first interview with CHENEY more than 35 years ago, when the vice president was a lad of 32.

CHENEY continued his rewriting of history, failing to admit many failures, touting the administration’s efforts to keep the country safe, and vowing to do it all over again given the chance.  He even went as far to say OBAMA and future administrations should follow the very same policies.

“We were very careful, we did everything by the book, and in fact, we produced very significant results.  I would hope for the sake of the nation that this administration (OBAMA’S) and future administrations will continue those policies.”

Yeah right!

By the book?  What book would that be? 

Very careful?  The post war planning in Iraq was about as textbook careless and bungling in negligence as to astound.  And that is just a drop in the bucket that spills over to a flood of the mess that BUSH and CHENEY have wrought.  But he wants OBAMA to do more of the same.

When asked about Guantanamo, CHENEY continued his farce, “Guantanamo is there to hold people we believe are unlawful combatants that were captured in the war on terror, many of them members of Al Queda.  They are well treated…”

What! 

Hello BOB.  Are you listening to this?

Well treated?  Is it well treatment to be captured, incarcerated, held without charges, denied legal representation, or redress before a legal tribunal, indefinitely?  In what book does that qualify as being treated well?

Today’s New York Times outlines the story of one MUHAMMAD SAAD IQBAL.  It is largely uncorroborated, but that is by design of our US government rather than lack of journalistic effort.  If even a fraction of it is accurate, it’s clear the detainees held at Guantanamo were anything but well treated.

Mr. IQBAL was arrested in 2002, not in Iraq, or Afghanistan, but in Indonesia.  He was not so much a “combatant” as he was a teller of tales.  He was taken not from some battlefield in the bustling city of Jakarta, but from his 1-room apartment in the city.  He was supposedly detained for bragging several days earlier about knowledge of how to make a shoe bomb.  That’s it.

For that, he was held, without charges, without representation, and without recourse for 6 years.  Along the way he was renditioned to Egypt where, if his story is true, he was tortured, deprived of sleep, left standing for days at a time and kept in a small dirt cell for upwards of 6 months before being moved to Guantanamo.

Once at the Cuban “resort” IQBAL was treated so well he tired to commit suicide twice, went on 3 hunger strikes, lost the ability to walk without assistance, nearly lost hearing in an infected ear, and became addicted to a cocktail of pharmaceuticals and anti-depressants?  Is this the treatment of which CHENEY speaks?

How many others have similar, or worse stories?  One can only imagine, until the books are written. 

How in the world could BOB SHIEFFER sit there and listen to CHENEY spew this crap, and on FACE THE NATION.  I had respect for this show, respect for BOB.  No more.

Will CHENEY, and BUSH for that matter, ever really face the nation?
One can only hope, BOB SHIEFFER notwithstanding.

It was the summer of 2000, Staples Center, Los Angeles with Senator JOSEPH LIEBERMAN before a rapt Democratic Convention as he accepted their nomination for him to become the Vice President of the United States. He told the packed house about how he walked with MARTIN LUTHER KING in the 60's in the march on Washington. "I went to Mississippi where we worked to register blacks to vote...As Connecticut's Attorney General I worked to be 'The People's Lawyer'"

The crowd chanted "Go Joe go!"

Democrats would like to tell JOE LIEBERMAN where he can go now.

Last night, as a keynote speaker at the Republican Convention LIEBERMAN displayed his fully turned coat. He mocked BARACK OBAMA, and heaped praise upon JOHN McCAIN. But when he gushed about SARAH PALIN'S qualifications, his role as the new waterboy for conservatives was fully exposed.

It's one thing to be loyal, even to favor an old friend and colleague in the senate. Perfhaps LIEBERMAN really believes McCAIN is qualified and competent to be the next president. But there is no explanation for his party line defense of PALIN, other than LIEBERMAN has been drinking the coolade. That's it. He's gone.

Gone is the Democrat who told the Democratic Convnetion in 2000, "When we see the world through the eyes of other people, you understand that the smallest changes can make the biggest differences in all of our lives. That's somethingI'm really sorry to say I don't think our Republican friends really understand. You know, they're fast to dismiss the achievements, the extraordinary achievements of the last 8 years. But I'll tell you, at the end of the day, the people I'm talking with, the real people on the street, tell me that their lives are a lot better than they were 8 years ago,!"

I wonder if JOE even talks with any of those real people on the street anymore.

JOHN EDWARDS, the one-term senator from South Carolina announced his candidacy for president over the holiday. On Sunday he appeared with his wife ELIZABETH on THIS WEEK, and when asked about gay marriage, an issue he has had some trouble with in the past, he blew any chance of gaining support from supporters of the movement.

He was asked about being booed in New Hampshire about the issue, a fact he initially denied, conceding later he might not have heard the jeers. Recall during the Vice President's debate when the question came up he gave some rambling answer about DICK CHENEY'S love for his daughter, completely avoiding the issue and creating an uncomfortable moment with little positive impact for EDWARDS.

Sunday he was asked why this is the single most difficult issue for him:

EDWARDS: "Because I'm 53 years old. I grew up in a small town in the rural south. I was raised in the southern Baptist church. And so I have a belief system that arises from that. It's part of who I am. I can't make it disappear. And what I said when I was asked about this in Portsmouth, New Hampshire//

JOHN EDWARDS (in New Hampshire: I personally feel great conflict about that. I don't know the answer, I wish I did. I think from my perspective it's very easy for me to say civil unions, yes, partnership benefits yes, but it is something that I struggle with.]Do I believe they should have the right to marry? I'm just not there yet, me, I'm not there yet.

STEPHANOPOLOUS: Are you?

ELIZABETH EDWARDS: Well, it's not particularly important whether I am, but I guess I come from a more eclectic background and so it's less problematic, I think, probably for me. But I think both sides of this argument understand the desire for equality and equal treatment. I don't think there is anybody who is for or against it who doesn't understand it and I don't think there's anybody who is for or against it who doesn't understand the trouble people have, because it just seems something that they've not been around.

Of course, they haven't, because we haven't had it in this country.

JOHN EDWARDS (in New Hampshire): My daughter who is 24 and goes to school in Cambridge --- her generation and all of her friends believe this issue will completely disappear with their generation.]

ELAZABETH EDWARDS: And I have to say she's talked to children on both sides of the aisle who are her age, the children of our senators and politicians on both sides of the aisle and people who are her age, regardless of the political affiliation of their parents, all believe exactly the same thing. This issue will not exist when they are the people who are sitting in these seats.

STEPHANOPOLOUS: So you can imagine changing your mind, but you're not there.

EDWARDS: I'm not there."

Somebody please tell the ex one-term senator with limited to nill foreign policy experience, and no public service in the military, that running for president requires more than just great hair.

He'll never be there.

watch video

SCOTT McCLELLAN came to Los Angeles on June 16th, 2008 with his book tour for “WHAT HAPPENED” insisting his goal for writing the book was to restore candor to the political process in Washington D.C. He relayed his life in the political spotlight, born into it as he tells it, as his mom was elected to political office when he was 4.

McCLELLAN would have us believe he was “taught the importance of speaking up and being involved, doing what is right to make a difference.” Yet his actions in his years as Press Secretary for the President would certainly belie that upbringing. As one who watched many of his sessions with the media, the same media that is now somehow to blame for not more aggressively challenging the lies and deceptions perpetrated by the BUSH administration(and Mr. McCLELLAN), it was not a candid do-gooder who spoke up about the obvious nonsense he was channeling to the press. He was constantly on the ropes, in large part because the chum he was shoveling in the Press Room was incomprehensible. Yet he continued to shovel every last bit of it, many times to laughs and open disbelief.

Where was the “do the right thing”, “make a difference” SCOTT then?

But anyway, you’ve seen him do the rounds. Here’s another shot, with some fine citizen journalists doing the questioning. You be the judge. If only the book really answered the question.

Many thanks to John at BARNES & NOBLE on the 3rd Street Promenade. As you can see, it is so much more than a bookstore. It is a real community service and an invaluable asset.