Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Showing posts with label Military Gays in the. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Military Gays in the. Show all posts

Sunday, February 14, 2010

VP vs. VP: Cheney calls Biden 'dead wrong'

In a lengthy, blow-by-blow analysis, Politico recounts today’s war of words between Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Dick on the Sunday morning talk show circuit:

Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Dick Cheney hurtled barbs across the airwaves Sunday morning in a split-screen debate over terrorism, charging each other with being dangerously “misinformed” or just “dead wrong.”

The rare dueling sit-downs – Biden on NBC and CBS, Cheney on ABC – broke little new ground, but amounted to a point-by-point defense of each vice president’s view of the war on terrorism, and a recitation of how the other side has screwed it up.

Biden said Cheney “doesn’t listen” and has not given President Obama credit for killing dozens of al Qaeda leaders and associates in what he characterized as a more aggressive fight against terrorism than was waged under the Bush administration.

Cheney shot back that Obama has a dangerously passive, pre-9/11 approach to national security that views terrorism as a mere crime, not a strategic threat against the United States.

“It’s the mindset that concerns me,” Cheney said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

The vice presidents differed on the handling of terrorism suspects, the closing of Guantanamo Bay and on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, with Cheney saying the president must have all those tools at his disposal to get information from suspected terrorists and Biden saying flatly that waterboarding is not effective and should not be used in any circumstances.

Cheney did agree with the Obama administration on two points. He echoed his fellow Republicans by expressing support for the surge in Afghanistan, but broke with some members of the GOP, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona, in supporting the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Cheney, who served as defense secretary under President George H.W. Bush, said that while 20 years ago the military was a strong advocate of the policy that bans gays from openly serving in the military, “things have changed significantly since then.”

“When the [Joint] Chiefs [of Staff] come forward and say, ‘We think we can do it,’ then that strikes me that it’s time to reconsider the policy,” Cheney said.

Biden had one advantage in the Sunday showdown – he got the last word. In addition to releasing a transcript of his pre-taped interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” before Cheney appeared on “This Week,” Biden was able to respond directly to ABC interview minutes after it ended by going live on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”


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Read the entire piece here: VP vs. VP: Cheney calls Biden 'dead wrong' By: Carol E. Lee February 14, 2010 http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32937.html