VP Debate
“I have not suggested there’s a connection between Iraq and 9/11.”
That single statement by Dick Cheney in last night’s Vice Presidential debate caused me to literally fall off the couch. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that Cheney could say such a thing after three years of publicly insisting that there was a link between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks. Even after the Senate Intelligence Committee and the 9/11 Commission both concluded that there was no such link, Cheney, Bush, and others from this administration continued to say there was.
I could link countless such quotes until I’m blue in the face, but what’s the point? It is perfectly clear that this administration will say anything, do anything, distort the record, and blatantly lie to stay in the White House.
While Cheney’s remark knocked me off the couch, the most telling moment of the debate may have been Cheney’s non-response to the charges made by John Edwards that much had not been done at home to protect the country:
EDWARDS: …But there are things that need to be done
to keep this country safe that have not yet been done.
For example, three years after 9/11, we find out that the administration still does not have a unified terrorist watch list. It’s amazing. Three years. What are we waiting for? You know, we still don’t have one list that everyone can work off of to see if terrorists are entering this country.
We’re screening our passengers going onto airplanes, but we don’t screen the cargo.
There are so many things that could be done to keep this country safe.
You have to be strong, and you have to be aggressive. But we also have to be smart. And there are things that have not been done that need to be done to keep the American people safe.
IFILL: Would you like to respond? Thirty seconds.
CHENEY: No.
IFILL: OK, we’ll move on.