Cheney Gets Self Confused With Obama on Politicizing Justice, Wins BuzzFlash's GOP Hypocrite Award

Dick Cheney

OK, we admit it: We were a little worried about our former vice president this week. It had been a while since we'd heard from him, and then he started getting himself confused with President Barack Obama...

Whew, false alarm! Turns out Dick Cheney is merely a hypocrite, not a senile old coot.

Cheney fired off an e-mail to his pals at The Weekly Standard late Monday night in response to the release of the 2004 CIA inspector general's report on detainee abuse and torture, as well as to the impending investigation by the Justice Department.

"The people involved deserve our gratitude. They do not deserve to be the targets of political investigations or prosecutions," Cheney grumbled. He finished his tirade with yet another threat to the security of the United States, should we continue to let this Barack Obama character run the country.

Now, we're used to Cheney telling us we're going to be attacked if he's not in the Situation Room, but the additional barb about Obama politicizing the Justice Department? That was rich!

After all, Cheney himself was really good at politicizing government agencies, especially that pesky one with all the people concerned about upholding the law and junk.

Not only is Cheney being hypocritical, though, he's just plain lying wrong. As Sam Stein points out:

But, more importantly, Cheney's remark ignores a consistent (and for progressives, irritating) theme of the Obama presidency. The White House has repeatedly stressed its preference not to launch an investigation into the use of torture. It would rather look forward, not back.

When evidence of illegality arises, however, the Justice Department is required to look into the matter. Far from succumbing to pressure from the president, Attorney General Eric Holder did just the opposite -- going against Obama's wishes by sanctioning a special prosecutor to conduct a narrow investigation into the use of torture. His hands were tied. Enough evidence was there to demand a probe.

Furthermore, assuming that the investigation will be political is pure projection. As Glenn Greenwald notes:

The call for criminal investigations of torture and other forms of government criminality is the most apolitical and non-partisan argument one can make. The ones who are trying to politicize the justice system and exploit the rule of law for partisan gain are those who are arguing against criminal investigations.

Just because Cheney couldn't pull off an apolitical investigation doesn't mean it's impossible. And that's why he's our GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

Remember our motto: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Catch up with you soon.

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This is Dick Cheney's ninth GOP Hypocrite of the Week Award. His most recent award was April 24, 2009. You can see a list of all previous nominees here.

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