Wyoming – Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Saturday night that President Barack Obama has jeopardized U.S. national security by nominating substandard candidates for key cabinet posts and by degrading the U.S. military.
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“The performance now of Barack Obama as he staffs up the national security team for the second term is dismal,” Cheney said in comments to about 300 members of the Wyoming Republican Party.
Cheney, a Wyoming native, said it was vital to the nation’s national security that “good folks” hold the positions of secretary of state, CIA director and secretary of defense.
“Frankly, what he has appointed are second-rate people,” he said.
John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, has been confirmed as secretary of state. CIA designate John Brennan and defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel are still awaiting U.S. Senate confirmation.
Wyoming’s two U.S. senators, Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, voted for Kerry’s confirmation. Both Enzi and Barrasso gave introductory speeches for Cheney Saturday night.
Cheney said Hagel, a former Nebraska U.S. senator, was chosen because Obama “wants to have a Republican that he can use to take the heat for what he plans to do to the Department of Defense.”
He said Obama’s plans are to allow severe cuts in U.S. defense spending, which would limit the capability of the U.S. military to respond to future foreign crises well after Obama has left office.
“He is today … establishing what limitations will be on future presidents,” Cheney said.
Cheney noted that the security situation in the Middle East and North Africa has worsened under Obama’s watch with Iran actively pursuing nuclear weapons and with turmoil in Egypt, Syria, Mali and elsewhere.
“That part of the world is as dangerous now as it has ever been,” he said.
The Obama administration’s response has been to pull back U.S. military presence and influence, resulting in rising mistrust of the U.S. from allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, he said.
Despite Obama’s re-election victory, Cheney said he hopes Republicans can revive their political fortunes by holding to conservative principles.
“I believe we’re all going to pull together, work hard, dig in and do what needs to be done,” he said.
Cheney, who received a heart transplant about a year ago, appeared fit, although his voice turned hoarse on occasion during his half-hour speech.
You have to worry that the got the organs mixed up in his transplant surgery since his cerebral functioning has clearly been impaired.
Nobody is listening to this man anymore. He claims to have had first rate people but the August 14, 2001 memo about Al Qaeda planning an attack and Muslims taking flight lessons in Minnesota didn’t wake his people up. Hagel and Kerry both went to Nam unlike this bogus tough guy who dodged b/c he said he had other priorities.
These are not 2nd rate but destructive rated. If you listen to Hagel he has no idea what is flying
Yeah they are only part-time liars like the pathological liars Cheney and Rumsfeld were
…says the man who led us into a needless and unsuccesful decade-long war in Iraq. The rating of anyone he disapproves of goes up in my book.
Cheney’s legacy was to appoint blundering neocons to the National Security Council who cooked books to fabricate intelligence on Iraq. His secretary of State “first rate” was parading fantasy intelligence on mobile chemical and “yellow cake” labs in Iraq. America will benefit from “second rate” men who will not be eager to spend 1 trillion + dollars on needless wars based on fictional tales passed as credible intelligence.
The funny part is he now calling Brennan as “second rate” when that guy served 25 years at CIA and worked in the Bush cabinet as an adviser on counter-terrorism.
Anyone remember some of the stellar Bush-Cheney appointees? Brownie, who lost an entire city? Rumsfeld? Alberto Gonzales? Condy Rice and her mushroom clouds? What does that Vietnam war draft-dodger Cheney know about war and defense that actual veterans like Hagel and Kerry don’t?
all this cheney bashing aside,hagel has record of anti-isreal and anti semitism and failing to support isreal and the US against terrorists.as amatter of fact he’s voted against the vast majority of his senate clleagues on these issues over and over again.
Cheney was the one who pressed for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. As former Senator Chuck Hagel stated, “the invasion of Iraq in 2003, was the biggest foreign policy blunder which the USA made, since its active involvement in the Vietnam War”. To this day, all of the architects of the failed policy in Iraq, still refuse to admit that they made a mistake. At least, Robert MacNamara admitted that “we were wrong”, about Vietnam, prior to his death. Yet, Cheney and his ilk wil never admit they were wrong, regarding weapons of mass destruction, and how the Iraqi people would receive US troops. Yet, when they saw how their policy had failed, instead of admitting defeat and withdrawing, they left US troops in harms’ way for almost nine years!
Cheney was and remains one of the most principled and decent politicians since the time of Reagan. His portrayal as a jerk is the product of the left wing media and their amen Sayers. I met him several times and was always very impressed. The Jewish community owes him a debt of gratitude for his honest support of Israel even in Bush 1. Anyone who has a doubt should read Moshe Arens book Broken Covenants.
The reality is that there is probably less of a 2nd rate status as Mr. Cheney is just asserting that his war on liberalism is valid. It is a lie.