[sitescools]

Cheney son-in-law used revolving door
to stop chemical security regulations

rawstory.com
Michael Roston
Published: Friday February 16, 2007

The son-in-law of Vice President Dick Cheney, Philip Perry, has entered and exited the Bush administration twice, and as a consequence helped free the chemical industry from upgraded security measures in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, according to an article in the March edition of the Washington Monthly.

Philip Perry is married to Cheney's daughter Elizabeth, also a former executive branch official. An article in the coming month's Washington Monthly penned by Art Levine details his work in and out of the Bush administration since 2000. He describes Perry by saying that "A flippant critic might say the father-in-law has been prosecuting a war that creates more terrorists abroad, while the son-in-law has been working to ensure they’ll have easy targets at home."

Before entering the Bush administration Perry worked in the powerful Washington, DC-law firm Latham and Watkins, and also on the Republican side of the Senate. After joining the Bush-Cheney transition team in late 2000, he became the third-ranking official in the Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft. In 2002, he moved to the White House's Office of Management and Budget where he served as General Counsel.

It was in this role that he first blocked security upgrades on the chemical industry. When the EPA attempted to gain authority to regulate security at chemical industry facilities, Perry used the OMB to block the move. Levine reports that at a 2003 meeting in the White House, he told gathered executive branch officials that "If you send up this legislation, it will be dead on arrival on the Hill."

He then left government in 2003 and re-joined Latham and Watkins, which includes a major chemical industry trade group on its list of clients Levine writes. But in 2005, when Michael Chertoff became Secretary of Homeland Security, Perry joined the Department as General Counsel.

In this position, Levine says, Perry completed another pro-chemical industry move. When the Department of Homeland Security Regulations were released, "Hill staffers noticed that the department had effectively granted itself the power to set aside state laws," decreasing the amount of security regulation that the chemical business might face.

In January, Perry announced his intention to leave the government again to spend more time with his family, including his wife Liz who recently gave birth to the couple's fifth child.

The full story can be read at the Washington Monthly's website.

[Abaanto]

Cheney Seeks Allies' Support for Iraq War as His Luster Fades

By Holly Rosenkrantz and Brendan Murray

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Vice President Dick Cheney is finding it harder and harder to locate a welcome mat.

Cheney arrives today in Australia to meet with Prime Minister John Howard, a U.S. ally in the Iraq war who has resisted calls to withdraw his country's 1,600 troops. The visit comes two days after the vice president's meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, when he was greeted by shouts of ``Yankee go home'' from a loudspeaker outside the U.S. embassy and a controversy over Japan's defense minister terming the war a ``mistake.''

Even today, Cheney will have to tread carefully: A Feb. 16- 18 poll in the Australian, a national newspaper, showed that 68 percent oppose the war. ``The vice president won't be walking the streets of Australia, so he won't have to be worried about being subjected to verbal abuse on this stop,'' said Stephen Yates, who served as his national security adviser until 2005.

Cheney, 66, is also coping with growing criticism at home, where adversaries say he demonstrates a combativeness that may reflect frustration with his diminished role in an administration reeling from Iraq and trying to come to terms with a Democratic Congress.

``He's not dominating administration policy and he's taking some shots, even from fellow Republicans,'' said Joel Goldstein, a vice presidential scholar at St. Louis University in Missouri. Cheney's ``operating style is not conducive to creating a reservoir of good feeling,'' Goldstein said.
Pugnacity on Display

His pugnacity has been displayed in the divisive debate over Iraq. In recent weeks, he has feuded publicly with two prominent Republicans -- Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel and Arizona's John McCain, a leading contender for the party presidential nomination.

Last month, Cheney told Newsweek magazine that he's having a hard time restraining himself from assailing Hagel over the Nebraskan's opposition to a Bush-Cheney plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq.

On Wednesday, Cheney told ABC News that McCain, who has been one of Bush's strongest war supporters, ``said some nasty things about me the other day, and then next time he saw me, ran over to me and apologized.''

Noting McCain's past criticism of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Cheney added: ``Maybe he'll apologize to Rumsfeld.''

Sounding Board

While one of Cheney's responsibilities is to serve as a sounding board for congressional Republicans, some members say they doubt he is fully committed to the exchanges.

``He tends to take things in rather than engage,'' said Susan Collins, a Maine Republican. ``I'm not sure he takes advice very easily from members of the Senate.''

Capitol Hill Democrats say that Cheney hasn't made any nods toward bipartisan cooperation, even though Bush made numerous overtures since the November elections.

Cheney ``has not met with me, other than his presence at those meetings at the White House, where he typically doesn't speak,'' said Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In his first-term heyday, the vice president helped draft Bush's energy policy, twisted arms in the Senate to line up votes for the president's tax cuts and allied with Rumsfeld to press the case for invading Iraq.

Missing Rumsfeld

Cheney seems to have suffered from the loss of close ally Rumsfeld at the Pentagon and the rise of Bush favorite Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state. Under Rice, the State Department has intensified Middle East peace efforts and brokered a nuclear-disarmament deal with North Korea.

At the same time, Cheney remains a powerful voice within the administration and retains his close personal relationship with Bush. For instance, he prevailed over outside adviser James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state, in urging the president to escalate military pressure on Iraqi insurgents rather than to begin the phased reduction of the U.S. troops that Baker favored.

``When you're sitting around in that room and ideas come up, he doesn't speak just to hear himself talk,'' said Douglas Feith, a former Bush undersecretary of defense. ``He is measured and careful about what he says. He is still going to be considered a heavy hitter.''

Cheney, for his part, dismisses the notion that his clout declined. When asked last month by Newsweek about Republican critics who say he misrepresented the case for war with Iraq, the answer was vintage Cheney: ``Well I'm vice president, and they're not.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aecLxJUZ9Vuo

[TagBahthuff]

I did not read the full thing, but this is something that has been annoying me:

U.S. ally in the Iraq war who has resisted calls to withdraw his country's 1,600 troops. 1600.

1600!!! That's it! An entire country with a leader that insults Bush's critics can only muster 1600 men to send over?

That isn't enough to do jack!

And the media is really a lot to blame on this. Why give so much air-time to his comments without addressing them for what they are.

Hot air from a supporter that will yell a lot, but not actually provide much when push comes to gun.

[Piemonedmow]

Dick Cheney has just been treated for a blood clot in his left leg.

Is anybody thinking what I'm thinking?

What a great time to resign from the vice presidency!

Health reasons!

"Health comes first."

The ultimate face-saver!

[praboobolbode]

Won't save him from the civil suit filed by Joe Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame.

Revenge can be sweet. Especially when served up on a legal platter.

[#[SoftAzerZx]]

Heard on Imus this morning, on the phone with White House correspondent Kelly O'Donnell, outside the WH. While discussing the Scooter Libby case and Cheney, the sound of sirens in the background.

O'Donnell: "I don't know if you can hear that, but I think Cheney just arrived at work."

Imus: "Or they're coming to get him."

[AdobeCreativeSuite]

"A blood clot was discovered in Dick Cheney's left leg. Democrats on Capitol Hill are concerned about his health. They've offered to take him for treatment at Walter Reed Hospital."

- Comedy Writer Alan Ray

[OShellszz]

Cheney tells agency that Vice President's office
is not part of the executive branch

RawStory
Filed by Michael Roston
06/21/2007



The Office of Vice President Dick Cheney told an agency within the National Archives that for purposes of securing classified information, the Vice President's office is not an 'entity within the executive branch' according to a letter released Thursday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

"The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, you exempted the Office of the Vice President from the presidential executive order that establishes a uniform, government-wide system for safeguarding classified national security information," Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the Committee's chairman, wrote in a letter to Cheney.

"Your decision to exempt your office from the President's order is problematic because it could place national security secrets at risk. It is also hard to understand given the history of security breaches involving officials in your office."

Waxman noted that Cheney's office had declared itself not affected by an executive order amended by President George W. Bush in 2003 regarding classification and declassification of government materials.

"Your position was that your office 'does not believe it is included in the definition of 'agency' as set forth in the Order' and 'does not consider itself an 'entity within the executive branch' that comes into the possession of classified information,'" a National Archives official claims Cheney chief of staff David Addington wrote to him.

The Vice President's office's refusal to comply with the executive order and the National Archives's request prompted the National Archives to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office. But the Justice Department has not followed up on the Archives's request.

In response, Waxman issued a set of questions to which he requested answers by July 12.

The full set of documents from Waxman's office can be found at the Oversight Committee's website.

[Caluabdum]

Does Cheney believe what he's saying?

[Indidockobeni]

No, he's just evil like the title of the thread.