Dick Cheney Quotes
Now we are going to have to be a government of men rather than a government of law.
The World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been attacked by terrorists. The Vice President and other White House senior staff had followed procedure and gone to the protected bunker in the basement of the White House. Cheney was right in that he and the President instituted many illegal practices and taking power from Congress and the Courts. However, the things they elected to do to skirt if not defy the law, were not even good policy and Cheney and Bush became the “government of men” but the result was one of the worst and least popular administrations.
Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States (Republican), U. S. Congressman (Republican, WY), White House Chief of Staff, U. S. Secretary of Defense, Statement to staff while in his White House Bunker, September 11, 200?
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The George W. Bush administration had a reelection coming up and this administration had raised opacity to a new high in American History.
This quotation is inscribed on the FDR Memorial in Washington DC.
The President had authorized the NSA to spy Americans who might have been suspected of being themselves or being in contact with terrorists without obtaining permission of a court including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) special court that had been established for these cases. Instead the administration argues that it was inherent in the powers of the Presidency in time of war.
The executive order gave the power to the Secretary of the Treasury to block and freeze assets of anyone or any organization that was assisting the insurgents and abetting the internecine violence in Iraq. Typical of many George W. Bush efforts, the idea was a good one and indeed necessary, but the way it was implemented was very poor. Bush was always trying to seize more power for the Executive Branch and wanted as little judicial review as possible. Under the Executive Order if any organization were accused of assisting the insurgents and a lawyer defended them from having their assets blocked, then the lawyer could also have his assets blocked as he was “assisting” the offending organization. The purpose was to prevent undemocratic elements from thwarting democracy in Iraq, but the method implemented was itself quite undemocratic—a contradiction that Bush found himself in very often. Allowing for judicial approval before seizure would have helped a great deal.
This phrase was coined by Meiklejohn
Richard Bruce Cheney is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under George W. Bush. He has been cited as the most powerful vice president in American history. He is also one of the most unpopular American politicians, holding an approval rating of just 13% upon leaving office. Cheney has been the oldest living former U.S. vice president since 2021, following the death of Walter Mondale.
