# Dick Cheney had a heart transplant. Now he needs a brain transplant. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 14, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161 "2012-07-14T00:46:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/1 "2012-07-14T00:46:37Z")
What a worthless piece of crap. This: [http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/13/cheney-romney-only-choice-for-handling-foreign-policy-crisis/](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/13/cheney-romney-only-choice-for-handling-foreign-policy-crisis/) Yea, you and Bush and your neocon buddies did such a great job of keeping us safe. You couldn’t be bothered to read the security reports before 9/11 because you flunky boss was on vacation for a month, 6 months into the job. You ignored all the intelligence information that was handed to you because, and only because, it came from the previous administration. Bush, you and Rumsfeld had binLaden cornered in Tora Bora and let him go because if he had been killed you couldn’t launch your unprovoked, worthless, multi-trillion dollar war in Iraq. Now you can’t keep your pie hole shut. Fuck you Dick with your own worthless dick. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/2 "2012-07-14T00:55:59Z")
Let him speak. As someone who hopes that Barack Obama is re-elected in November, i’d be happy to see as much connection as possible during the campaign between Romney and the Bush/Cheney administration. Hell, from a conservative perspective, Obama’s foreign policy has probably been the strongest part of his administration. He’s continued with the previous administration’s policies in a whole bunch of important areas, including a whole bunch of areas that he promised to bring to a halt during the campaign. Plenty of liberals and progressives have been most critical of this part of his presidency, and it seems to me that this is one area where he’s actually got plenty of armor against Cheney’s sort of criticisms. And he managed to find and kill Bin Laden. ---
**Author:** ![greenslime1951](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@greenslime1951](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenslime1951)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/3 "2012-07-14T01:06:04Z")
I’m not sure exactly why people speak of Cheney as though he were Satan, Hitler, and Genghis Khan all rolled up into one, with a side of Rush Limbaugh. Heck, the guy didn’t _do_ much of anything. He was a Vice President. Yes, yes, he was involved with Halliburton or Enron or somebody and once had a hunting accident. Much ado about nothing. I guess when people get tired of raving about GWB, raving about Cheney provides needed variety. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/4 "2012-07-14T01:10:09Z")
I always remembers all those from the right that repeat that saying that goes like : “If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain.” - Falsely attributed to Winston Churchill. Until recently I could say that Cheney is an example that demonstrates that a conservative can get by without a heart or a brain. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/5 "2012-07-14T01:11:22Z")
> [@greenslime1951](#): > > I’m not sure exactly why people speak of Cheney as though he were Satan, Hitler, and Genghis Khan all rolled up into one, with a side of Rush Limbaugh. > > Heck, the guy didn’t _do_ much of anything. He was a Vice President. Yes, yes, he was involved with Halliburton or Enron or somebody and once had a hunting accident. Much ado about nothing. > > I guess when people get tired of raving about GWB, raving about Cheney provides needed variety. Because it was patently obvious that he was the most powerful VP ever, and he and his cronies controlled GWB to a large degree. That said, the article doesn’t mention Cheney needing a brain transplant, so I am skeptical as to the OP. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/6 "2012-07-14T01:15:21Z")
> [@greenslime1951](#): > > I’m not sure exactly why people speak of Cheney as though he were Satan, Hitler, and Genghis Khan all rolled up into one, with a side of Rush Limbaugh. > > Heck, the guy didn’t _do_ much of anything. He was a Vice President. Yes, yes, he was involved with Halliburton or Enron or somebody and once had a hunting accident. Much ado about nothing. > > I guess when people get tired of raving about GWB, raving about Cheney provides needed variety. That only works by ignoring “cute” things like the manipulation of the OSP. > **[Special investigation: The spies who pushed for war on Iraq](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jul/17/iraq.usa)** > > Julian Borger reports on the shadow rightwing intelligence network set up in Washington to second-guess the CIA and deliver a justification for toppling Saddam Hussein by force. > [@](#): > > As the CIA director, George Tenet, arrived at the Senate yesterday to give secret testimony on the Niger uranium affair, it was becoming increasingly clear in Washington that the scandal was only a small, well-documented symptom of a complete breakdown in US intelligence that helped steer America into war. > > It represents the Bush administration’s second catastrophic intelligence failure. But the CIA and FBI’s inability to prevent the September 11 attacks was largely due to internal institutional weaknesses. > > This time the implications are far more damaging for the White House, which stands accused of politicising and contaminating its own source of intelligence. > > According to former Bush officials, all defence and intelligence sources, senior administration figures created a shadow agency of Pentagon analysts staffed mainly by ideological amateurs to compete with the CIA and its military counterpart, the Defence Intelligence Agency. > > The agency, called the Office of Special Plans (OSP), was set up by the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to second-guess CIA information and operated under the patronage of hardline conservatives in the top rungs of the administration, the Pentagon and at the White House, including Vice-President Dick Cheney. > > The ideologically driven network functioned like a shadow government, much of it off the official payroll and beyond congressional oversight. But it proved powerful enough to prevail in a struggle with the State Department and the CIA by establishing a justification for war. > > Mr Tenet has officially taken responsibility for the president’s unsubstantiated claim in January that Saddam Hussein’s regime had been trying to buy uranium in Africa, but he also said his agency was under pressure to justify a war that the administration had already decided on. > > How much Mr Tenet reveals of where that pressure was coming from could have lasting political fallout for Mr Bush and his re-election prospects, which only a few weeks ago seemed impregnable. As more Americans die in Iraq and the reasons for the war are revealed, his victory in 2004 no longer looks like a foregone conclusion. > > The White House counter-attacked yesterday when new chief spokesman, Scott McClellan, accused critics of “politicising the war” and trying to “rewrite history”. But the Democratic leadership kept up its questions over the White House role. > > The president’s most trusted adviser, Mr Cheney, was at the shadow network’s sharp end. He made several trips to the CIA in Langley, Virginia, to demand a more “forward-leaning” interpretation of the threat posed by Saddam. When he was not there to make his influence felt, his chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was. Such hands-on involvement in the processing of intelligence data was unprecedented for a vice-president in recent times, and it put pressure on CIA officials to come up with the appropriate results. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/7 "2012-07-14T01:23:15Z")
For those who think he didn’t wield much power and think the comparison with Darth Vader is unfair, just remember that Darth Vader was only the second in command in his administration too. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/8 "2012-07-14T01:27:46Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > For those who think he didn’t wield much power and think the comparison with Darth Vader is unfair, just remember that Darth Vader was only the second in command in his administration too. Oh come on! Cheney was marginally less mechanical than Vader! He didn’t have the breathing apparatus! Just the heart! Not enough rolleyes in the world… :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/9 "2012-07-14T01:34:32Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Let him speak. > > As someone who hopes that Barack Obama is re-elected in November, i’d be happy to see as much connection as possible during the campaign between Romney and the Bush/Cheney administration. > > Hell, from a conservative perspective, Obama’s foreign policy has probably been the strongest part of his administration. He’s continued with the previous administration’s policies in a whole bunch of important areas, including a whole bunch of areas that he promised to bring to a halt during the campaign. Plenty of liberals and progressives have been most critical of this part of his presidency, and it seems to me that this is one area where he’s actually got plenty of armor against Cheney’s sort of criticisms. > > And he managed to find and kill Bin Laden. I actually agree with you. Still, people like Cheney who are totally unable to admit mistakes and failure chap my ass. And you are right, Obama is far more “conservative” than anybody ever thought. I’ll attribute that to being intelligent and realistic rather than just pounding an agenda. You are also right that that fact annoys a lot of far left liberals that have their own agenda. I’ll also state that the foreign policy challenges have probably been as complex as anything that an administration has ever seen. The Arab Spring? Navigating that water couldn’t be more difficult. I was never a fan of Hillary Clinton but I have gained a new respect for her. Condi Rice was a clueless POS compared to Hillary. Echo: “And he managed to find and kill Bin Laden.” Amen. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/10 "2012-07-14T01:44:02Z")
> [@](#): > > Heck, the guy didn’t do much of anything. Seriously? He was instrumental in lying the country into a bankrupting war, bullying other nations into supporting it, endorsing torture, suspending habeus corpus, and turning Gitmo into what it is today. Seems enough to me. Plus, he shot a guy in the face, didn’t report it till he’d sobered up, then the guy that got shot, apologized! ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/11 "2012-07-14T01:49:36Z")
> [@greenslime1951](#): > > I’m not sure exactly why people speak of Cheney as though he were Satan, Hitler, and Genghis Khan all rolled up into one, with a side of Rush Limbaugh. > > Heck, the guy didn’t _do_ much of anything. He was a Vice President. Yes, yes, he was involved with Halliburton or Enron or somebody and once had a hunting accident. Much ado about nothing. > > I guess when people get tired of raving about GWB, raving about Cheney provides needed variety. Don’t read much, do you? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/12 "2012-07-14T01:49:48Z")
On the Scale of Evil, “He shot me in the face and made me apologize for the trouble” is right up there in :eek: territory. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/13 "2012-07-14T02:17:47Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > On the Scale of Evil, “He shot me in the face and made me apologize for the trouble” is right up there in :eek: territory. Come on now. Just admit that you’re jealous on that one. I mean seriously. To have the solid steel cojones to shoot a man in the face, make him apologize for getting in the way of your bullets, and then act as if the matter is settled? Balls like that, who need a heart or a brain? I could only wish to have that sort of power. People get pissy with me when I hit them in the face with rubber bands. I’m nowhere near bullet-face level. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/14 "2012-07-14T02:29:59Z")
Dick Cheney was a badass, despite his health limitations. Who among us has or had more heart than this dude with no actual heart? ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/15 "2012-07-14T02:30:58Z")
Not only that, but the guy gave his apology with all the bruises and lacerations in plain sight all over his face. Cheney didn’t even give him time to recuperate first. I actually blame Cheney and Rove for all the dumbass shit that Bush did, except for the Harriet Meyers thing. That had to be 100% Bush being an idiot. In the end, when Bush stopped paying attention to Cheney, he was a surprisingly competent president. And in the middle, when he pushed his “amnesty” bill for illegal immigrants, that was his own thing too I’m sure and the republicans shot him down for it. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/16 "2012-07-14T03:39:37Z")
> [@](#): > > The presumptive 2012 Republican presidential nominee called Cheney a “great American leader” – **and didn’t mention former President George W. Bush in a 20-minute speech to a country club reception.** The bolded part made me snicker. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/17 "2012-07-14T13:34:50Z")
Now if only we could find a Wizard, Emerald city could have a leader! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/18 "2012-07-14T15:44:35Z")
> [@gamerunknown](#): > > Now if only we could find a Wizard, Emerald city could have a leader! David Duke? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/19 "2012-07-14T15:57:46Z")
There’s this line in the article: > [@](#): > > Cheney said serving under four presidents taught him that a surprising international crisis is inevitable. Reminds me of: > [@](#): > > Leela: What planet is this, anyway? > Captain Zapp Brannigan: I don’t know. This entire sector is uncharted. > Kif Kroker: It is not uncharted, You lost the chart! Bush/Cheney as Zapp Brannigan. I guess that makes Colin Powell Kif. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161/20 "2012-07-14T16:15:57Z")
> [@](#): > > he was a surprisingly competent president In what universe? By the time he left office, the world economy teetered on the brink of collapse. Largely because of shenanigans of US banks. The current Republican candidate for president won’t even mention his name! He is wisely hunkered down in Texas, not taking calls, not that anyone is calling. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dick-cheney-had-a-heart-transplant-now-he-needs-a-brain-transplant/628161.md?page=2)