And while I don't agree with George Bush on many issues, I have frequently said that I helped elect him. No, I didn't vote for him. But, I did participate in the electoral process so I feel quite strongly that he is MY president. That doesn't absolve him from the many mistakes I think he has made. And I have applauded him for some of his actions, giving credit where credit is due.
But last weekend I had a scare and, in my opinion, the whole country dodged a bullet. President Bush went into the hospital for a colonoscopy. During this procedure Bush was sedated. And, by the powers of the 25th amendment, he temporarily passed power from himself to his vice-president, Dick Cheney.
For the first time since the passage of the 25th amendment, I had major concerns. This is not the first time the 25th amendment has been invoked in this fashion. Ronald Reagan did so as he went to surgery following the assassination attempt against him, and George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton each had arrangements with their vice presidents as to how the 25th amendment should be used if either fell seriously ill. And even George W. did the same thing in 2002 when he had a previous colonoscopy.
But, something was different this time. In 2002 Dick Cheney wasn't the dark, eerie character that he is today. So much has happened since then to make the vice president a questionable character in terms of leadership capabilities.
Gee, where do we start. The ledger is a litany of secretive actions that appear to be nothing more than a list of questionable actions leaving the American public with little or no understanding of what really happened.
There was:
- Cheney's secretive meetings with energy industry officials concerning the direction of the USA in terms of energy usage. (My, isn't it interesting that the nation's two top leaders have had previous personal activities associated with the oil industry and now gasoline prices are higher than ever in history. I don't want to assign blame, I just think that it is rather an interesting coincidence).
- Cheney used an extremely strong-arm approach in the advocacy of a war against terrorism. I have long been a supporter of the war in terms of seeking out Osama Bin Laden and even in the elimination of Saddam Hussein. But, I have increasingly developed concern over a war that seems to have lost focus and has no apparent direction or goal.
- Cheney's suspected involvement in the outing of a CIA secret agent to punish her diplomat husband for his disagreement with some of the reasons to wage war. I don't care what Valerie Plame's husband had to say, her situation was, and should have been, off-limits in terms of being compromised by any government official. Not only was her life put in jeopardy, but an entire network of secretive collaborations were brought to a screeching halt.
- And, most recently, Cheney's off-the-wall declaration that he wasn't part of the executive department becase he was the President of the Senate. That allowed him to refuse to make public the topics of items that he had classified as top secret.
I am sure there are many other items that could be listed to verify the dark, secretive and powerful nature of Dick Cheney. I do know that he is NOT what I would be looking for in terms of presidential leadership. So, from 7:16 a.m. last Saturday until 9:21 a.m. the same day, I sat on my own little seat of pins and needles because I just don't trust Dick Cheney.
Thankfully the president's colonoscopy ended in time for him to prevent Mr. Cheney from doing anything overly overt.
Case in point might have been him dropping the F-bomb on a foreign leader as he did one member of Congress who dared to disagree and challenge him. In this crazy world, we don't need anymore loose canons in power.
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