Begala on Cheney

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Really, it's stunning. It's a great interview, and -- because we saw the real Dick Cheney, you know, a really remarkable, probably historic, combination of arrogance, incompetence and dishonesty.

This is a man who, when he took office, Richard Clarke, the chief counterterrorism czar, told him that bin Laden was going to try to attack America. He ignored it. The president told him to chair a task force on terrorism. He refused to even convene it until after 9/11. He was too busy helping his friends at Enron and Exxon with his energy task force.

He told the country that Iraq was an imminent threat. He was wrong. He told us that they had a nuclear program -- he was wrong -- biological stockpiles, chemical stockpiles, that there were links to al Qaeda, that there were secret meetings between Mohamed Atta, the leader of the hijacking ring that attacked us on 9/11, and Saddam Hussein's government; they had a secret meeting in Prague. That was a fabrication as well -- on and on.

It really is staggering, the -- the level of this man's mendacity and arrogance, in the face -- if he had any decency, he would simply resign, Wolf. He would give you an interview. He would say: You know, I give up.

BLITZER: He was...

BEGALA: I have ruined -- I have ruined the country in my first term. I'm ruining the world in my second term.

BLITZER: He -- he...

BEGALA: I'm out.

BLITZER: In fairness to the vice president, he was twice elected by the American people to get...

BEGALA: He was once elected.

From CNN.com.

posted by Stash @ 12:27 PM