Vice President Cheney predicts that Barack Obama will be grateful for the state of presidency he inherits from President Bush.
And while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other congressional Democrats have repeatedly criticized Bush for grabbing power, Cheney argued that Obama, the Democratic president-elect, will be glad of it.
“My guess is, once they get here and they’re faced with the same problems we deal with every day, that they will appreciate some of the things we put in place,” said Cheney Monday in a telephone interview with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.
Furthermore, Cheney does not think Obama is about to give those hard-won gains back to Congress.
“I think the Obama administration is not likely to cede that authority back to the Congress,” said Cheney. “I think they’ll find that given a challenge they face they’ll need all the authority they can muster.”
Cheney has made expansion of presidential and vice-presidential power a hallmark of the administration.
Over the past eight years, Bush, Cheney and senior executive branch officials have pursued innovative legal theories to expand their prerogatives.
Bush attached signing statements to legislation asserting his power to disobey elements of newly enacted laws and approved warrantless surveillance of persons making international calls from the U.S.
He also authorized the detention of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and established military tribunals to try suspects outside the U.S. courts system.
Cheney clashed directly with congressional Democrats by refusing to divulge information about a special energy task force he headed early in Bush’s first term. The administration went all the way to the Supreme Court to defend his refusal to reveal the task force’s membership.
Cheney has also successfully refused to make his records available to the public by arguing that he is not an exclusive part of the executive branch. As vice president, Cheney is also president of the Senate, giving him power to cast tie-breaking votes.
“He has managed to stonewall everyone,” Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), former chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told The Hill in June “I’m not sure there’s anything we can do.”
Cheney also praised Bush’s use of the Guantanamo detention center, a bête noire among Democrats and other critics who charge that its existence tarnishes America’s image abroad.
“I think Guantanamo has been very well run,” said Cheney. “I think if you look at it from the perspective of the requirements we had, once you go out and capture a bunch of terrorists, as we did in Afghanistan and elsewhere, then you’ve got to have some place to put them.”
Obama has pledged to close down Guantanamo but the question of where to send the prisoners may be one of the trickiest challenges of his first months in office. Some conservative believe Obama may have to back away from his promise if he cannot find a workable solution.
Cheney said his proudest achievement in office was keeping the nation safe from attack, which he said has required expanded powers.
Cheney said “we’ve been able to stop or disrupt all further al Qaeda attacks on the U.S. homeland,” adding that “it required some very tough decisions by the president.”
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Cheney says Obama should be grateful to Bush
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