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So Rand Paul called Cheney an evil war profiteer

Amadeus

Amadeus

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This is a few months old, but wow, I've never seen a Republican tear into another Republican like this. Rand Paul goes a step further than most liberals and says that Cheney orchestrated the Iraq War so that Haliburton could reap the profits. I'm a bit out of the loop. Is Rand Paul a mainstream Republican, or is he a fringe crazy?

 
Amadeus said:
This is a few months old, but wow, I've never seen a Republican tear into another Republican like this. Rand Paul goes a step further than most liberals and says that Cheney orchestrated the Iraq War so that Haliburton could reap the profits. I'm a bit out of the loop. Is Rand Paul a mainstream Republican, or is he a fringe crazy?

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Cheney was not so well liked in many areas.
 
Not terribly surprised. Many Libertarians loathe the military industrial complex and foreign entanglement.
 
Rand Paul is a (mostly) libertarian that realized the only way he can ever win in a two party system is by being part of one of the two parties. He's not really a republican, he's like the more politically appealing version of his father. One of the reasons I like him is he tells things the way they are. Cheney and the others are millionaires who made even more millions off exploiting America.
 
There's not liking Cheney and being a libertarian, and then there's levelling the charge that Cheney is an evil war profiteer -- who bled America of human and economic treasure for personal gain. That take some political cojones.

 
I have no doubt that Rand Paul is just playing politics, but even in that dirty game, from time to time a truthful statement comes out. That is the case here.

The personification of a war monger and war profiteer is Cheney.
 
I think Rand Paul is talking about this video.

 
Amadeus said:
This is a few months old, but wow, I've never seen a Republican tear into another Republican like this. Rand Paul goes a step further than most liberals and says that Cheney orchestrated the Iraq War so that Haliburton could reap the profits. I'm a bit out of the loop. Is Rand Paul a mainstream Republican, or is he a fringe crazy?

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Rand, like his dad, has good points and then he's an unhinged moron on others. This is unhinged stupidity. If his dad had his way we'd have a coast guard and some littoral support ships and that's it. Not a bright idea.
 
Amadeus said:
This is a few months old, but wow, I've never seen a Republican tear into another Republican like this. Rand Paul goes a step further than most liberals and says that Cheney orchestrated the Iraq War so that Haliburton could reap the profits. I'm a bit out of the loop. Is Rand Paul a mainstream Republican, or is he a fringe crazy?

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There's nothing more a leftwing extremist likes more than to see this.
 
Henry David said:
I have no doubt that Rand Paul is just playing politics, but even in that dirty game, from time to time a truthful statement comes out. That is the case here.

The personification of a war monger and war profiteer is Cheney.
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Yes Rand Paul is playing politics. But while playing politics he and many forget one little important factor in regard to Cheney and Halliburton. Halliburton WAS the only damn company that had the means as far as equipment, mobility and manpower to handle the job in Iraq.
 
vesper said:
Halliburton WAS the only damn company that had the means as far as equipment, mobility and manpower to handle the job in Iraq.
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Which,of course, Darth Cheney knew when he orchestrated the debacle.
 
Gardener said:
Which,of course, Darth Cheney knew when he orchestrated the debacle.
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That's not how I recall it. The decision to go into Iraq was done as a preventative measure to protect our military already in Afghanistan and to cut off Saddams funding of terrorists groups that were vowing more attacks on the U.S. after 9/11. The threat of chemical weapons getting into the hands of these terrorists was real and still is. Just last week news outlets were reporting that the insurgence into Iraq had taken control of chemical weapons stockpiles. How could that be when all of us were told there were no weapons of mass destruction? Even the inspectors reports listed the evidence that Saddam was still engaging in making such things, the stockpile of them was never found. I remember Bush putting a coalition together and the Democrats voting twice to invade Iraq because they too saw the need for prevention. The intel they had in making that decision went clear back to the Clinton years. Cheney was wrong on things like thinking we would be greeted like liberators but those who flip flopped on the war and now want to make Cheney the scapegoat is as hypocritical as it comes.
 
Rand Paul is functionally retarded.
 
vesper said:
That's not how I recall it. The decision to go into Iraq was done as a preventative measure to protect our military already in Afghanistan and to cut off Saddams funding of terrorists groups that were vowing more attacks on the U.S. after 9/11. The threat of chemical weapons getting into the hands of these terrorists was real and still is. Just last week news outlets were reporting that the insurgence into Iraq had taken control of chemical weapons stockpiles. How could that be when all of us were told there were no weapons of mass destruction? Even the inspectors reports listed the evidence that Saddam was still engaging in making such things, the stockpile of them was never found. I remember Bush putting a coalition together and the Democrats voting twice to invade Iraq because they too saw the need for prevention. The intel they had in making that decision went clear back to the Clinton years. Cheney was wrong on things like thinking we would be greeted like liberators but those who flip flopped on the war and now want to make Cheney the scapegoat is as hypocritical as it comes.
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Might I possibly interest you in some delightful Florida beachfront property?
 
American said:
There's nothing more a leftwing extremist likes more than to see this.
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So? We shouldn't call a spade a spade because the other side would benefit from it? Sounds like some Blue Code of Silence crap to me.
 
Rand is taking a page from the liberals here and floating out rhetoric that will help him in a run for President in 2016. This is the ground work. It worked for Obama and a NAP is a common libertarian core value so it's not too far off from his current political view, AND it happens to tap into populist views as well as the general malaise the country has with involving American military assets in yet more ME countries. It's a win win and Cheney I'm sure doesn't mind being the punching bag.
 
When I got out of college I worked for Bechtel and at the time this kind of talk was common if I mentioned where I worked to someone. For some reason they thought there was some sort of conspiracy afoot, but they could never tell me who else the government should have hired for the job. It was just some stupid nonsense about no bid contracts and how terrible they are without even an ounce of understanding of what no bid contracts are, how they work or why they are used. They also didn't understand the relationship between Bechtel and the government and instead insisted that it was all special favors going on. They seemingly had no idea how much work went into building trust and exactly how long Bechtel has proven itself worthy to the government or the capabilities of a company like Bechtel. They thought for some reason any construction company can do what Bechtel does and didn't seem to understand how absurd that notion really was.

It was not also uncommon for the discussion to shift to Cheney and Haliburton and as you would expect all of the above problems popped up again.
 
The Dick Cheney/Rand Paul Feud Continues

It's been easy for Cheney and his defenders to dismiss Paul's over-the-top, conspiracy-theory-like assertion. But on Fox News, the ex-veep, too, went too far. He maintained that he had no financial ties with Halliburton while he was George W. Bush's number-two and made a personal sacrifice by trading his CEO badge for a White House job. But that's not entirely accurate.

As Politifact.com noted a few years ago, when Cheney became vice president, he pocketed a $34 million payout from Halliburton. In fact, because he probably sold stock options at an opportune time, he profited enormously because the stock price was at a high:

It's not clear when Cheney sold his stock options, but it likely was within weeks of his being named to the ticket -- a period when Halliburton shares hit their 2000 peak, in the low-to-mid $50 range. By November 30, 2000, the stock had fallen to $33 a share. If he'd waited until then to sell, his payday would have been one-third lower, or roughly $14 million rather than $22 million.
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Moreover, when Cheney was veep, he continued to receive deferred payments from Halliburton. In 2004, the New York Times reported, "Mr. Cheney’s financial disclosure statements from 2001, 2002 and 2003 show that since becoming vice president-elect, he has received $1,997,525 from the company: $1,451,398 in a bonus deferred from 1999, the rest in deferred salary." And at that time, Cheney still held some stock options in the company.

As vice president, Cheney repeatedly contended he had no continuing relationship with Halliburton. In 2003, he declared, "I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had, now, for over three years." But a report issued that year by the Congressional Research Service undermined Cheney's claim. It found that if a public official retained unexercised stock options and collected deferred salary—as Cheney did then—the official had "retained ties" to the company.

So when Cheney now says that he had nothing to do with Halliburton while he was vice-president, he is contradicted by the Congressional Research Service. Maybe he wasn't in contact with his old pals at the firm, but he continued to bank millions of dollars from the company as it obtained Iraq-related contracts from the US government.
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