If the fallout is bad will this give Bush a reason to choose another running mate? Cheney curses senator over Halliburton criticism http://cnn.allpolitics.printthis.cl...LLPOLITICS/06/24/cheney.leahy/&partnerID=2001 Thursday, June 24, 2004 Posted: 7:19 PM EDT (2319 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Typically a break from partisan warfare, this year's Senate class photo turned smiles into snarls as Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly used profanity toward one senior Democrat, sources said. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who was on the receiving end of Cheney's ire, confirmed that the Vice President used profanity during Tuesday's class photo. A spokesman for Cheney confirmed there was a "frank exchange of views." Using profanity on the Senate floor while the Senate is session is against the rules. But the Senate was technically not in session at the time and the normal rules did not apply, a Senate official said. The story, which was recounted by several sources, goes like this: Cheney, who as president of the Senate was present for the picture day, turned to Leahy and scolded the senator over his recent criticism of the vice president for Halliburton's alleged war profiteering. Cheney is the former CEO of Halliburton, and Democrats have suggested that while serving in the Bush administration he helped win lucrative contracts for his former firm, including a no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq. Cheney's office has said repeatedly that the vice president has no role in government contracting and has severed all financial ties with the Texas-based oil services conglomerate. Cheney was chief executive officer of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000. He resigned when he became George Bush's running mate. Responding to Cheney's comment, Leahy reminded him of an earlier statement the vice president had made about him. Cheney then replied with profanity. Leahy would not comment on the specifics of the story Thursday, but did confirm that Cheney used profanity. "I think he was just having a bad day," said Leahy, "and I was kind of shocked to hear that kind of language on the floor." Kevin Kellems, a spokesman for the vice president, said, "That doesn't sound like the kind of language that the vice president would use, but I can confirm that there was a frank exchange of views."
I don't know much about Leahy, but he must be doing something right. Now just imagine if Gore had told someone to F- off. I can just hear the clucking from the Right. "He must be crazy." "Gore's gone off the deep end." "He even raised his voice."
Bwah! Leahy brought up Halliburton in the Senate. That's why Humpty Dumpty got pissed. How dare he bring up Cheney's war profiteering exploits in the Senate! Without a doubt, this is the most arrogant and secretive Administration in US history. These assclowns are such crooks they make Richard Nixon look honest.
Do Republicans even like Cheney? Just curious. From abroad, he looks like a total jerk, but I am too far away to make a judgment.
Well if Cheney has: 1. no longer any financial connection to Halliburton 2. no responsibilty or say-so in who gets the contracts 3. sold every once of stock he had in the company Where does the war profiteering come in?
Cheney uses `F word' in Senate http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/politics/2646176 Reuters News Service WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney blurted out the "F word" at Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont during a heated exchange on the Senate floor, congressional aides said Thursday. The incident occurred Tuesday in a terse discussion between the two that touched on politics, religion and money, with Cheney finally telling Leahy to "f--- off" or "go f--- yourself," the aides said. "I think he was just having a bad day," Leahy was quoted as saying on CNN, which first reported the incident. "I was kind of shocked to hear that kind of language on the floor." "That doesn't sound like language the vice president would use, but there was a frank exchange of views," said Cheney spokesman Kevin Kellems. According to congressional aides, Leahy said hello to Cheney on the floor of the chamber. Cheney, who is president of the Senate, then ripped into Leahy for the Democratic senator's criticism this week of alleged war profiteering in Iraq by Halliburton, the Houston-based oil services company that Cheney once ran. During their exchange, Leahy said Republicans had accused Democrats of being anti-Catholic because they are opposed to some of President Bush's anti-abortion judges, the aides said. That's when Cheney unloaded with the "F-bomb," aides said.
I am certainly not a fan of Cheney. But it strikes me that this is one of those events that if you identify with party X you defend like crazy when it's your guy...but attack like crazy when the other side does it. if it had been Leahy dropping the "F" bomb, someone from the right would be here this morning talking about how classless it was...and someone from the left would be attacking it.
Cheney office denies role in Halliburton deal E-mail cited by Time implies veep helped ex-employer get Iraq contract From Suzanne Malveaux CNN Washington Bureau Tuesday, June 1, 2004 Posted: 7:45 AM EDT (1145 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Dick Cheney's office denied Sunday that he was involved in a coordinated effort to secure a multibillion dollar Iraq oil deal for Halliburton, his former employer. A reference to such an arrangement was made in an internal Pentagon e-mail from an Army Corps of Engineers official to another Pentagon employee, Time magazine reports in its June 7 edition, which is due on newsstands Monday. The existence of the e-mail was confirmed to CNN by a senior administration official familiar with it. The e-mail -- dated March 5, 2003 -- says Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, approved the arrangement to award the contract to the oil-services company, the administration official said. According to an e-mail excerpt in Time, the contract was "contingent on informing WH [White House] tomorrow. We anticipate no issues since action has been coordinated w[ith] VP's office." The Corps of Engineers gave Halliburton the contract three days later without seeking other bids, Time reports. Time says it found the e-mail "among documents provided by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group." The senior official told CNN the e-mail was a typical "heads-up" memo from one government agency to another that "a decision has been made, we're about to announce this contract, and as a courtesy we are alerting the White House of a public announcement. This is a standard practice." The "coordinated action" referred to, the senior administration official said, was "that of publicly announcing the contract decision that has already been made." The heads-up would have been given because of Cheney's previous involvement in the company as chief executive officer, and the anticipated controversy over the noncompetitive bid, the official said. "The vice president and his office have played no role whatsoever in government contracting since he left private business to campaign for vice president" in 1999, Cheney spokesman Kevin Kellems said Sunday. Time reports the e-mail also says Feith got the "authority to execute RIO," or Restore Iraqi Oil, from his supervisor, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. The contract was one of several Halliburton and its subsidiaries were awarded by the government over the past year. Cheney was chairman and chief executive officer of the Texas-based Halliburton Co., one of the world's largest service providers to the oil and gas industry, from 1995 to 2000, when he resigned to run for vice president. Cheney still receives about $150,000 a year in deferred payments for work he performed as chairman. He also holds more than 433,000 stock options, according to a report last fall by the Congressional Research Office requested by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat. (Full story) Cheney has insisted in the past that the deferred compensation was set up two years before he became a vice presidential candidate in 2000 and that he assigned all his stock options to a charitable trust just before being sworn in. Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/05/30/cheney.halliburton 1. and 3. are inaccurate on their face. You might believe 2. if you still believe in the Easter Bunny.
http://www.truthout.com/docs_03/092703B.shtml A Congressional Research Service report released yesterday concluded that federal ethics laws treat Vice President Cheney's annual deferred compensation checks and unexercised stock options as continuing financial interests in the Halliburton Co. The report, from the law division of the congressional research arm of the Library of Congress, said deferred salary or compensation received from a private corporation -- as well as unexercised stock options -- may represent a continuing financial interest as defined by federal ethics laws. Cheney received deferred compensation of $147,579 in 2001 and $162,392 in 2002, with payments scheduled to continue for three more years. http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0923-09.htm But lost in the winks and nudges of his appearance on "Meet the Press" was an outright lie regarding his ties to Halliburton, the oil service company he headed in the 1990s: "Since I left Halliburton to become George Bush's vice president, I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all of my financial interest. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had, now, for over three years." Really? Sen. Frank Lautenberg, the New Jersey Democrat, wasn't so sure. He looked into Cheney's financial disclosure forms filed with the Office of Government Ethics. This is what he found: In 2001, Halliburton paid Cheney a salary of $205,298. In 2002, the company paid him $162,392. He is to receive similar payments this year and for the next two years. Those are "deferred salary" payments -- not retirement benefits or payments from escrow accounts, but, as Lautenberg points out, "an ongoing corporate obligation that is paid from company funds." If Halliburton were to go under, the payments would stop. That, of course, is not about to happen. The stock market has tanked in the last three years. The economy continues to lurk between recession and Herbert Hoover's shadow. But Halliburton's stock value in less than a year (going back to last October) has grown 75 percent. Hint: Halliburton is the Pentagon's top contractor in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Cheney, a proponent, if not a fan, of both wars, holds 433,333 Halliburton stock options. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind. If Cheney's deferred salary and stock options don't constitute a financial interest of any kind, then the vice president's conception of reality is as questionable as his ethics. The fact that he has pledged not to profit from stock sales by giving profits to a charity doesn't diminish the extent of his ties. Cheney is the Bush administration's hawk in chief. His company's profitable subsidiary (to say former company would stretch the truth) is Kellogg Brown & Root, which houses and feeds American soldiers deployed around the world, and provides an array of other services, from maintaining supply lines to running POW camps. The Pentagon and reconstruction contracts KRB has snagged are mind-boggling: Iraq oil field repairs: $7 billion. Other services in Iraq: $613 million. Afghanistan: $62.2 million. In the Balkans: $1.6 billion. Hungary: $287.7 million. Those contracts explain Halliburton's much healthier stock price of late. So for taxpayers at the moment, the most relevant connection isn't Saddam Hussein's ties to al-Qaida. It is Dick Cheney's, and government's, ties to Halliburton.
1. Cheney still has stock options in Halliburton. In September 2003, Cheney told a national TV audience that "since I left [as CEO of] Halliburton to become George Bush's vice president, I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest." Cheney, however, still owns 433,000 of stock options in Halliburton. The Congressional Research Service found that this constitutes "a continuing financial interest in the company." (CNN) 2. Cheney still receives a salary from Halliburton. Along with stock options, Cheney still receives a six-figure "deferred" salary from Halliburton each year. (CBS) 3. Cheney's office has "coordinated" the awarding of government contracts to Halliburton. Since taking office, Halliburton has been awarded billions in federal contracts. Cheney has adamantly denied any involvement in the awarding of federal contracts, insisting "as Vice President, I have absolutely no influence of, involvement of, knowledge of in any way, shape or form of contracts led by the [Army] Corps of Engineers or anybody else in the Federal Government." But an internal Pentagon e-mail obtained by Time Magazine revealed that a $7 billion contract was "coordinated w [the] VP's [Vice President's] office." (Time) http://winningargument.blogspot.com/2004/06/cheney-still-has-financial-ties-to.html
1. The deferred compensation that Cheney receives is money that he earned years ago when he was the CEO. Halliburton's success or failures have nothing to do with the level of this allocation. It is already set. It doesn't matter how many contracts Halliburton gets -- this amount of money isn't going to change. Even in a bankruptcy situation (extremely unlikely), this money would be virtually untouchable. Most people who are unfamiliar with finance can't understand that deferred comp is not a financial tie to a company. Gifford, you can't understand it. All it is is electing to take your salary/bonus/etc in the future as opposed to the present. That's all it is. No financial tie. DEBUNKED 2. The Vice President's office has no say so whatsoever in awarding contracts. Halliburton got the contract because it is world reknowned as the best in its field. Gifford, I seriously doubt you work in the energy space. If you did, you would know this. They are the premier reconstruction, oilfield infrastructure, and infrastructure company on this planet. They earned the job, they didn't get it as some type of political gift. That's just absurd. Again, the liberals are speaking out of school and from an informational disadvantage. 3. Any financial gain to be had from Cheney's stock options in Halliburton are PLEDGED TO CHARITY. He receives nothing. This was a big deal a while back when he did this. This removed any and all financial ties to Halliburton. All of them. Anybody with even an elementary exposure to finance can easily understand the points I make above. If you look at the criticisms coming from the liberals, you will notice that the only ones making these outrageous Cheney/Halliburton claims are the most extreme liberals. It's always the long-haired sandal-wearing hippie with the Grateful Dead shirt on with his poster high above his head. Most liberals can't understand what I posted above -- or simply refuse to. It's one of their favorite applause lines. Too bad it's a lie. CASE CLOSED
^ ^ ^ ^ Looks like somebody can't muster a response. Son, you just got humiliated and exposed for propagating lies on this BBS. This is your chance to defend yourself, and the best you can do is post a picture. Can you defend yourself mcmark? I debunked every one of your allegations. Let's see how deep your financial knowledge runs. The board eagerly awaits your response.
2. The e-mail already provided is evidence that belies your litte statement. 3. Pledged to charity still helps Cheney with taxes, and who's to say that he won't change his pledge. Why should we believe Cheney when he's a proven liar.
