The White House Press corps expects a Vice Presidential press release soon, denying that VP Dick Cheney ever said invading Iraq would be a bad idea.
Tuesday’s You Tube posting of a video of the then Secretary of Defense warning at the American Enterprise Institute in 1994 of the consequences of a U.S. invasion of Iraq caused a stir in the media because of Cheney’s statements such as, “It’s a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq,” and “But for the 146 Americans killed in action, and for their families — it wasn’t a cheap war. And the question for the president, in terms of whether or not we went on to Baghdad, took additional casualties in an effort to get Saddam Hussein, was how many additional dead Americans (during Operation Desert Storm) is Saddam worth?”
Today’s expected denial will be yet another in a great many denials, and subsequent denials put out by the Bush/Cheney team in the past 4 years. A cottage industry has cropped up, with blogsters and comedians combing the internet and other sources for contradictions by members of the administration. The results usually find their way to Comedy Central Cable network, where Jon Stewart or Steven Colbert use them in nightly satire.
Wags in the White House Press Room say they have a pool going as to when Bush, Cheney, or a cabinet secretary will begin denying the denials.