Gustav's Silver Lining

As for Cheney

Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the New York Times: "Even in the twilight of his tenure, Mr. Cheney plays the heavy. . . .

"As Mr. Cheney prepares to make the transition to private citizen, a portrait is emerging of a man who is unapologetic, even defiant, but also thinking about his legacy and perhaps confronting the limits of his own power. . . .

"In recent months, Mr. Cheney's push to expand executive powers was rejected yet again by the Supreme Court. His vision for a free-market economy has been cast aside in favor of government intervention; when Mr. Bush signed housing legislation in the Oval Office, the vice president was not there. Mr. Cheney has taken a hard line against North Korea and Iran, only to be outflanked by advocates of diplomacy. . . .

"Mr. Cheney declined to be interviewed. But those close to him say he approaches retirement with neither reticence nor eagerness, but rather with a Zen-like confidence that even his most controversial moves, like his stance in favor of domestic wiretapping, have been necessary to keep the country safe.

"'It's not suffering defeats, it's not nostalgia, it's not urgency to get stuff done, it's not, "I can't wait to get out of here," ' said Mary Matalin, a longtime adviser, describing Mr. Cheney's state of mind. 'I hate to use yoga terms, but he's really in the moment.'"

Stolberg adds: "Mr. Cheney remains furious over the conviction of his former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., after a trial that depicted the vice president as the orchestrator of a scheme to discredit a critic of the Iraq war. Alan K. Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming, said Mr. Cheney regarded the trial as 'a grievous distortion,' and would most likely press Mr. Bush to pardon Mr. Libby. . . .

"Critics and even admirers of Mr. Cheney imagine him using his final days in office to work the levers of power and seal his policies in place, though his aides insist no such effort is under way.

"'My guess is that he's been able to put things into motion in the executive branch that transcend the next administration,' said Representative Adam H. Putnam of Florida, chairman the House Republican Conference."

John D. McKinnon writes in the Wall Street Journal: "Vice President Dick Cheney will travel to Georgia and Ukraine this week in a trip that could help lay the groundwork for stiffer Western responses to last month's Russian incursion of Georgia. . . .

"But whether Mr. Cheney will succeed in rallying the world to Georgia's cause -- or rallying U.S. voters to Sen. McCain's hawkish views on Russia -- remains uncertain.

"Many U.S. allies in Western Europe remain wary of escalating tensions with a resurgent Russia, and thus could be reluctant to grant Georgia and Ukraine membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or kick Russia out of the Group of Eight leading nations, as Sen. McCain advocates. As a result, some friendly countries in the region are questioning the West's ability to protect Georgia and its neighbors."

Roger Runningen writes for Bloomberg: "Cheney departs today for Azerbaijan and Georgia, which are crucial to the westward flow of energy via a corridor that bypasses Russia. . . .

"'Cheney's mission is to stiffen the spine' of the countries' leaders, said Mark Parris, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey who also served as a diplomat in Moscow. 'They'll want to know U.S. plans, and what's available, to ensure that Russia isn't able to throw its weight around more broadly in the region.' . . .

"Cheney's first stop, Azerbaijan, is the hub for the development of Caspian Sea oilfields. Its capital, Baku, is the starting point for a U.S.-backed pipeline that ships crude to a Turkish Mediterranean port via Georgia. The U.S. is also supporting the development of gas pipelines to connect Central Asian producers with European countries, skirting Russia.

"'Cheney understands energy,' and 'this is as much about the transportation corridors between East and West as it is about the military threat,' said Ariel Cohen, an expert on Russia at the Heritage Foundation in Washington."

Owen Matthews writes for Newsweek that Cheney "will face an audience very different from the one George Bush faced when he visited the Georgian capital in 2005. Then, Bush promised an adoring crowd that 'the path of freedom you have chosen is not easy, but you will not travel it alone . . . Americans respect your courageous choice for liberty. And as you build a free and democratic Georgia, the American people will stand with you.' Yet as Russian tanks rolled into the Georgian cities of Gori, Poti and Zugdidi there was little that the United States could actually do to protect its erstwhile ally."

Cheney "will doubtless praise Georgia's mercurial President Mikheil Saakashvili and promise to stand by him as he faces the same imperial dictatorship, resurgent. But the acid test of the U.S.'s intentions will be whether the U.S. can succeed in advancing NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia--something many European members, such as France and Germany, have balked at as a provocative step likely to push Russia into further aggression."

War Evermore

Eric Lichtblau writes in the New York Times: "Tucked deep into a recent proposal from the Bush administration is a provision that has received almost no public attention, yet in many ways captures one of President Bush's defining legacies: an affirmation that the United States is still at war with Al Qaeda.

"Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Bush's advisers assert that many Americans may have forgotten that. So they want Congress to say so and 'acknowledge again and explicitly that this nation remains engaged in an armed conflict with Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated organizations, who have already proclaimed themselves at war with us and who are dedicated to the slaughter of Americans.'

"The language, part of a proposal for hearing legal appeals from detainees at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, goes beyond political symbolism. Echoing a measure that Congress passed just days after the Sept. 11 attacks, it carries significant legal and public policy implications for Mr. Bush, and potentially his successor, to claim the imprimatur of Congress to use the tools of war, including detention, interrogation and surveillance, against the enemy, legal and political analysts say.

"Some lawmakers are concerned that the administration's effort to declare anew a war footing is an 11th-hour maneuver to re-establish its broad interpretation of the president's wartime powers, even in the face of challenges from the Supreme Court and Congress.

"The proposal is also the latest step that the administration, in its waning months, has taken to make permanent important aspects of its 'long war' against terrorism. From a new wiretapping law approved by Congress to a rewriting of intelligence procedures and F.B.I. investigative techniques, the administration is moving to institutionalize by law, regulation or order a wide variety of antiterrorism tactics.

"'This seems like a final push by the administration before they go out the door,' said Suzanne Spaulding, a former lawyer for the Central Intelligence Agency and an expert on national security law. The cumulative effect of the actions, Ms. Spaulding said, is to 'put the onus on the next administration' -- particularly a Barack Obama administration -- to justify undoing what Mr. Bush has done."

McCain on Torture

Zachary A. Goldfarb blogged for The Washington Post on Sunday: "Sen. John McCain today issued some of his strongest criticism of President Bush over an aggressive interrogation technique, clearly suggesting that the president has endorsed torture.

"During an assessment of the Bush presidency on 'Fox News Sunday,' McCain discussed the administration's use over 'waterboarding,' a technique that has been used to interrogate terrorist detainees."

Here's McCain's exchange with Fox interviewer Chris Wallace.

McCain: "I obviously don't want to torture any prisoners. There is a long list of areas that we were in disagreement on. But I also think -- "

Wallace: "You're not suggesting he did want to torture prisoners?"

McCain: "Well, waterboarding to me is torture, OK? And waterboarding was advocated by the administration, and according to a published report, was used."

But as Goldfarb notes, McCain earlier this year voted against a measure that would have explicitly ordered the CIA to stop the use of waterboarding and other interrogation tactics widely considered to be torture.

Economy Watch

The Associated Press reports: "President Bush said Saturday that Americans may have cause this Labor Day weekend to start worrying less about the nation's -- and their families' -- economic health.

"'There have been some recent signs that our economy is beginning to improve,' Bush said in his weekly radio address.

"Among the positive signs that Bush referenced was a report Thursday that the overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, rose by 3.3 percent in the April-June quarter. This surprised analysts and was a significant rebound from growth of just 0.9 percent in the first quarter of the year. Most credit was given to the $93 billion in economic stimulus payments the federal government has sent to households since May.

"However, other economic news this week showed that right after that second quarter, in July, consumer spending slowed to a crawl and personal incomes plunged.

"With few stimulus payments still to go out, some economists worry consumer spending will continue to falter. Since it accounts for two-thirds of economic activity, that could send economic growth tumbling again in the second half of the year, particularly given rising unemployment, a continuing credit crisis and the deepest housing slump in decades."

Cartoon Watch

Tony Auth on very expensive lemonade, David Horsey on averting disaster, J.D. Crowe on the GOP fist-bump, Victor Harville on Bush's convention speech, Mike Keefe and Jeff Darcy on the prisoner of W., and Lee Judge on changing history.