I would think Bush would not want to further damage his presidency by clearing the hired help.
-- GOP operative Roger Stone, explaining why Bush would not pardon Karl Rove
Dubya has been very quiet of late
The Bush family has been, repugnant though it is to admit it, one of America's premier political dynasties. Samuel P., Prescott, Poppy, Dubya, Jeb, and someday maybe George P. Bush -- this is a family that has become used to wielding enormous power. Dubya disgraced the family name and sullied the family "brand." But it's unrealistic to think the Bushes and their courtiers, friends, and business associates wouldn't push back.
Dick Cheney has been front and center defending the torture policies of his administration. His nominal boss, not so much. I wonder why?
I don't think there's any question it goes to Cheney. I'm increasingly of a mind that a lot of it goes to Cheney and stops there. Not just because of the president's disinclination to do detail, but I also think that Cheney kept some things from the president.
-- Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell
I don't doubt for a minute that Cheney was the enthusiastic architect of the Bush torture regime. But I doubt he pulled it off without his President's support. I also doubt he had any real difficulty getting that support. Whether it was torturing animals as a child or mocking condemned prisoners as governor, Dubya never seemed to be the kind of person who would feel any compunction about hurting others. (See, e.g., "Shock and Awe"). But it's Dick Cheney who is becoming the lightning rod for torture, while Bush lays low.
Why is Dick Cheney's daughter the only person he can find to go on TV to defend him?
-- Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo
Cheney deserves whatever is coming to him. I agree with Matthew Detroit's diary that there's blood in the water. I just wonder whether the Bush family and its retainers have decided to let him sink or swim on his own, distancing themselves from him and hoping that if he goes down, he goes down with the lion's share of the blame for the horrors we know about, and the ones we haven't yet heard, firmly tied around his neck.
Let's not let that happen. Cheney needs to pay a price for his crimes. But he shouldn't pay it alone.