Why is this man laughing?

September 19, 2003 1:12 PM

My vote for best sentence of the year: "I did not have financial relations with Halliburton." Though I would have preferred the wording "that company" to Halliburton.
posted by coolgeek (26 comments total)

Now hold on just a minute.

The Bush Administration lied to us?

Now I'm pissed!

[Cue ebk]
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:16 PM on September 19, 2003

Dulce et decorum est pro Halliburton mori.
posted by homunculus at 1:21 PM on September 19, 2003

Kinda weak. The sentence is a paraphrase, not a quote.
posted by soyjoy at 1:21 PM on September 19, 2003

Avast, that blackguard Cheney be pilagin' upon the high plains of Wyoming. Yarrr.
posted by solistrato at 1:32 PM on September 19, 2003

His old salary be deferred... yarrr!

It's nothing that hasn't been known for some time now.

And judging by what's happening these days you can't argue that he didn't earn that money!
posted by clevershark at 1:40 PM on September 19, 2003

Are you sure he is actually lying. Like a similar quote when he first was in office. Regarding Enron; "Someone will be serving time", well just recently someone went to prison, not sure the right man. Pointing out here, like the quote your posting how much is truth, twisted true but really a deception. He may not be lying he just set the scheme in place prior to becoming VP and it all panned out in the end. A politician lying is not new yet it would be nice to have politicians whom's wealth is the same as when entering office as it is leaving it. Money is the root of all evil and some may think politicians as well.
posted by thomcatspike at 1:45 PM on September 19, 2003

Money is the root of all politicians? Yarrr, truer words were never bespoke.
posted by soyjoy at 1:46 PM on September 19, 2003

Dear America, thanks for the money, sorry about your kids,
-Halliburton
posted by elwoodwiles at 1:47 PM on September 19, 2003

Dick Cheney is a talented and smart man, and the US is fortunate to have someone with his level of knowledge and experience in government. He doesn't deserve to be borked by a bunch of lefties who are motivated only by their hatred for the Bush administration and all things Republican.

There, I've said it, and it feels great.
posted by Durwood at 1:57 PM on September 19, 2003

I just wanted to say that I appreciate seeing conservative voices active in metafilter discussions.

That said, I don't think people hate Cheney because they are lefty-repulican-haters, they hate the man for being a lying, chicken hawk fraud who has been part of a government that has done nothing but war-monger while the US economy slides downward.

A national politician should avoid any appearence of impropiety but here's Cheney still getting a paycheck from the company that is profiting most from the US occupation of Iraq.
posted by elwoodwiles at 2:05 PM on September 19, 2003

Aye, I'd bork the cur indeed ... with me peg leg. But, I've a thought to leave his like to the unholy pleasures of me crew.
posted by Wulfgar! at 2:18 PM on September 19, 2003

There are Bush-haters out there, as there are Clinton-haters, but I'm not sure there are a lot of Cheney-haters. The man works in secret most of the time, so we don't see him. I guess there are a lot of people who reflexively hate old white tie-wearing millions-making golf-playing Republicans, and Cheney fits right in there, except maybe for the golf part, so Durwood does have a point.

Me? I'm a playa-hata. Arghhhh!
posted by kozad at 2:20 PM on September 19, 2003

None of the people reflexively coming to Cheney's defense would do the same for a Democrat who was earning more from defense contractors than his government salary during a time of war.

The amount of money he's making from outside interests and his brazen lies about it are reprehensible. If fantasies about the liberal media were true, this guy would've been hounded out of office. Yet his behavior is barely called into question.
posted by rcade at 2:25 PM on September 19, 2003

None of the people reflexively coming to Cheney's defense would do the same for a Democrat

One reason I dropped my "party" affiliation. Take away the parties leaves you the man whom he really "be."
posted by thomcatspike at 2:40 PM on September 19, 2003

Cheney is a two-faced, lying, manipulative troll of a man, ushered into office through a travesty of justice and kept there by intimidation and misinformation.

There, I've said it, and it feels great....arrrrr.
posted by FormlessOne at 2:41 PM on September 19, 2003

As a Bush-bashing Democrat I'll say that I believe Cheney in this case. He has a bit of annual salary coming to him, but the payments are guaranteed by a private insurer, so they are absolutely independent of Halliburton's financial performance or even its continued existence.

Now, Cheney may be giving sweet deals to old friends or some such, but I don't think he's directly making money off the deal.

That'll come after he leaves office and takes up his next private sector position.
posted by alms at 2:46 PM on September 19, 2003

Cheney also is still holding 433,333 stock options.

Avast, ye fool. Dont be wearin patches o'er both yer sad eyes!
posted by Wulfgar! at 2:55 PM on September 19, 2003

US is fortunate to have someone with his level of knowledge and experience in government.

How are we fortunate to be paying the salary of someone who doesn't work for us? Indeed, someone who will not even answer to Congress?

He works for the people who are paying his other salary. His role in government does not appear to be serving the US, it appears to simply provide him with access to the resources of America and its government, which he wields in service to his real masters.
posted by George_Spiggott at 2:56 PM on September 19, 2003

He has a bit of annual salary coming to him, but the payments are guaranteed by a private insurer, so they are absolutely independent of Halliburton's financial performance or even its continued existence.

Yes, and Clinton never actually had intercourse with Lewinsky. If that's how you define "sexual relations", then he's not a liar either.
posted by jpoulos at 3:45 PM on September 19, 2003

There, I've said it, and it feels great.

and...SCENE!
posted by mcsweetie at 5:20 PM on September 19, 2003

Cheney also is still holding 433,333 stock options.

um, yeah. i can kinda understand the part about the deferred salary, meaning he gets his money no matter how Halliburton performs, but isn't the value of those stock options highly dependent on Halliburton's economic performance?

how can he say "I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had now, for over three years."

someone care to explain the stock options?
posted by mrgrimm at 5:32 PM on September 19, 2003

someone care to explain the stock options?

Que the crickets.
posted by velacroix at 7:26 PM on September 19, 2003

Geez, so many people are doing 'feel greats' in this thread that my feet are sticking to the floor.
posted by HTuttle at 8:24 PM on September 19, 2003

To put Cheney's conflict of interest into perspective, in 1988 House Speaker Jim Wright was booted from the position because of accusations he made $55,000 inappropriately by letting lobbyists buy his book in bulk. Cheney's making nearly seven figures from Haliburton while in a higher office and there's nary a peep from the same crowd that gleefully deposed Wright.
posted by rcade at 7:38 AM on September 20, 2003

I know a number of conservative Republicans who still basically like Bush, but have long-since given up on Cheney. I wonder if sacrificing Cheney is eventually going to be the wise political move for the administration?
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 10:31 AM on September 20, 2003

I wonder if sacrificing Cheney is eventually going to be the wise political move for the administration?

I don't see how Cheney is anything but a political liability in '04. I've said it before: it will be Bush/Rice. And that will be a formidable ticket.
posted by jpoulos at 4:42 PM on September 20, 2003