Tipsheet

Most Valuable Republican: Dick Cheney

William Kristol's column in the latest issue of the Weekly Standard lays out the reasons why Cheney has earned this award, and why fellow Republicans need to stop being sissies and follow his lead.

Kristol makes his case:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/presidentbush/images/2008/06/12/cheney.jpgHe challenged the president to release CIA memos evaluating the effectiveness of the enhanced interrogation techniques. He raised the question of whether congressional Democrats--Nancy Pelosi, for one--had known of, and at least tacitly approved of, the allegedly horrifying abuses of the allegedly lawless Bush administration.

Now, a month later, Pelosi is attacking career CIA officials for lying to Congress, and other Democrats are scrambling to distance themselves from her. Meanwhile, the Obama administration has pulled back on threats to prosecute Bush-era lawyers, reversed itself on releasing photos of alleged military abuse of prisoners, and embraced the use of military commissions to try captured terrorists. The administration now looks irresponsible when it lives up to candidate Obama's rhetoric, and hypocritical when it vindicates Bush policies the candidate attacked.