Cheney’s growl is a lesson for Brown

Cheney is still satirised for his part in a shooting accident

WITH the Bush administration’s propensity for treating friendly leaders like vassal princes, Dick Cheney has likely spared little thought for the ill fortunes of former colleague Gordon Brown, as the Prime Minister endures yet another tough week for his Premiership.

Like Brown, Cheney served out the dying days of a lame duck administration. But the former VP is facing some very real battles of his own after leaving office. Cheney, who remains one of the most experienced men in US politics, could stand criminal trial for his alleged complicity in the torture of extrajudicial prisoners.

Still a darling of America’s religious right, despite his part in its dramatic decline, Cheney has typically come out fighting. Brushing aside Barack Obama’s threat of prosecution, and the president’s claim that the use of waterboarding was torture that had led to America losing its “moral bearings”, the former White House chief of staff and defence secretary unrepentantly argued that its deployment – upon alleged 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, among others – had rendered good intelligence.

Appearing on Fox News following Obama’s 100-day speech, Cheney was critical of the new administration’s decision to publish internal CIA memos on the matter. “I haven’t talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw, that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country. I’ve now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was.”

Few bought it. But his breaking with Washington protocol to criticise the new president seemed to delight the White House lobby. They were able to grin more broadly as Cheney began trotting out Bushist incitements to fear so well worn that they deserve a place in the Smithsonian, claiming in February that there was a “high probability” of a terrorist attack and attacking the Democrats for being soft on security. And even though he is in effect the ranking Republican until a replacement for Dubya is found, his involvement in helping the party to decide has generated more headlines, particularly as he came out in favour of right wing broadcaster Rush Limbaugh against former cabinet colleague Colin Powell.

Most believe that all this high profile has been designed for one purpose – to secure Cheney’s legacy. Instead, new profiles have concluded that he might not be in full control of his faculties. US comedian Wanda Sykes, speaking at the White House Correspondents Dinner, remarked: “Cheney wants the reports open that show that we were able to drown useful information out of terrorists … That would be like getting caught robbing a bank and going before the judge saying ‘Yeah, I robbed the bank – but look at all the bills I paid’.”

The man once dubbed the most powerful VP in history gives every impression of thinking he still calls the shots. For far too long, he has been used to nobody answering him back, while his bull-headed approach betrays an incontrovertible belief in getting his own way.

Gordon Brown has around a year left in office, but he too increasingly resembles the Japanese soldier still fighting long after everyone else has shaken hands and sailed home. Seemingly unable to get a grip on his profligate ministries or his spendthrift MPs, he appears not to have guessed at his isolated position.

In the space of just a few weeks, electoral defeat for Labour has gone from a probability to a near-certain wipeout. Already there are many figures in the party looking nervously ahead to many years spent in opposition, looking back to the Herculanean effort it took to bring them back from the wilderness. When Labour’s history of this time is written, it will be Brown, not Blair, who will shoulder the blame. Blair led the party to power, Brown led them out.

Already his obituaries are being written, and his inner circle must shudder at their savagery. Writing in Standpoint, Nick Cohen drew a picture of a political bully that has never fought an election to get to Downing Street, who stood a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning any leadership contest and so hitched his cart to the clear favourite before spending a decade undermining the same man, who gave him the keys to the country’s coffers. Here, said Cohen, ostensibly a left wing journalist, he made a horrendous mess of our national finances before finally getting his wish when Blair departed.

There must be an almost collective wish to grab Brown and shake him. His less-than-contrite reaction to arguably the biggest crisis to grip Westminster for decades, and his office’s handling of Joanna Lumley (staff have privately briefed journalists that she is a Tory) points to a character who simply cannot believe that anyone would ever act out of the strength of their convictions and not for personal gain, or own up to dishonesty.

Gordon Brown gives every indication of being in power too long, just as Cheney has. The world will not remember Cheney fondly. Our Prime Minister has time to avoid befalling the same ignominy.