Walter Mondale not a fan of Dick Cheney

The Washington Post published an editorial by Walter Mondale, so I decided to update this piece to include an excerpt and some commentary.

former Vice President Walter Mondale comments on Dick Cheney’s influence over President George W Bush’s administration

Walter Mondale discussed America’s woes last year and explained how shocked he was to see Vice-president Cheney’s power and influence over President Bush. Mondale said that none of the behavior he witnessed would have been acceptable during his time.  Where would we be with Bush calling all the shots?  Dick is intelligent, well-spoken, he is a hard-line conservative with a focus on military action and preventative measures. Should we embrace empowering of our Vice Presidency? Should we discourage Cheney’s behavior so that future Vice Presidents behave themselves appropriately?

“Answering to no one” by Walter F. Mondale - the Vice Presidency

The Founders created the vice presidency as a constitutional afterthought, solely to provide a president-in-reserve should the need arise. The only duty they specified was that the vice president should preside over the Senate. The office languished in obscurity and irrelevance for more than 150 years until Richard Nixon saw it as a platform from which to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 1960. That worked, and the office has been an effective launching pad for aspiring candidates since.

It wasn’t until Jimmy Carter assumed the presidency that the vice presidency took on a substantive role. Carter saw the office as an underused asset and set out to make the most of it. He gave me an office in the West Wing, unimpeded access to him and to the flow of information, and specific assignments at home and abroad. He asked me, as the only other nationally elected official, to be his adviser and partner on a range of issues.

Our relationship depended on trust, mutual respect and an acknowledgment that there was only one agenda to be served — the president’s. Every Monday the two of us met privately for lunch; we could, and did, talk candidly about virtually anything. By the end of four years we had completed the “executivization” of the vice presidency, ending two centuries of confusion, derision and irrelevance surrounding the office.

Walter Mondale on Premptive Missle strikes and North Korea

August 2006 Former vice president Walter Mondale said he supports a pre-emptive U.S. strike against a North Korean missile. Mondale believes the U.S. should tell North Korea to dismantle the missile or “we are going to take it out.”

“I think it would end the nuclear long-range dreams of this dangerous country,” said Mondale

The tensions are over North Korea’s apparent preparations to test-fire a Taepodong-2 missile, which is believed to have a range of up to 9,300 miles. That would make it capable of hitting much of the U.S. mainland. Mondale, 78, said North Korea has nuclear weapons and its ambition to develop a long-range missile is “one of the most dangerous developments in recent history.” It’s so dangerous, he said, because of the nation’s isolation from the international community and its unpredictable leader, Kim Jong Il.

“Here’s this bizarre, hermit kingdom over there with a paranoid leader getting ready to test a missile system that can hit us,” Mondale said.

Fred Soto is an Attorney and Entrepreneur from the Silicon Valley.
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