This is grasping for straws to the extreme. To suggest that the government was instrumental in Cheney's success at Halliburton is so ridiculous it is hardly worth commenting on. Cheney's success at Halliburton was due to the leadership ability that the man has consistently shown in government and private business. His comment was to emphasize that the government influence on our lives as planned by Gore is not a good idea, and to blunt Lieberman's suggestion that government was responsible for Cheney's or anyone else's success in private business.
American industry and American workers' immense productivity improvements using the latest technology along with Greenspan's Federal Reserve policies are largely responsible for the excellent economy. The Clinton-Gore administration cannot come up with a single action by their administration that contributed to the economy other than possibly staying out of the way, thanks to the Republican majority Congress.
-- D.B.Abrams
Thank you, Joe Conason, for responding so quickly to Dick Cheney's "exaggeration." I, too, was outraged when Cheney acted as if the government had nothing to do with his private sector success. Immediately it brought to mind the billion dollar-plus Pentagon contracts secured by Halliburton during the former defense secretary's term as CEO. What better picture of hypocrisy and corruption can you have than a former Cabinet-level bureaucrat making the move to the private sector and laying claim to billions of dollars of government spending? I'm just disappointed that Joe Lieberman let him get away with it, not to mention the New York Times and Washington Post.
-- Corey Lynn
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