Acting President/"Vice President" - Dick Cheney

I'm not sure yet where the "compassionate" part of "compassionate conservatism" comes from , but I do know where the conservatism resides. For six terms Dick Cheney was a congressman representing Wyoming, and he had one of the most conservative voting records of all 435 members of Congress. Cheney voted against the Equal Rights Amendment, against funding the Head Start program, against a House resolution calling for South Africa to release Nelson Mandela from prison, and against federal funding for abortions even in cases of rape or incest. And his record doesn't stop there. Cheney has had his hand in all of the recent Republican administrations, including that of Richard Nixon, when he was deputy White House counsel under Don "Rummy" Rumsfel. He placed Rumsfeld as President Ford's chief of staff. Under George Bush I, Cheney was defense secretary, leading the country in two of the largest military campaigns in recent history: the invasion of Panama and the war against Iraq.

In between Bush regimes, Cheney was CEO of Haliburton Industries, an oil services company that has dealings with repressive governments like Burma and Iraq. During the 2000 campaign, Cheney denied that Halliburton had a business relationship with Saddam Hussein. Then, in June 2001, the Washington Post revealed that in fact two Halliburton subsidiaries were doing business with Iraq. Can you imagine the field day Republicans would have had if they'd ever discovered such a thing about Clinton or Gore? And Alaska isn't the only place Cheney has suggested we dig up: Halliburton has a major construction deal in the development of Mexico's Cantarell offshore oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. When nominated for the vice presidency, Cheney hemmed and hawed about divesting himself of his Halliburton stock. I guess he knew that good times were still to come. Of course, it doesn't get much better than 2000. In just that one year, Cheney made $36,086,653.

Cheney want wrong about the good times, either. Since Bush was installed in the White House, good fortune has shined on Halliburton more than ever before. They got to build Camp X-ray to hold all those guys down in Guantanamo Bay. They have been handed billions in government contracts for work in Turkey, central Asia, prewar Kuwait, and for general logistical support of the U. S. military. As the second Gulf War got under way. Halliburton "won" a contract (for which no one else was competing, because no one else yet knew about it) that, taken with their other Iraq contracts, was worth at least $1.7 billion. They are also currently being investigated for stealing at least $61 million from the American taxpayers (I mean, on top of the billions Cheney's already helped them steal). Dick Cheney, for his part, held 433,333 unexercised stock options in Haliburton as late as 2002, and received deferred salary payments from the company totaling $367,000 for 2001 and 2002. At least we know he won't be unemployed when we throw him out of the White House. And on the bright side, it'll look good for him - a man with heart problems should not be working two jobs anyway.

Dick Cheney, Vietnam Draft Dodger