Hung Out To Dry

by digby

A lot of people have been parsing Cheney’s latest blurts, but Jonathan Schwarz is the only one I know who’s caught something historically important:

In a new article by Stephen “W.W. Beauchamp” Hayes, former Vice President Cheney gripes extensively about the Obama administration. It’s exactly what you’d expect. But what you might not expect is that Cheney (seemingly inadvertently) confirms that there was a massive cover-up of the Iran-Contra scandal by the Reagan administration:

“I went through the Iran-contra hearings and watched the way administration officials ran for cover and left the little guys out to dry. And I was bound and determined that wasn’t going to happen this time.”

Considering that two national security advisers (Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter) and the Secretary of Defense (Caspar Weinberger) were some of the “little guys” who were prosecuted for Iran-Contra, it’s obvious who Cheney is talking about as hanging them out to dry: President Reagan and Vice President Bush.

Jonathan goes on to recount the back story to all that, in which the top people in the Reagan administration all got together to create the cover story to protect the big boss, making Robert “Bud” McFarland the fall guy. He recounts this rather chilling excerpt from Robert Parry’s Lost History:

How quickly the investigative space was closing down hit home to me on March 10, 1987. I had been asked to attend a dinner at the home of bureau chief Evan Thomas in an exclusive neighborhood in northwest Washington. The guests that night were retired Gen. Brent Scowcroft, who was one of three members of the Tower Commission [set up by Reagan to investigate Iran-contra], and Rep. Dick Cheney, R-Wyo., who was the ranking House Republican on the congressional Iran-contra committee. At the table also were some of Newsweek’s top executives and a few of us lowly correspondents. As the catered dinner progressed and a tuxedoed waiter kept the wine glasses full, the guests were politely questioned. Scowcroft, a studious-looking man, fidgeted as if he wanted to get something off his chest. “Maybe I shouldn’t say this but,” he began with a slight hesitation. He then continued, “If I were advising Admiral Poindexter and he had told the president about the diversion, I would advise him to say that he didn’t.”

Could Michael Corleone sound any more ominous? And, here’s the really creepy thing, when you look at that comment in context. Robert McFarlane had tried to commit suicide just the month before. Weirdly, this whole thing makes Cheney almost look good by comparison.