NYC DA Candidate Paints Cheney as 'Criminal'

Former vice president pitches in to pass bill

(NEWSER) - Dick Cheney, pro-gay lobbyist? Turns out he did help support Maryland's gay marriage bill and may have influenced its passage in the state's House of Delegates yesterday, the Huffington Post reports via the Baltimore Sun . Republican Del. Wade Kach, who was expected to vote no, changed his mind after high-profile Republicans jammed his voice-mail with a pro-gay lobbying blitz. Included among the messages: an offer to chat with Cheney. More»

But detected deadly White House toxin turned out to be false alarm

(NEWSER) - Condoleezza Rice recounted the day that she, President Bush, and Dick Cheney believed they had been exposed to a lethal toxin by terrorists. Cheney suddenly appeared on a secure video conference screen just weeks after 9/11 while Rice and Bush were traveling in China for the APEC summit. He warned them that White House sensors had detected botulinum toxin, and "we all—those of us exposed—were going to die," Rice revealed in an ABC interview . "I remember everybody just sort of freezing, and the president saying, ‘What was that? What was that, Dick?’” recalled Rice, who was national security adviser at the time. “We were just a little unnerved." More»

She recalls clashes with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush

(NEWSER) - It's time for Dick Cheney to take a little return fire from Condi Rice. Less than 2 months after his memoir described her as turning tearful during a political discussion , Condoleezza Rice has written her own book, No Higher Honor, which comes out next month, the New York Times reports. Rice recalls White House clashes and encounters with creepy foreign leaders:

• Rice argued with "ultra-hawkish" Cheney that terrorism suspects can't just be "disappeared"; President Bush agreed, and moved several from secret prisons to Guantanamo Bay.
• Rice opposed increasing troop levels in Iraq, telling Bush, "If they want to have a civil war we're going to have to let them." The president appeared pained over a war going badly, she writes.

Dick Cheney voices support for drone strike against Awlaki

(NEWSER) - Anwar al-Awlaki was a "detestable person" and no one mourns his killing in Yemen last week. But that doesn't change the fact that his killing was unconstitutional and "sets a dangerous new precedent," writes Ron Paul in an editorial in the New York Daily News . "Under our Constitution, American citizens, even those living abroad, must be charged with a crime before being sentenced," writes Paul. "The precedent set by the killing of Awlaki establishes the frightening legal premise that any suspected enemy of the United States—even if they are a citizen—can be taken out on the president's say-so alone." More»

(NEWSER) - Rick Perry is bashing today's incendiary Washington Post story that his family's longtime hunting camp was long known as "Niggerhead," but Herman Cain is having none of it. Asked on Fox News Sunday about the story, Cain called it "extremely insensitive," reports Politico . "There isn’t a more vile, negative word than the N word and for him to leave it there as long as he did before, I hear, that they finally painted over it, is just plain insensitive to a lot of black people in this country." More from your Sunday talk show dial: More»