Huffington on ABC's This Week: 'Absolutely a Thousand Percent Bush-Cheney's Fault'
"Sooner or later, we'll blame this on George W. Bush," George Will
presciently predicted on Sunday's Week during the roundtable's look
as how President Barack Obama is handling the gulf oil leak. Seconds
later, the Huffington Post's Arianna Huffington didn't let Will down,
declaring "the truth is, that right now we have precisely the regulatory
system that the Bush-Cheney administration wanted. Full of loopholes,
full of cronies and lobbyists filling the very agencies they're supposed
to be overseeing the industry." Then this exchange:
GEORGE WILL: So, it's Bush's fault? Just clear this up.
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON: It is absolutely a thousand percent Bush-Cheney's fault.
Huffington proceeded to hit the Obama administration for not having
"really done enough fast enough to change" Bush's policies so "we are
seeing the complete success of the kind of regulatory system that
Bush-Cheney wanted." Prompting Liz Cheney to marvel, "I don't know
what planet you live on," Huffington also charged that "right here
we have the poster child of Bush-Cheney crony capitalism, Halliburton,
involved in this."
From the Sunday, June 6 This Week on ABC:
GEORGE WILL: First, Arianna, this is what the President has said: "The American people should know that from the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort. Make no mistake, BP is operating at our direction."
Now, with regard to whether or not we should regulate, this is a regulated industry. The Minerals Management Service evidently didn't do a good job. Now, sooner or later, we'll blame this on George W. Bush. But, right now, it is a regulatory industry, of the Obama administration, that seems to have failed at a moment when the federal government has taken over one-sixth of the economy on health care. It is saying we have a thousand page bill because we just know how to turn down the thermostat on the planet. Lord knows what else they're doing to rationalize American society at a moment when the country is saying maybe the regulatory state isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON: George, the truth is, that right now we have precisely the regulatory system that the Bush-Cheney administration wanted. Full of loopholes, full of cronies and lobbyists filling the very agencies they're supposed to be overseeing the industry.
WILL: So, it's Bush's fault? Just clear this up.
HUFFINGTON: It is absolutely a thousand percent Bush-Cheney's fault, plus the fact that the Obama administration has not really done enough fast enough to change what's happening at the MMS agency and all sorts of other administrations. Not just when it comes to energy problems, when it comes to Wall Street, all over we are seeing the complete success of the kind of regulatory system that Bush-Cheney wanted and we're seeing this as the inevitable result of what that they wanted.
LIZ CHENEY: It's truly amazing. I actually heard that George Bush was responsible for the breakup of Tipper and Al Gore's marriage, too. I mean, it's incredible the extent to which people are now trying to shift blame....You got to look at the facts. The left is going to try, you guys have been for years have been demonizing Bush and Cheney and I'm sure you will continue to demonize them for years going forward. But we have got now, a catastrophe on the gulf coast, a catastrophe that happened on this administration's watch, which this administration is failing to clean up and responsive and lead, frankly. And it is a problem we are seeing with this President across the board. A President with no leadership experience.
HUFFINGTON: Liz, right here we have the poster child of Bush-Cheney crony capitalism, Halliburton, involved in this. And we haven't said about that. They, after all, were response for cementing the well. Here's Halliburton, after they defrauded the American taxpayer, out of millions of dollars-
CHENEY: Arianna, I don't know what planet you live on, it's not facts. Arianna, what you're saying has no relationship to the truth. No relationship to the facts.
HUFFINGTON: Halliburton was involved in involved in this. How can you say there's no relationship?
JAKE TAPPER: Halliburton was cementing the pipe.
CHENEY: Her assertion that Halliburton defrauded the U.S. government-
HUFFINGTON: It did, it did.
CHENEY: -that there was Bush-Cheney cronyism These are the left's talking points. Ariannam it's absolutely not true. It is absolutely not true.
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
