We've tallied your votes and read your comments in the nomination threads for top Crook and Liar for 2014.
One name was mentioned more often than any other, and so we've decided to listen to you, the community, and honor Dick Cheney with a Lifetime Achievement Award for being both Crook and Liar.
It's fitting that Cheney should be our very first award recipient on the tenth anniversary of C&L's existence, given that he was one of the very first subjects John Amato wrote about back in August, 2004, and that article was a long look back to 1969.
Here's a hit parade of Cheney's lying lies and crooky crookedness, by year:
2004: Cheney denies they let Bin Laden get away at Tora Bora while ignoring the report saying that was their gravest error. And of course, they used everything from the Swiftboat smear to a flat-out lie about Lynne Cheney to distract voters and get Bush re-elected in 2004, too.
2005: Cheney gives a speech where he denies any lies about Saddam Hussein and WMD. He earns his crown as the Vice President of torture, spent some downtime with Supreme Court Justice Scalia, denies prior statements made in the lead-up to 9-11, leaks Valerie Plame's name, finds himself up to his neck in the Scooter Libby/Valerie Plame investigation while lying through his teeth about who he knew and when he knew them. Occasionally he received some justified criticism, as when someone told him to go fuck himself during a post-Katrina tour. Cheney slimed Chuck Hagel over Hagel's ongoing objections to war in Iraq.
2006: This particular year started off with a bang as Cheney shot the pal he was hunting with. Cheney is, of course, a "responsible gun owner" -- it was just an unfortunate accident. This was also the year that Cheney began his waterboarding denial parade. It's all just a "dunk underwater," don't you know? Some more lies and spin about 9-11 and the Senate intelligence report, and Cheney's travel requirements which include mandatory tuning of all TVs to Fox News. Also, news that those 'biological laboratories' were an invention. Surprise!
2006 was also the beginnings of the Iran nuke rumblings - rumblings which proved to be false, of course.
2007: Rep. Wexler turns to the blogosphere to get some traction under the possibility of impeaching Cheney. Cheney begins to worry that we won't have a forever presence in Iraq, and ramps up the fear rhetoric. Because oil.
Also, Cheney makes the specious and false claim (okay, he lied) that Iran was funding terrorism in Iraq.
Finally, 2007 brought the US Attorney scandal into full view with Congressional hearings investigating the Bush/Cheney corruption of their office.
2008: Cheney is indicted in Texas, Cheney tells the truth for once about his role in pushing the waterboarding policy but still insists it's not torture, he tries to alter Congressional testimony to keep global warming denial alive, admits that he altered talking points to out Valerie Plame, while perpetuating the lie that Iraq was successful and meant anything other than willful occupation.
2009-2014 - After leaving office, Cheney spent the majority of his time plotting behind the scenes to undermine Obama's presidency, particularly in areas to do with Iraq and Afghanistan. As hard as he tried, he couldn't stem the march toward winding down both wars.
In 2011, Cheney was desperate to claim that his torture program was the reason Osama bin Laden was caught and killed, even though it wasn't.
In 2012, Cheney underwent a heart transplant procedure paid for by the taxpayers, although it remains unclear as to whether he really has a heart.
Without question, Dick Cheney has earned the honor of being the first recipient of our lifetime Crook and Liar. If anything, he was an overachiever.
Anything I missed? Let's make sure we've got a full rap sheet on him for future reference, because there are actually some people out there who think Cheney is the guy who should run for President in 2016.
Just for the memories:
And here he is with his award:
