Cheney: Damn the torpedoes (and the public, too)

The vice president says it doesn't matter if the war in Iraq is unpopular with voters.

Published November 4, 2006 3:55PM (EST)

Out on the campaign trail, Dick Cheney warns Republican audiences that Tuesday's election will have "enormous consequences" for the nation. The election, Cheney said last night in Colorado, "will determine whether this government remains firm and resolute in the war on terror, or falls into confusion, doubt, and indecision."

Or not.

In an interview with ABC's "This Week," Cheney suggests that the election doesn't really matter because the White House is going to keep doing what it's doing in Iraq no matter what happens on Tuesday. Cheney vows to go "full-speed ahead" with the administration's Iraq strategy whatever the American public might think about it. Acknowledging that the war "may not be popular with the public," Cheney says that it "doesn't matter in the sense that we have to continue the mission and do what we think is right. And that's exactly what we're doing. We're not running for office. We're doing what we think is right."


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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2006 Elections Dick Cheney Iraq Iraq War Middle East War Room