So Now Cheney Cares About Privacy?

Isn't amazing how the powerful (or authoritarians) in our society always want to take away the rights of citizens in a broad fashion but when the tables are turned they sing another tune? That is exactly what Dick Cheney is doing for two aides that gave conflicting testimony about an incident where an American citizen named Steven Howards told Dick face to face that he is a "dick." He really just just told him that his policies in Iraq were terrible and nothing happened besides that and a handshake. Now one of the accounts said that Howards hit Cheney on the shoulder and the case has ended up in civil court.

From The Denver Post:

In a motion filed Saturday, Cheney's office contended that the videotapes could be used to invade the privacy and embarrass two aides called to testify about the encounter in a civil lawsuit.

The motion for a protective order expressed particular concern that both aides' faces could wind up on YouTube.com.

"As courts have recognized, using digital technology, a video recording can easily be 'cut and spliced,' so as to embarrass and even humiliate a witness," Cheney's lawyers wrote in a U.S. District Court filing.

"That much can readily be seen from a visit to YouTube. . . . A simple query using the search term 'deposition' yields over 400 video clips, in which many of the deponents are made to look boorish, mendacious, or unintelligent."

The plaintiff, Steven Howards of Golden, is suing Secret Service agents who arrested him after he approached Cheney at a Beaver Creek mall in 2006 and told the vice president his policies in Iraq were "disgusting."

Eagle County prosecutors dismissed a criminal charge of harassment filed against Howards.

In the lawsuit, Cheney aide Charles Durkin and White House photographer David Bohrer gave conflicting accounts of the encounter.

Durkin, who no longer works for Cheney, said Howards walked up to the vice president in "a determined fashion," and "you know, just places his hand on the vice president's arm and shook his hand and made a statement regarding Iraq policy and departed."

He described Cheney's reaction as "very calm. He just shook his hand and said OK, and that's — that's his — sort of kept on going."

Bohrer said Howards "came up and slapped the back of the vice president in the upper shoulder area." Cheney "was startled," he said.

Of course Bohrer, as the former photographer didn't take any pictures of the account. Surprise, surprise. Now he doesn't want the public to see this work out and possibly embarrass the Secret Service and ultimately Dick Cheney. Aww poor Dick, can't anybody cut this guy some slack? Why should the man that was arrested for no good reason get the benefit of the doubt? It isn't like this is a country where the leaders are supposed to be held to the same standards as any ordinary citizen, right?

Oh wait a sec.....