Posted by Mark Silva at 6:05 am CDT

The last time that Vice President Dick Cheney flew out of a war zone, coming home from Afghanistan, a "senior administration official'' who went on to inadvertently identify himself as Cheney spoke with reporters aboard a military transport on the passage out of Kabul.

This time, on his way back from a trip with stops in Baghdad and an overnight stay at Camp Speicher in Iraq, the vice president offered an on-the –record talk with the reporters accompanying him home aboard Air Force Two to Washington. He spoke en route to a refueling stop in Ireland.

"The last time we did one of these, I tried to do it on background and I took a lot of crap for it, frankly,'' said Cheney, eliciting laughter from those around him. "So we’ll do this one on the record. That will necessarily involve some limitations in terms of what I can say, and I apologize in advance for the fact that I won’t talk about my conversations with the folks I visited with. That’s why they talk to me.''

But Cheney said he had found "a greater sense of urgency'' among Iraqi leaders with whom he had met. And this is what else the vice president had to say about a weeklong trip that included meetings with the kings of Saudi Arabia and Jordan and the leaders of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – a trip that is paving the way for U.S. foreign-ministerial level meetings with Iran over the state of affairs in Iraq:

Posted by Mark Silva at 4:30 pm CDT

Following a 29-hour tour of Iraq, including a night spent at a desert base near Tikrit, Vice President Dick Cheney concedes: "There's still a long way to go.''

In an interview with Fox News, which drew pool duty for the television seat on the vice president's excursion to the Middle East, Cheney talked about much more, including himself.

"You are portrayed by your opponents and some in the media as this sinister figure, as this cold-blooded warmonger who doesn’t care about the number of body bags going back,'' Fox's Bret Baier said to Cheney, in an interview conducted today in Abu Dhabi. "I know you read the casualty reports every day. I know you and Mrs. Cheney visit wounded troops privately. And I saw you in Iraq with troops in Iraq. But how do you feel about the cost of this war in blood and treasure four years later? And I guess the question most Americans have is how much is enough.

"Well, obviously, any casualty is to be regretted,'' Cheney replied. "Nobody likes to be in the position where they have to make those kinds of decisions. Obviously, the president bears the major part of the burden. He’s the man with the authority to commit the force.

"This is not a new problem for me. I served as Secretary of Defense during the Gulf war. I went to the services at Arlington after it was over with for the 148 killed in action that we couldn’t bring home again. We got everybody else home, but we couldn’t get them home. And when you see the wounded and the price they paid for their service to the nation and talk with the families of those who have been killed or wounded in action, it’s a very emotional experience, and it ought to be.''

For more, read the interview:

Posted by Mark Silva at 12:30 pm CDT

En route to Baghdad with Vice President Dick Cheney, the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq said they would attempt to press upon the Iraqi government’s leaders that the parliament’s plan for taking “a two-month vacation in the middle of summer is impossible to understand.’’

"That’s clearly part of the message,'' Ambassador Ryan Crocker told reporters aboard Air Force Two. "It’s been part of the message now for some time. "I’ve said it. Secretary (of State Condoleezza) Rice has said it. I’m confident the vice president is going to say it.’’

Cheney, appearing alongside Gen. David Petraeus for a brief press conference in Baghdad’s Green Zone later today, was asked if he had conveyed the message to the Iraqis in his private meetings there.

“I did make it clear that we believe it’s very important to move on the issues before us in a timely fashion and that any undue delay would be difficult to explain and that we hoped they would approach these issues with all deliberate dispatch, if I can put it in those terms,’’ Cheney said. “I think they’re somewhat sympathetic to our concerns.

So, the Fox News reporter traveling as a television pool reporter wanted to know, is the vice president confident they will forgo vacation?

“That’s a sovereign issue for them, just as our congressional schedule is a sovereign issue for the United States,’’ the vice president said. “But I think they understand the importance of getting on with the business that’s before them.’’

Posted by Frank James at 4:14 pm CDT

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) put back on the today's calendar his press conference to introduce his proposed articles for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney. Kucinich had postponed it earlier because of a medical issue that caused Cheney to visit with doctors today.

Kucinich's decision to go ahead with it may have been motivated by Cheney taking after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) today during the vice president's visit to Capitol Hill.

Posted by Mark Silva at 4:28 pm CDT

In a simmering war of words between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the White House, Vice President Dick Cheney stepped out with some uncharacteristically public comments on Capitol Hill today about Reid's claim yesterday that the president is in "a state of denial'' over the war in Iraq.

Accusing Reid of "defeatism'' for his call for troop withdrawals, Cheney maintained that the Democratic majority leader from Nevada had taken "three positions in five months on the most important foreign policy question facing the nation and our troops'' and had misconstrued the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group as well.

"Maybe it's a political calculation,'' Cheney said. "Some Democratic leaders seem to believe that blind opposition to the new strategy in Iraq is good politics.''

"Vice President Cheney should be the last person to lecture anyone on how leaders should make decisions.'' Jim Manley, a spokesman for Reid, said in response. "Leaders should make decisions based on facts and reality, two words that seem to be foreign to the vice president.''

Posted by Frank James at 10:45 am CDT

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) was going to have a press conference today to discuss his plan to push for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney.

But he's postponed it because of the vice president's unscheduled medical exam to re-examine a blood-clot discovered last month in one of his legs.

Kucinich's website bore this terse statement:

“News reports this morning indicate the Vice President was experiencing a medical crisis. Until the Vice President’s condition is clarified, I am placing any action on hold,” Kucinich said.

Posted by Mark Silva at 10 am CDT

Vice President Dick Cheney, who returned from a round-the-world trip, with 65 hours of airtime logged, in February with a blood clot in his leg, stopped off for a checkup with his doctors at George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates this mornign.

An ultrasound check of the deep venous thrombosis in his left leg "was reassuring and showed that the clot is gradually resolving,'' a spokeswoman for the vice president said today. "His blood thinning medication was found to be in the desired range.''

Cheney returned to work today with doctors advising him to continue on his current course of medication.

Posted by Frank James at 2:49 pm CDT

Rush Limbaugh interviewed Vice President Cheney on his show today and brought up House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The way I read the transcript provided by the White House, it appears Cheney initially stuck to his talking points on Pelosi, the line the Bush Administration has pushed for days, that through merely visiting, the speaker undermined administration policy by rewarding Syria's bad behavior.

LIMBAUGH: A couple of quick -- more things before you have to go. What's the administration view today, what's the emotion, what are you thinking about Speaker Pelosi's trip to the Middle East, specifically, the conveyance of the incorrect message to Bashir Assad in Syria about peace talks with Israel?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, it's not helpful. I made it clear earlier that I thought this was -- created difficulty, if I can put it in a gentle form. Obviously, she's the Speaker of the House and ought to travel to foreign nations and ought to --

Posted by Mark Silva at 6:30 am CST

Vice President Dick Cheney will be taking some blood-thinning medicine for several months as a result of a blood clot found in his leg.

The problem was discovered Monday after the vice president felt some discomfort in his lower left leg -- following a nine-day trip around the world in which Cheney had spent about 65 hours in airplanes.

Posted by Mark Silva at 7 am CST

One of the most peculiar artifices of the White House is the "senior administration official.''

This is the official who provides all sorts of background information and insight into the White House's thinking on policies and practices for reporters, but refuses to permit his or her name to be cited.

Such as this "senior administration official,'' who spoke with reporters about Vice President Dick Cheney's intentions with his visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan this week as the vice president was flying out of Kabul on a military transport jet, according to an official White House transcript released:

"Let me just make one editorial comment here. I've seen some press reporting says, 'Cheney went in to beat up on them, threaten them.' That's not the way I work. I don't know who writes that, or maybe somebody gets it from some source who doesn't know what I'm doing, or isn't involved in it. But the idea that I'd go in and threaten someone is an invalid misreading of the way I do business.''

Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed Vice President Dick Cheney at the fortified compound of the presidential palace in Kabul this week, following Cheney's overnight stay at Bagram air base, where a suicide bomber's attack on the main gate killed a U.S. soldier and many more. Photo by Silva.