When You Can’t Go to Canada…

…I am not sure you can go anywhere.

Via the AP:  Former US vice president deems Canada too dangerous for speaking visit

“After speaking with their security advisers, they changed their mind on coming to the event,” Ruppert said. He said they had “decided it was better for their personal safety they stay out of Canada.”

Last Sept. 26, Cheney was forced to stay holed up in the Vancouver Club for seven hours before it was deemed safe for him to leave. Demonstrators blocked the entrances and at one point scuffled with police.

Really, I guess the only choices are places where they can better control the population, such Saudi Arabia or some other authoritarian locale.

FILED UNDER: US Politics, World Politics, ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. And the Heckler’s Veto wins again, sadly

  2. Ben Wolf says:

    So a draft dodger also feels threatened when someone shouts at him from across the street through a crowd of armed police officers and Secret Service. Never let it be said Cheney isn’t a model of courage.

  3. Hey Norm says:

    So the guy that sent 4000 troops to their death for no reason, institutionalized torture, and outed a covert operative…is afraid of some protesters.
    Sounds about right.
    Darth vader my a$$.
    More like the Cowardly Lion…before he grows a pair.

    Dorothy: My goodness, what a fuss you’re making! Well naturally, when you go around picking on things weaker than you are. Why, you’re nothing but a great big coward!
    Dick Cheney: [crying] You’re right, I am a coward! I haven’t any courage at all. I even scare myself.
    [sobs]
    Dick Cheney continues: Look at the circles under my eyes. I haven’t slept in weeks!
    Tin Woodsman: Why don’t you try counting sheep?
    Dick Cheney: That doesn’t do any good, I’m afraid of ’em.
    [sobs loud]

  4. It’s probably more worry about being arrested for war crimes if he ever leaves the US than it is about the protestors.

  5. Ron Beasley says:

    How appropriate – Chenny can only visit police states.

  6. Tsar Nicholas says:

    Given that leftism is a severe mental disorder and that Cheney probably doesn’t walk around with an arsenal of Thorazine darts it only makes sense that he’d want to avoid a bunch of Pol Pot acolytes who don’t get enough sun, who have acute inferiority complexes about their country, who drink far too much beer, and who have far too much time on their hands.

  7. Galanti says:

    @Tsar Nicholas:

    You’re right about the beer, but Pol Pot’s been out of favour up here for a few years now.

  8. JohnMcC says:

    @Tsar Nicholas: @Tsar Nicholas: And the drugs, Mr Romanoff, don’t forget the smell of pot and that we never shower and wear last weeks clothes. How can you prove you know what you’re talking about without them. And the long hair. And orgies. C’mon!!

  9. jd says:
  10. anjin-san says:

    And the Heckler’s Veto wins again, sadly

    Not really. Just Cheney showing his true colors. Well, just one color. Yellow.

    Yet the right embraced this guy and ran Chuck Hagel, a combat vet who served with valor in ‘Nam out of DC on a rail.

  11. @Doug Mataconis:

    It would be so much easier if everyone let you read their constitution and decide for them what it means …

  12. An Interested Party says:

    Nice to see that Cheney suffers from Pinochet Syndrome…

    Given that leftism is a severe mental disorder and that Cheney probably doesn’t walk around with an arsenal of Thorazine darts…

    More projection from the usual suspect…I had no idea that mental hospitals had such indulgent policies regarding web surfing…

  13. george says:

    It’s probably more worry about being arrested for war crimes if he ever leaves the US than it is about the protestors.

    Never happen in Canada, under any of the party’s. You only have to live here to know that. That’s a hot potato none of the three main party’s would touch with a ten foot pole.

    I wonder if he just decided he could get more money speaking somewhere else.

  14. Franklin says:

    Trying to think of something nice to say here.

    I’ve decided that Cheney is, in fact, human, and that after he and his buddies allowed the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil ever, he simply overcompensated like any human would do.

    That’s the best I can do.

    @Doug Mataconis: My opinion based on the piece and the definition of Heckler’s Veto is that it doesn’t apply here. Cheney himself chickened out (as usual), no government had anything to do with it.

  15. Alex says:

    Canada is a very large country and its cities are very different from each other. Would it make sense to cancel a visit to San Diego because you’ve read that the murder rate in Washington DC is too high?

    And even if there were protesters in Toronto, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (where Cheney was supposed to speak), is a massive complex spreading over two city blocks on either side of the railroad tracks and with multiple enclosed tunnels connecting into adjoining buildings. It would take a lot of organized, coordinated protesters to block all the exits to the MTCC. The Vancouver Club (where Cheney had difficulties before) is a small building with maybe three exits all on one street that could be blocked by a few dozen protesters.

    I see no reason for this bizarre reaction by Cheney’s people.

  16. Liberty60 says:

    @Tsar Nicholas:

    And the drum circles. Don’t forget the drum circles.