Cheney's Conflict With The Truth

"In 'Meet the Press' last Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney said, 'Since I left Halliburton to become George Bush's vice president, I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interests. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had now, for over three years.' That is the latest White House lie,'" the Boston Globe's Derrick Jackson writes. On Tuesday, Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) drew attention to Cheney's US Office of Government Ethics public financial disclosure sheets. According to the filings, Cheney received $162,392 in deferred salary in 2002 from Halliburton, the oil and military contracting company he ran before running for vice president. In 2001, Cheney received $205,298. He also is still holding 433,333 stock options. "Five years ago, America was in a tizzy over President Clinton's 'That depends on what the meaning of is, is.' That was over lying about sex. For that, Clinton was impeached. Now, we have a vice president who tells America he has severed his ties even as his umbilical cord doubles his salary. To him, it depends what the meaning of i$, i$," Jackson writes. Halliburton has already amassed $2 billion in no-bid, no-ceiling contracts in Iraq.