Dick Armey Calls Obama A Potential Political Hack (HQ)

Andrea Mitchell interviews former representative Richard "Dick" Armey (R-TX) on a number of issues, including failing auto makers, credit card debt and torture memos. MSNBC's Andrea Mitchel Reports (aired: 04/22/09).

Mini-Bar Bio: Richard "Dick" Armey (R-TX) member of the House of Representatives from Jan 3, 1985 to Jan 3, 2003.

In 1998, during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a reporter asked him what he would do if he were in President Bill Clinton's position. He replied "If I were in the President's place I would not have gotten a chance to resign. I would be lying in a pool of my own blood, hearing Mrs. Armey standing over me saying, 'How do I reload this damn thing?'"

According to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Barton Gellman, Vice President Dick Cheney told Armey that Saddam Hussein's family had direct ties to Al-Qaeda and that Saddam was developing miniature nuclear weapons. Dick Armey, believing this to be true, then voted for the Iraq War and then, after it became clear this was not true, stated that he "deserves better than to be bullshitted by the Vice President.

As a free-market economist influenced by the ideas of Milton Friedman, Armey favored relatively open immigration and the elimination of barriers to the movement of goods and people across national boundaries.

Recently, Armey joined the Washington office of the law firm DLA Piper (formerly DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary) as a senior policy advisor. Armey is also the firm's co-chairman of its Homeland Security Task Force. In 2003, Armey became co-chairman of Citizens for A Sound Economy, which in 2004 merged with Empower America to become FreedomWorks.

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