Vice President Cheney is now calling critics “dishonest and reprehensible” for their “cynical and pernicious falsehoods.” However, the majority of Americans see him and the rest of the Bush administration that way.

Why? What has been Cheney’s response to questions about mobile biological weapons labs, which have never been located? What about his claims that Iraq was training and harboring members of al-Qaida? What about his claim that 9/11-mastermind Mohammed Atta met with Iraqi intelligence officials in Prague? The common thread in each question is Cheney’s response, which was to lie. And not just once, but repeatedly.

His lying is so pervasive that the most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll says that 57 percent of all Americans “think that President Bush deliberately misled people to make the case for war.”

So Cheney can make all the accusations he wants, but until he comes clean to the American people, his word is no good to anyone.

Dave Chirayath, Auburn