The Hill News

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) said that former Vice President Dick Cheney "wants to be the dictator" that decides the Republican race, but believes his campaign is gaining momentum and will surprise him in the GOP primary next year.

"When he says he’ll support all Republicans except some, like myself, which means he wants to be the dictator," Paul said during an interview with Fox News. "Saying ‘I will decide who is a true Republican or not’ -  I say he doesn’t have that authority. The people have this authority. And because we’re gaining our support, he might come up short on his desires."

Cheney said that "there are nominees that I’m not enthusiastic about" and implied that Paul was unlikely to win the nomination in an interview earlier with Fox. Cheney also criticized Paul for his view that the United States should not interfere with countries like Iran as they sought nuclear weapons.

"Well, I don’t want them to have a nuclear w! eapon. I don’t want Pakistan to have them. I don’t want any of them to have them," Paul said. "But I also understand it. And also to put it into perspective, If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, why are they more dangerous to us than the Soviet system was when they had 30,000? And we were able to live with that."

Paul went on to denounce Cheney's critique as "dangerous."

“I would say what we ought to be more cautious about is this glib acceptance that we can go to war in another country because if you want to stop him, you have to go to war with Iran. And that to me is careless, war-mongering, very, very dangerousâ€" much more dangerous than another country having a nuclear weapon that’s not on the verge of committing suicide," Paul said.

Paul's critiques were not reserved for the former vice president. He also blasted the Obama administration for their support of Solyndra, a failed green energy corporation that has become a major embarras! sment for the administration after declaring bankruptcy late l! ast mont h. Today House Republicans accused the White House of rushing Department of Energy regulators into approving the loan, although the administration denies this charge.

"We should have enough confidence in the market to allow the profit motive to decide whether this stuff is successful, instead of the politicians," Paul said. "I think this incident is just proof positive of why the government should stay out of this kind of business totally and completely."