As the cable news talking heads foam at the mouth over Dick Cheney's speech this morning, being billed as a response to Obama, Josh Marshall reminds us who Dick Cheney is:
This is someone who not only organized and seemingly directed a policy of state-sponsored torture. He did it in large part to get people to admit to crankish conspiracy theories he got taken in by by a crew of think-tank jockeys in DC whose theories most even half way sensible people treated as punch lines of jokes. So it's Torquemada or 1984 but only after getting rescripted by Mel Brooks.Very well said.
This is an extremely gullible man who has just come off being the driving ideological force in an administration that most people can already see produced more fiascos and titanic, self-inflicted goofs than possibly any in our entire history. By any standard the guy is a monumental failure -- and not one whose mistakes stem in some Lyndon Johnson fashion from tragic overreach, but just a fool who damaged his country through his own gullibility, paranoia and bad judgment. Whatever else you can say about the Cheney story it ain't Shakespearean.
So as we see the big reporters trying to put him on some sort of equal footing with President Obama today, let's remember that the great majority of Americans see Dick Cheney, accurately, as a clown. And mockery isn't just the most effective but also the most morally apt response to the man.
One problem is that many of the "big reporters" who will breathlessly report on Cheney today also merrily and dutifully abetted Cheney and Bush as they wreaked havoc on our country, our constitution and our world. Those media types warrant mockery as well.
UPDATE: This guy really is the voice of the GOP. If they want this image front and center, so be it:
Another update: The Chair of the campaign committee for Senate Republicans, John Cornyn from Texas, sees Dick Cheney as a political asset:
Asked if Cheney would be a good surrogate for Senate Republican candidates, Cornyn said: "It think it depends on the circumstance on the race."He's all yours, Cornyn. Bring Cheney around the country. Put him in ads. Have at it.
But Cornyn said, "I’d be proud to appear with the vice president anywhere, anytime."
