The former Veep has crawled out from under his rock to lie about his own record fighting terrorism and make unverifiable claims about the policies of the new administration.
Cheney needs to be told that there are a of of people in this country who wish he would just shut his prevaricating piehole and disappear. They're called Republicans.
As the Bush Administration ran its disastrous course, Cheney's approval ratings (so we are told) were lower than those of either the President or the Congress. And no wonder. At a policy level, Cheney was most associated with corporate welfare for the energy companies and the torture of captives -- two ideas that repel any decent American. Beyond that, his style -- the lies, the secrets, the constant sneer, cursing out Pat Leahy on the Senate floor, the treasonous betrayal of a CIA officer, the perverse claim to be part of no constitutional branch of government -- make him emblematic of everything Americans are trying to forget about the last disastrous decade.
And the Republicans -- those actually in government, and especially those hoping to get in -- are trying harder than anybody else. They want to move on, and fast. They clearly hope to ride the AIG bonus wave as long as they can. After an eight year spree of financial mismanagement so vast it boggles the mind, they are trying (again) to reposition themselves as the party of fiscal restraint. Never mind that their display of probity seems always to involve dwelling upon microscopically small numbers, without ever addressing the scary big ones.
Cheney, in both his policies and his person, drove the Republicans into the wilderness. And now, of all times, he comes roaring out of his cave. So it is not surprising to hear his own party, quoted in The Hill, saying things like "Tending a legacy is best done in a memoir .... I would just encourage everybody who has left office to follow the tradition of the Founding Fathers — to write your memoirs, but to refrain from [criticizing].” Between the lines, that means: For the love of the Satan you worship, Dick, please shut up.
Here at the Egg, we find ourselves torn. Listening to Cheney appalls us, to be sure. But we are comforted by the thought that every word out of his mouth further damages the already wretched public reputation of the Administration he claimed to serve. Every time he pisses on Obama for believing in the Constitution, or even on Bush for refusing to pardon Libby, he diminishes the likelihood of a revisionist reassessment, somewhere down the line, and claims that the Bush years somehow weren't that bad. It almost happened with Nixon, there at the end. Some people can actually get wistful for LBJ. And we can't let that happen with Bush.
So, although we say it regretfully, we have to say: Come on, Dick. Do another interview. Do it for the kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment