Some are stronger than others. I couldn’t watch Cheney this morning. I tried, but before he finished his first sentence, I was out of there. I have a choice as to what I listen to, and just his smug face and his voice pushed the channel button on my clicker. I couldn’t help it. A sample from the report on USA Today:
The Christmas Day bomb plotCheney says "enhanced interrogation techniques" — including waterboarding — should have been available for suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab: "I think you ought to have all of those capabilities on the table. Now, President Obama has taken them off the table. He announced when he came in last year that they would never use anything other than the U.S. Army Manual which doesn’t include those techniques. I think that’s a mistake."
What kind of person goes out of their way to lobby for Torture? First, it was a secret. Then Abu Ghraib showed it to the world in all it’s ugliness, but we denied it. Finally, we found out about the Yoo Memos – then Extraordinary Rendition. Now we know that the Torture program went on from the beginning. If it was such a swell idea, why did they keep it such a secret? There is, in this story, an example of a blatant tragic flaw. Cheney is absolutely consistent in his insistence that he never show "weakness" or "wrongness." He would still be saying that Hussein had WMD and supported al Qaeda if he were left to his own devices. My favorite example of his notions about weakness was his comment when John Murtha voted with Nancy Pelosi after the 2006 Congressional sweep:
Murtha “and the other senior leaders … march to the tune of Nancy Pelosi to an extent I had not seen, frankly, with any previous speaker,” Cheney said. “I’m trying to think how to say all of this in a gentlemanly fashion, but [in] the Congress I served in, that wouldn’t have happened.” But his implication was clear: When asked if these men had lost their spines, he responded, “They are not carrying the big sticks I would have expected.”
One presumes that Cheney made the decision to play tough guy early on with his "dark side" comments on September 16th, 2001. Eight and a half years later, he’s still pushing the idea. Even though many right wing nut jobs are having trouble sticking with him, he picks this issue to talk about. But more than that, the etiquette has always been for previous office holders to hold their tongues about their successors. Cheney hasn’t just ignored the etiquette, he gives us a running commentary of Obama, always negative unless Obama happens to do something Cheney supports, and then he adds a dig:
"I’m a complete supporter of what they are doing in Afghanistan. I think the President made the right decision to send troops into Afghanistan. I thought it took him a while to get there."
The tragic flaw? Never changing his mind? Never showing weakness? Never being wrong? Unfortunately, for Cheney, the real tragic flaw is never being right…
Mickey says: “Unfortunately, for Cheney, the real tragic flaw is never being right…”
That has a nice ring to it. My first thought was to say the same about Bill Kristol. I sort of like it when he champions Sarah Palin or some other outrageous position — because he is never right.
HOWEVER: Dick Cheney is on the right side of one issue, so maybe that’s the exception that proves the rule or something.
He supports repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Of course, he’s got his lesbian daughter Mary to thank for that. It really makes for an interesting contrast to all his other positions and his curmudgeonly persona.
Actually, although he may have landed on the correct side of the issue, the narcissistic nature of his response speaks to his “tragic flaw.”
And the former Vice President can keep a straight face when he opines that the current President “took a while to get in there”. Cheney’s brain has been detached from any sort of coherent thinking since he worked for Dick Nixon. How this turd managed to cleave to the levers of power and influence for as long as he did is testament only to some enduring weakness or loophole or tragic flaw in our own system and is not a lot different in its fundamentals as the tragic flaw that allowed Saddam Hussein to hold onto power in Iraq for 30 years. Mr. Cheney, please TAKE A POWDER WOULD YOU! You do not know what you are talking about, you really never have and you need to follow Rummy’s lead and go away. Do it for your own children’s sake.
Just once I’d like an interviewer to say Mr Cheney you have been wrong about practically everything and then list the wrong, why would anybody even listen to you.
Re my saying that Cheney is right about one thing: repealing DA/DT:
Andrew Sullivan has pointed out that, although he gives lip service to support his lesbian daughter, while he was VP for 8 years, he did nothing to help any of the causes that are important to LGBT people. And, in fact, he was the #2 elected official in a Republican party that became more and more anti-gay during the time, and he did nothing to try to moderate that.