Has Cheney finally jumped the shark?

If they gave out awards for audacity, Dick Cheney would long ago have scored a Nobel Prize.  He’s championed executive powers so sweeping they’d have made Joseph Stalin blush (well, maybe not), claimed the right to resist virtually all congressional oversight, imposed unprecedented secrecy on the people’s business and almost certainly personally supervised the deliberate exposure of a covert CIA agent as an act of political revenge.

Yet, while he has long been dismally unpopular among the American public, he remains the most powerful vice president in history. 

So, has Cheney finally jumped the shark?  It’s actually a little hard to know, given that the man who will ultimately decide how much influence Cheney continues to hold as the Bush Administration slowly slides to its inglorious end seems to be hanging with him.  Still, if he had set out to find the very best way to highlight the absurd degree of his own arrogance, while at the same time making himself a subject of ridicule, he couldn’t have done much better than this.

Someone really ought to write a morality play about this.  The lesson, of course, would be that arrogance taken far enough in the end becomes self-mockery.  By making the silly claim that the vice president isn’t part of the executive branch, Cheney and his merry band of megalomaniacs tried to play things too smart, too slick.  And in doing so they ended up looking like gangsters, but probably more importantly, given how the world works, they ended up looking ridiculous.

Bush will probably still listen to Cheney, but this is scar that will never go away. 

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5 Responses to “Has Cheney finally jumped the shark?”

  1. Larkrise Says:

    Dick Cheney hates this country as a democratic entity. He sees it merely as his means to obtain money and wield power. He smirks at it. He laughs at its laws. He views the majority of Americans with disdain and derision. He obviously and blatantly feels he is above working for the people. He is an elitist, an oligarch, a tyrant. He is the consummate “top-down” executive. No power, no authority will tell HIM what to do. He is beholden to no one. I compare him to Goebbels or Himmler. He lacks any sense of compassion. Money and Power, Power and Money are his gods. He has never and will never accept the concept of “public servant”. His arrogance and ego won’t allow that. He sees it as demeaning. He not only doesnt see himself as part of the executive branch, he doesnt see himself as part of a functioning, democratic government. He wants to run a dictatorship; and has convinced Bushlite to join him in this self-serving enterprise. Of course, it hasnt taken much effort to influence Bush, who has his own set of destructive demons and attributes. They play off one another and support one another’s dysfunctional personalities. Cheney should be impeached. He is a horror story without end; and his destructiveness increases as his anger toward the public increases. He is a very unstable and very dangerous person to have any power whatsoever. Congress remains in denial about him, both Republicans and Democrats. He continues to press for an attack on Iran. He continues to support torture and disregard of the Geneva Convention. His Neo-Con Crazies lust for blood at every turn. They treasure using fear, anxiety, paranoia and scapegoating as often as possible. The idiots in the Mainstream Media feed it daily. Have you noticed how all insurgents in Iraq are now referred to in the news as part of Al-Quaeda? Where do you think that came from? Cheney is certifiable, but he is crafty and full of guile. He is a ticking time bomb.

  2. lennhart Says:

    Enjoyed your article. Indeed, the bunch of them look like gangsters. The best explanation: they ARE gangsters for whom “truth” means what you can get people to believe and “right” is whatever you can get away with. Another version: “right” is whatever you don’t get indicted for. I liked the Mob better. Mafioso, at least, enjoyed good opera and fine wine. Neocons and similar ilk have no class whatsoever. They are slimy and repulsive as human beings. Most are stupid people who think themselves smart. In spite of their embarassing provincial natures, they presume to think themselves rulers of the world. Will this nightmare never end.

  3. iowametal76 Says:

    He may have. But at this point I think the proper follow-up (and perhaps even more important) question is, “Does it matter?”

  4. Chuck Says:

    I’m ggoing to go a little off-message for a moment, (I know that’s quite unusual for me, but bear with me on this one,) got to http://tomdispatch.com and read the article by Roger Morris About the rise of Rober Gates called “The Specialist”. It’s a bit of a slog, about 50 pages for all 3 installments, and if you can, go back to the earlier link by Morris about Rumsfeld called “The Undertaker’s Talley”, another 30 -or-so pages. ( I usualy print these out so I can read a little, digest a few sentences or paragraphs, underline & highlight, write margin notes, fume & bristle & rage.) Make not in the 3d installment of the “good”, “sanctimonious” President Jimmy Carter.

  5. Chuck Says:

    Jeeze! Would you correct my spelling & typos? Oh yeh! That’s supposed to be my job.

    From Steve: They’re part of your charm.

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