Cheney v. Bush

Here is a prediction: If Dick Cheney foments a war of words between himself and former president Bush, Cheney will lose, Bush's famous incoherence notwithstanding. Bush was a lousy president, to be sure, but no more so than when he hewed most closely to Cheney's desires. And unlike Cheney, Bush is likable. Even after eight years of incompetence, he remains a guy with whom most people would happily watch a ballgame. Cheney is unlikeable and he is not an especially good person. A lot of people bent themselves over backward to support Bush policies that they did not really believe because they were Republicans, because they were conservatives. But even if Bush is not as smart or as articulate as Cheney, I suspect he'll win over the conservatives out of sympathy if nothing else. Cheney is playing a losing gambit here by trying to rehabilitate his own reputation at the expense of people more liked and less feared than himself.

Just for a Giggle

This Tom Toles cartoon in today's Washington Post made me chuckle:

More Veep Fun

Following up on last week's latest entry in the mind-boggling audacity of Dick Cheney come two worthwhile pieces from The New Republic online. The first is Eric Rauchway's comparison of Aaaron Burr and Cheney for the dubious title of "most dangerous Vice President ever." Second comes Michael Currie Schaffer's argument for defunding the office of the Vice President, something that began as a publicity stunt but that based on Cheney's own other-side-of-the-looking-glass worldview takes on a certain logic.

You've Got To Be F@(&ing Kidding Me Watch

Courtesy of Truthout via ABC News' blog Blotter: According to a letter from California Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman and a statement from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which Waxman chairs:

The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

Give Cheney credit for adhering to the tenets of the Big Lie. The damage from this administration will be decades in the undoing.