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Tone Deaf Dick Cheney

The years have not changed Dick Cheney, who in my view was the worst Vice-President in American history.

His latest: The war in Iraq was the right thing to do, and we should spend more on defense and less on the needs of the American people.

"[Defense dollars] ought to be our top priority for spending. Not food stamps, not highways or anything else," Cheney said.

Thank goodness he's irrelevant.

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  • Display: Sort:
    What a despicable vampire. (5.00 / 10) (#1)
    by desertswine on Mon Jul 14, 2014 at 10:29:54 PM EST


    Love to shove that stupid cowboy hat (5.00 / 0) (#15)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 11:33:55 AM EST
    Where the sun don't .....

    Parent
    I think the sun just goes out wherever (5.00 / 1) (#17)
    by Anne on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 01:57:03 PM EST
    Cheney happens to be...

    Anyway - if you want to read a scathing piece about the Cheneys, take a look at Charlie Pierce's latest over at Esquire.

    Apparently, the good people at Politico held a little confab and invited the Cheneys to bestow their knowledge and expertise upon the crowd.  Charlie contrasts the Politico narrative with his own thoughts.

    Here's Charlie's intro:

    It's not just that TBOTP invited the Manson Family of American geopolitics to come together for an exercise in ensemble prevarication. It's not just that the account of said exercise is written in the kind of cacophonous cutesy-poo necessary to drown out the screams of the innocent dead, and to distract the assembled crowd from the blood that has dripped from the wallet of the celebrity war-criminal leading the public display. And it's not as though this was a mere interview--a "get" that could help you "win the morning (!)." In that, it might have been marginally excusable. No, this was one of Mike Allen's little grift-o-rama special events--a "Playbook lunch," sponsored by that noted mortgage fraud concern Bank Of America. There's an upcoming TBOTP "event" in L.A. that is sponsored by J.P. Morgan. I know what Mike Allen is, but I am so goddamn tired of haggling about the price. Here's how TBOTP's own account of the event begins.

       Sing it with us: "Here's the story of a man named Cheney ..." Dick, Lynne and Liz Cheney had a message they wanted to send with their appearance at POLITICO's Playbook lunch on Monday: We're a family, we're happy together, we joke together, and we're beating the drum for an aggressive foreign policy together. It's almost as if the Cheneys were the Brady Bunch--if the Brady Bunch had started a hawkish think tank and were warning the country about the failures of President Barack Obama's leadership around the world.

    Yes, and if Mike were an authoritarian greed-monkey with a borrowed heart that he declined to employ in any meaningful sense, if Carol were a lifelong scold and nuisance pretending to be a historian, and if Marcia were a talentless clown who, if it weren't for the largesse of Mike's friends and their foundations, would be selling phony subprime packages to the blind from a strip-mall in Kannapolis. Also, whatever editor it was who passed on the tone of this account should be sent back to the oyster cannery where they found him.

    "The Manson Family of American Geopolitics."

    I'm definitely stealing that.

    Read the whole thing; maybe one day Charlie will tell us how he really feels.


    Parent

    Politico (5.00 / 1) (#26)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 03:59:11 PM EST
    Aka - neocon stenographers

    Parent
    Somewhere I just saw... (5.00 / 5) (#2)
    by unitron on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 12:55:43 AM EST
    ..."when Hell dies, it's going to Cheney".

    ... given the extensive coverage he receives every time he opens his mouth. He may well be discredited and ridiculous in our eyes, but the very fact that you've chosen to post your opinion about him also proves my point.

    George W. Bush is irrelevant of his own volition, because whatever his intellectual deficiencies may be, he at least has sense enough to not defend the indefensible in public. Cheney, on the other hand, was always the alpha dog in that relationship, and both he and the media know that his poisonous musings make for good copy. And sad to say, there are still a not-insignificant chunk of the electorate who still subscribe to his warped point of view.

    When either people finally decide to stop paying attention to what Cheney has to say, or he finally drops dead, then he'll be irrelevant. Until then, it's probably best that we at least not take him seriously -- as you obviously don't, Jeralyn -- and instead treat him like a piñata at a child's birthday party. so, grab a rhetorical stick, and have at him.

    Aloha.

    Sadly I think you are spot on (none / 0) (#4)
    by Militarytracy on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 05:55:32 AM EST
    I believe what causes him to continue to struggle on finding the camera spotlight is what he fears history will write about him.  I also believe that is why he continues to attempt to set his daughter up with a Senate seat, his fear of what the name Cheney will come to historically stand for as the years roll forward and the history is observed in the rear view by academia.

    Parent
    I agree (none / 0) (#8)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 09:29:45 AM EST
    As long as he is the GET for Sunday morning gab fests and his every word in regurgitated by the lapdog media he will remain a curse on the country.

    Parent
    It's an election year (none / 0) (#16)
    by jbindc on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 12:08:25 PM EST
    With not much going in DC (and with a couple weeks left before Congress breaks for 5 weeks), the sunday shows need to land guests like Cheney because anyone who is relevant is checked out.

    Parent
    He's always been sought out as a guest, jb. (5.00 / 1) (#18)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 02:29:22 PM EST
    This isn't some recent phenomenon. The only time he wasn't making an appearance on the TV gabfests over the last six years was when he had heart transplant surgery.

    Parent
    He's been on the tube lately (none / 0) (#19)
    by jbindc on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 02:46:48 PM EST
    Because he and daughter Liz started a new group - Alliance for a Strong America - and no press is bad press.

    But before the last few weeks, he's been pretty silent for months.  His heart transplant was 2 years ago, and while he has occasionally popped up, it really hasn't been very much.

    Parent

    Is there a person alive who didn't know (5.00 / 2) (#34)
    by Anne on Wed Jul 16, 2014 at 06:44:37 AM EST
    that Dick Cheney would come slithering out of the woodwork as soon as things started to go sideways in Iraq?  It's like one of the few constants: if war and terror are percolating, Dick Cheney's jerkalating, and nothing goes better with that than creating an "advocacy group" that can start collecting and spending a lot of dark money.

    Hence the creation of the Alliance for a Strong America, the full-bore media campaign that followed and endless opportunities to rag on Obama and Democrats.

    Interesting reading at Open Secrets, but no real surprises.

    I don't find it particularly useful to quibble over how large Cheney's presence and profile have been over the last 6 years since he left office; it's enough for me that the guy is still out there, whether in front of the camera or in his Chamber of Horrors or slumbering in his coffin-replica bed: the world is worse for his presence and existence, and that he managed to replicate.

    Parent

    This man is not good at many things (none / 0) (#35)
    by Militarytracy on Wed Jul 16, 2014 at 08:40:14 AM EST
    But one thing he has been profoundly good at is making himself beltway relevant.  He is doing it again.  Probably trying to better establish Liz, he doesn't have much left personally.

    Parent
    I guess you forgot that Showtime (none / 0) (#20)
    by Militarytracy on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 02:57:29 PM EST
    So one movie (none / 0) (#21)
    by jbindc on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 03:02:44 PM EST
    Made mostly with early film clips and an interview 2 years ago and you consider that "he's almost constantly in the media?"

    Parent
    You're right (none / 0) (#22)
    by Militarytracy on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 03:08:05 PM EST
    A Showtime documentary scheduled for 2013 means that nobody was hearing anything significant from him last year and that he was like, you know, irrelevant and hanging out hopelessly in the shadows :)

    Parent
    No - YOU'RE right (none / 0) (#23)
    by jbindc on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 03:13:27 PM EST
    Because  one movie made 2 years ago definitely equates to

    The only time he wasn't making an appearance on the TV gabfests over the last six years was when he had heart transplant surgery.


    Parent
    Since I don't watch the Sunday shows, (none / 0) (#24)
    by Anne on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 03:32:06 PM EST
    or pretty much any of the other shows Cheney is likely to show up on, I don't have a sense of his hovering presence, but I can see how others would.

    I just so totally creeps me out that he's grooming Liz Cheney to proselytize and carry out his satanic mission to every corner of the earth.

    It hurts and defiles my brain just to think about him.

    Parent

    The success of the whole (none / 0) (#25)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 03:46:59 PM EST
    "Grooming Liz" thing is iffy

    At best.   Considering the (cough) - loser - (cough)  response to her recent senate bid.

    Parent

    I was surprised that Wyoming booted her (4.00 / 0) (#28)
    by Militarytracy on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 04:11:49 PM EST
    Ruffian thought they would but I doubted it big time.  I lived half my life there for God's sake.  If there was something Wyoming loved it was Dick Cheney.  

    I think the Iraq War did him in in Wyoming.  They do tend to be people of principle, and Halliburton hired an enormous number of people out of Wyoming to drive trucks in Iraq.  They worked as contractors, and they were hit with IEDs too and were shot and killed too, but nobody kept track of them like they did soldiers.  I guess Wyoming was keeping score.  I always thought they would forgive Dick Cheney anything.

    We were driving through Wyoming to Utah for Josh's initial big back surgery when they put in all the hardware.  The Iraq War was a year old, and it was about a month back and forth on the road from home to Utah Children's for us. We stopped often in Green River and Rock Springs for fuel and meals. The hotels in the area were all full of people too who were there for Halliburton interviews, so we knew not to bother trying to get a room on that part of the journey. All those people we bumped into at the gas stations though or while eating, so eager for a good paying job, and had no idea what they were getting into.

    I guess Wyoming kept score

    Parent

    I would have said (none / 0) (#29)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 04:21:27 PM EST
    It was the naked ambition and cravenness of it.   The guy had aparrently been a family friend until she just decided she wanted his senate seat.  
    My impression the tranpacency of the whole thing was just too much.  Even for the GOP.

    Parent
    I know Enzi (none / 0) (#31)
    by Militarytracy on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 07:39:55 PM EST
    I would not say they are family friends until he won the Senate seat.  Very few in Wyoming knew the Cheney's personally even though they are from  Casper.  Once he had been to DC he stuck with the DC set.  Bought the Polo Ranch in Big Horn, did not hobnob with locals, but was considered Wyoming rock star.....or the closest thing they would ever get to one.

    Enzi is a local yokel, my step-mother worked for him at one point.  He never ran in the same circles that Cheney did ever. I almost certain that Cheney has always considered him beneath him, his friendship was conditional.  I think Enzi played that "family friend" card pretty well but he didn't even know Cheney when Cheney represented Wyoming.  I know exactly when Enzi decided to run for office, I was unfortunately there.

    Parent

    Also (none / 0) (#27)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 04:00:55 PM EST
    I don't watch them either.  But I see sites like crooks and liars enough to know how often he shows up there.

    Parent
    Here's Dick Cheney on TV in 2009, ... (none / 0) (#32)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Jul 16, 2014 at 01:42:59 AM EST
    jbindc: "But before the last few weeks, he's been pretty silent for months.  His heart transplant was 2 years ago, and while he has occasionally popped up, it really hasn't been very much."

    ... defending the Bush administration's enhance interrogation techniques.

    Here he is again in 2010, speaking in support of repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell, and in support of waterboarding on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

    And here's the Dickmeister in 2011, plugging his book on The Today Show.

    That's just from one minute of Googling.

    Parent

    I'm not following your (5.00 / 1) (#38)
    by sj on Wed Jul 16, 2014 at 11:38:09 AM EST
    links, Donald, because I have no desire to see or listen to that sorry excuse of a man.

    But I am confused. It seems to me that you're supporting jb's assertion that he has only popped up occasionally, but you are doing it in a rather confrontational way. One example from 2009, one from 2010, book tour from 2011... those are occasional poppings up.

    Speaking for myself only I can't recall the last time I had to change the channel to avoid him...

    But it's too bad the heart transplanted into him only has mechanical function.

    Parent

    It has been occasionally. (none / 0) (#39)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Wed Jul 16, 2014 at 12:15:32 PM EST
    But his appearances have also been consistent occurrences over the years, and not just a recent phenomenon. That was my original point, and I probably worded it clumsily in the earlier post. I didn't think so and thought I was clear, but judging by your post and jb's, you guys read it otherwise, so I apologize for that confusion.

    Parent
    Cheney (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by lentinel on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 07:51:57 AM EST
    may well be the worst Vice-President in American history, but saying that does not do justice to the deeply evil character of this man, in my opinion.

    I do, happily agree, that he has become irrelevant - even though he continues to appear on public media with annoying frequency.

    His exhortations have fallen flat.
    They have had, thankfully, no perceptible impact on policy - or, from what I read, on public opinion either.

    The more he bellows, the more transparent he becomes - and the more obvious the nature of his perfidy and crimes.

    It reminds me a little of Joe McCarthy - continuing to holler after the room had emptied.

    What I sincerely hope is that we will not let ourselves be led astray by his like again. Fear, poverty, joblessness - all contribute to the rise of these crazed despots.

    If we can do our best to eliminate the conditions that give fertile ground to these terrible people, we will have done ourselves and the world a great favor.

    I Agree (5.00 / 1) (#7)
    by squeaky on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 08:39:57 AM EST
    Just out of curiosity, have you been binging on Deadwood?

    Sounds a bit like a E.B. Farnum, which, considering we are talking about Deadeye Dick, is appropriate.

    Parent

    I do not entirely agree (5.00 / 1) (#13)
    by KeysDan on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 11:24:31 AM EST
    that Cheney is irrelevant.  While it may be bemusing to observe a key architect of one of the worst foreign policy disasters attempt to, once again, make the case for war, it should be kept in mind that the messenger's relevancy may be buried in the sands of Iraq, but the message is alive in the halls of Congress and the board rooms of think tanks.

    Other old guard zombies of note, such as Wolfie, Rummy and Kristol may be irrelevant to all but cable news. However,  they have assumed the bodies of younger blood.   Paul Ryan, for example, apparently turned his ball cap around long enough to claim that President Obama was "weak and indecisive"--for, you see, it is Obama, not the neocon's delusional and deceitful Iraq military intervention that bears responsibility.  

    I worry that Cheney is a part of a neo-neocon movement to change the national mood and provide another bite at the apple--it would have worked but for---(fill in the blank).   Republicans never seem embarrassed by the likes of Cheney, and why should they, most believe him to be right, or at least worth a cheer, as he bashes the President.  

    And, worth a real moment of worry, is the attempt of the neo-neocons, such as Robert Kagan of Brookings, to glom on to Secretary Clinton as a promising pathway back to neocon "redemption."

    Listen up Dick... (5.00 / 3) (#14)
    by kdog on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 11:27:25 AM EST
    Defense is so much more than defense from foreign aggression, to which our two big oceans to the right and left do a damn fine job for free.  

    There is also defense from hunger, defense from illness, defense from economic exploitation, defense from a quasi-police state, defense from the military-industrial complex corrupting the democratic process.  Me thinks you got no love for the defense the American people actually need, instead obsessing over defense from imaginary threats that just so happened to make you and friends very wealthy.

     

    Or as I like to read it: Listen up...Dick. (5.00 / 2) (#37)
    by Anne on Wed Jul 16, 2014 at 10:39:54 AM EST
    I need to stop thinking about him; it makes my brain hurt.

    Parent
    I've been trying to find (none / 0) (#40)
    by desertswine on Wed Jul 16, 2014 at 09:02:20 PM EST
    a song appropriate to Cheney and this is the best I can find real fast.  Richard Farina's Bold Marauder. It's not evil enough, really.

    Parent
    Cheney is an inherently (none / 0) (#6)
    by MKS on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 08:31:38 AM EST
    evil man.  We know about his love of torture.

    But he is also a coward.  He receive deferment after deferment to avoid Vietnam.

    And he panicked after 9/11.    

    I (5.00 / 2) (#9)
    by lentinel on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 10:29:24 AM EST
    respectively disagree with your statement about Cheney panicking after the Trade Center was hit.

    In my opinion, he never felt more exuberant in his miserable life.

    All his dreams could come true.

    One other bone to pick:

    Many people actively sought to avoid combat in Vietnam.
    I think many if not most were principled people who were well aware of the lies by the Johnson administration - and the horrific slaughter rained upon the innocent by that same administration.
    I could not and would not call those people cowards. I would have done whatever I could do to avoid participating in that madness.

    In Cheney's case, maybe the designation "coward" might be appropriate - if in fact he was screaming for bombs and napalm while seeking to evade service. In fact, "coward" would be too gentle a description. "Self-serving vile hypocrite" would be my choice at the moment.

    Parent

    In the department of coward (5.00 / 0) (#10)
    by Militarytracy on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 10:35:51 AM EST
    What makes Cheney a coward of almost insurmountable proportions is that he lied during the first Gulf War in order to be able to send others to war and to THEIR deaths, and he did the same in the second Gulf War.  He would never dream of dying in an American uniform, but he can't seem to wait to get other Americans killed in an American uniform.  In fact, he thrives on it.

    Parent
    Coward (5.00 / 0) (#30)
    by lentinel on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 05:48:50 PM EST
    is too kind for that bloated s.o.b.

    Evil is more like it.

    Cowards are afraid of something.

    I don't get the impression that Tubby is afraid of anything. Even judgement day. I'm sure he feels he could bully whomever is in charge that day in the inferno.

    I can just see Lucifer letting Cheney have his way... while mumbling to his helpers, "That mf's crazy!"

    Parent

    He's afraid to die in uniform (none / 0) (#33)
    by Militarytracy on Wed Jul 16, 2014 at 06:17:09 AM EST
    For a mythical political goal. But not afraid to get others killed for a mythical political goal.  He will argue incessantly for the deaths of others for his mythical political goals while already proving he is too afraid to join them.  The Cheney's together as couple in an interview said that "the hippy" protests they witnessed in college during the Vietnam War solidified their embrace of Conservative values.

    This was sort of an odd thing to say. Lynne Cheney was the only one who attended college straight through.  Dick Cheney flunked out of Yale, and worked as a laborer after that, and a few years after booted from Yale began attending UW.  He is very sketchy about giving out dates.  He received 5 deferments during the Vietnam war.

    I am fine with people calling him a coward, being this sort of described coward is the worst thing in serving military eyes that an American can be.  Not because he obviously ducked his own service, but that combined with how badly he consistently wants to send others to their death.

    The interview about Cheney's stand on the Vietnam War, he supported it and was appalled by the lack of respect and instability that the protests demonstrated.

    Parent

    OK. (none / 0) (#36)
    by lentinel on Wed Jul 16, 2014 at 09:45:46 AM EST
    The interview about Cheney's stand on the Vietnam War, he supported it and was appalled by the lack of respect and instability that the protests demonstrated.

    I'm convinced.

    "Coward" it is.

    Parent

    I'm kind (none / 0) (#11)
    by Ga6thDem on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 10:40:37 AM EST
    of suprised that the GOP doesn't try to muzzle the guy since he only appeals to the far right 20% of the electorate.

    Perhaps because he is willing to (5.00 / 0) (#12)
    by Militarytracy on Tue Jul 15, 2014 at 10:48:44 AM EST
    Repeat the zombie lie that Iraq was the right thing to do.  Just that little dab of doubt in the air that Conservatives love to eat up, add to their dissonance soup, on every issue.

    If all of America is tired of war and accepts that war financially breaks us, never pays for itself, then the Iraq War will be one of the most damaging self destructive actions the nation ever became embroiled in.  And the Republicans own it

    Parent