You think to yourself: He’s gone. At long last, he’s gone. But, no, there he is again! Like a cold, gloomy fog, he creeps around the city – a dark and dour force, still intent on scaring people so he can get his way.
He is, of course, Dick Cheney, the brooding, snarling political presence that won’t die. When the clock struck noon on January 20, the former veep was finally out of power, finally forced by voters to give way to a sunrise of hope and the possibility of progressive change. Yet, only two weeks after leaving office, there was Cheney sneering into a television camera to pronounce the brand new Obama administration a failure.
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Again and again, the dark essence of Cheney has oozed onto cable television shows to declare that Obama is making America unsafe, is using the Wall Street collapse to expand the role of government, and is “telegraphing weakness” by reaching out to world leaders whom Cheney doesn’t like.
The weirdest part is not that this geezer is actually getting air time for his bitter ramblings, but that the national Republican Party and its congressional leaders are so devoid of ideas and leadership that Cheney is now the default voice of the party – at least when Rush Limbaugh is not flexing his tongue-muscle as the GOP’s chief strategist and spokesperson. Wow, that’s really a solid plan for appealing to moderates and young folks, isn’t it?
Still, some right-wing diehards are thrilled that Dick has “had a chance to get his voice back,” bizarrely believing that the true Cheney was somehow silenced by George W. Bush. Excuse me, but wasn’t Cheney the ventriloquist and Bush the dummy in that political act?
Not all Republicans want to see Cheney slinking back onto the national stage. As one said, “You had your eight years. Go away.”
“Unemployed, Unapologetic and Unrestrained: It’s Chaney Unbound,” www.nytimes.com, April 23, 2009.
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