Testing Contempt
Seeing the latest buffoonery coming from the White House, I began to wonder about something. It seems that Dick Cheney is saying he is not part of the executive branch, nor any other branch of government, and as such is not answerable to such rules or oversight (which Bush backs him on). I mean, this is so ludicrously absurd that you would expect it to come from The Onion, and not from the White House.
So what I began to wonder was, how can Republicans possibly support this administration and not be utterly embarrassed and ashamed by it? I mean, it’s gone beyond simple partisan bounds. What Cheney is saying is so contemptible to sense and reason that anyone who is not embarrassed to support such people would have to have similar contempt for reason and the rule of law.
Which kind of sums it up, really.
But as the Bush administration becomes more and more absurd, it seems that they are pushing the envelope a bit too far. They have hit 26% in the polls and are pushing downward–almost to the point that Nixon hit months before he resigned in disgrace. But still 26% actually approve of crap like this–and even accounting for rabid partisanship, that’s still an awfully big number. I’m pretty rabidly partisan myself, but were this a Democratic administration, I would have jumped off the bandwagon long ago.
First of all, any mention of Cheney’s name should come with the qualifier, noted, proven, intentional liar – not because of his many blatent lies, but more so for the one he did in the vice president debate with John Edwards. Cheney crafted some cockimany bull shit that he never saw Edwards before, with a long set up piece to boot. The next day it was all over the papers across the nation, a photo of Cheney having breakfast with Edwards. That was a crafted lie. A bald face lie. (the thing about it, and what makes me hesitate to back him, is Edwards just blinked after Cheney spewed it. I expect politicians to turn that around and shove it down his throat).
So, noted, intentional, purposeful, liar, Dick Cheney, says he’s not part of the executive branch.
The first question is, is he lying when he says that?
But he does make a good point. The history of the Vice President does little or nothing in the executive branch – instead presides over the senate (remember Gore in Michael Moore’s last movie?).
Most presidents have guarded their power so jealously that Vice Presidents were left without portfolio.
The Bush administration is another matter. All politics is local. (per Tip O’Neil) George Bush’s ‘local’ constituency is the Carlyle Group and the 500 or so families that hold 80% of America’s wealth. They selected Bush because he represents them and the religious fruit cakes that bring in the numbers for the party. But, noted, intentional and proven liar, Cheney, is the guy that the Carlyle Group and Friends put in place to supervise George. And remember when George Bush wasn’t man enough to face the 9/11 commission on his own?
So all of that means suddenly, for the first time in history, we have a constitutional problem regarding the Vice President because the real lever of power is with him. Fine, I say, kick him out of the executive branch, and strip him of any executive portfolio’s that he may hold. Then baby George runs amok, as he always has, but now he’ll be trampling in Carlyle Group and Friends garden as well as everyone else’s. Cheney, noted, intentional and proven liar, won’t be there to shoe Georgie out of his garden.