Marie Cocco; Cheney Plays to His Crowd

from Truthdig:



Cheney Plays to His Crowd
Posted on Sep 3, 2009

By Marie Cocco


In politics as in physics, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Thus, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s most recent and thoroughly extraordinary public support of torture has produced, with almost mathematical precision, the following chain of events:

People who think Cheney is scary in his defense of violating international treaties and U.S. laws, smashing the heads of suspected terrorists against walls, threatening them with rape and electric drills and subjecting them to waterboarding—an ordeal perfected in the torture chambers of the Spanish Inquisition—howled. They believe Cheney is completely gonzo.

As soon as this reaction to his imperious appearance on Fox News settled in, the equal and opposite reaction was heard: Cheney is completely right. And just trotting him out to promote his forthcoming memoir—“It is going to be a great book,” Cheney helpfully tells us—isn’t enough. Why not have him run for president?

This, too, inspires a reaction: Go ahead. Make my day.

The rhetorical Cheney-for-president boomlet was touched off by The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto, who mused that the 2012 campaign might well be waged on national security issues—assuming, as it is reasonable to assume—that something will put President Barack Obama on the defensive over foreign policy. And if that comes to pass, Taranto speculated, who better than Dick Cheney to represent the Republicans? ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090902_cheney_plays_to_his_crowd/?ln