What does Dick Cheney want? He isn’t in any kind of public office. He isn’t running for anything. He is worth millions and has more millions pouring in. He has a mansion in McLean, Virginia and a ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming…
Why is he courting attention now?
His latest shtick is an op-ed piece with daughter Liz (photo) that ran in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. Not surprisingly, they are attacking President Obama – again.
The president, they say, is “abandoning” Iraq and putting Americans at greater risk of terrorist attacks from al Qaida.
You would think that a 73-year-old codger with someone else’s heart beating in his chest would be less contentious. Why doesn’t he enjoy his mansion and his millions and his grandchildren and stop pestering us?
But no, he can’t seem to stay away from the public spotlight.
I assume he is trying to give his daughter’s political career a much-needed boost. Poor Liz has been a dismal flop as a candidate so far. He may be a monster but from all accounts, he has always been a devoted dad.
But he must know he isn’t doing her any good with the voting public. Only a few hardcore right wingers still think Dick Cheney is a great American. The rest of the world thinks he is a great monster – a war criminal, guilty of torturing prisoners, and a liar guilty of conning America into a disastrous war that cost 4,500 American lives and who knows how many Iraqi lives.
Like a pro wrestler who makes a career out of being a villain, Dick Cheney seems to delight in being booed.
When he is told in an infamous ABC-TV interview that most Americans don’t think the Iraq War was worth it, he responds with a sneering “So?”
Cheney supplies the media with a treasury of outrageous quotes, and insists he was right to send young Americans to be maimed and killed in Iraq, making millions for himself and his business associates in the process – regardless of what anyone else might think.
He displays the same kind of unrepentant arrogance about his waterboarding of prisoners. It was the right thing to do, he insists, and if you don’t agree, you’re a traitor and a wimp.
He certainly isn’t hanging his head in shame, as you and I would do if we were guilty of his atrocities. Far from it. He writes a memoir. He goes on TV to promote the book and bares his chest to show the ladies of The View the cords protruding from it.
Surely, this guy isn’t for real. Surely, he’s just another troll, pulling our chains with remarks calculated to infuriate us.
So why do the media pay so much attention to him?
