Scared Cheney puts his head in the noose

As appealing as that title is, not literally. Not yet.

Andrew Sullivan in the Timesonline (UK).

Barack Obama’s most underrated talent is his ability to get his enemies to self-destruct. [...]

Obama is about as far from apolitical as you can get; and while he is a decent fellow, he is also a lethal Chicago pol. His greatest achievement in this respect was the total implosion of Bill Clinton around this time last year: Hillary was next. Then came John McCain, merrily strapping on the suicide bomb of Sarah Palin.

Normally I wouldn't break a paragraph in the middle, but I can't let that pass without comment. Mr. Sullivan is a professional and chose his words carefully so that normal folks would get the visual of Palin-as-suicide-vest while the rest of us would see Palin-as-McCain's-strap-on, beautiful imagery that suggests an erect Palin where his manhood oughta be, and by implication, what he intended to do to the rest of us with her. Nice touch, Andy. Luckily for the rest of us, McLame's 'suicide dildo bomb' went off while it was up his own ass.

With the fate of all these formidable figures impossible to miss, one has to wonder what possessed Dick Cheney, the former vice-president, to come lumbering out twice in the first 50 days of the Obama administration to blast the new guy on national television.

It is fine for a former vice-president to criticise his successor in due course. But there is a decorum that allows for a new president not to be immediately undermined by his predecessor. To be accused of what amounts to treason – a willingness to endanger the lives of Americans – is simply unheard of.

Cheney’s critique of Obama’s policies was also inaccurate. [...]

So what was Cheney thinking? My guess is that he fears he is in trouble. This fear has been created by Obama, but indirectly. Obama has declined to launch a prosecution of Cheney for war crimes, as many in his party (and outside it) would like. He has set up a review of detention, rendition and interrogation policies. And he has simply declassified many of the infamous torture memos kept under wraps by Bush.

He has the power to do this, and much of the time it is in response to outside requests. But as the memos have emerged, the awful truth of what Cheney actually authorised becomes harder and harder to deny. And Cheney is desperately trying to maintain a grip on the narrative before it grips him by the throat.

Time is not on Cheney's side. Given the slowness of what oughta be a cut-and-dried investigation and indictment, The Dick might just die before the world gets a little justice on him. I want him alive to see it. History will judge him the same either way, but I want him to watch the proceedings and shuffle off this mortal coil at the end of a long drop on a short rope.

According to the movie, William Wallace cried "Freedom!" as he was being drawn and quartered. I'll bet the heart-, soul-, and conscience-less Cheney can manage a "Go fuck yourselves" as the trapdoor drops.

Maybe it's a little cold of me, but I want Bush, Feith, Kristol, Yoo, Addington, and so on and so on 'til there's no neocons and torturers left, to watch Cheney drop to his reward while they're waiting in line for their turns. I want to see them whimper and cry and shake uncontrollably with their coward's fear that has hurt so many. I want to see their final acts to be to soil themselves and die on national TV with a pantload, absolutely broken and humiliated, and I want the world to remember them that way for all time. I'm not nice about this and see no need to be. It ain't gonna happen, but the thought of revenge for what they've done helps keep the fire in my belly lit.

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