The second biggest mystery in the Bush administration is,"What has happened to Dick?": what happened to the fair-process-oriented Cheney of the Ford administration? Aging seems the most likely answer.
The biggest mystery is why nobody took any steps to ease Cheney out of the administration once it became clear that he had lost it--as he has. Via Kevin Drum:
The Washington Monthly: Justin Logan excerpts an interesting piece today by Philip Giraldi in the print edition of The American Conservative. Giraldi claims that when the CIA's Counter Terrorism Center provided Dick Cheney with a special briefing on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's prewar ties with Saddam Hussein last month, Cheney was a wee bit unhappy with their conclusions:
The CTC concluded that Saddam Hussein had not materially supported Zarqawi before the U.S.-led invasion and that Zarqawi's infrastructure in Iraq before the war was confined to the northern no-fly zones of Kurdistan, beyond Baghdad's reach. Cheney reacted with fury, screaming at the briefer that CIA was trying to get John Kerry elected by contradicting the president's stance that Saddam had supported terrorism and therefore needed to be overthrown. The hapless briefer was shaken by the vice president's outburst, and the incident was reported back to [newly appointed CIA director Porter] Goss, who indicated that he was reluctant to confront the vice president's staff regarding it.
I don't know who Giraldi's source for this was, but it's a sadly familiar MO for this administration: shoot the messenger, refuse to believe anything you don't want to believe, and treat everything first and foremost as an excuse for partisan bludgeoning, not as a serious problem that requires serious analysis and a serious solution.
You can't excise a cancer if you spend your time screaming at the lab because the biopsy report isn't what you expected. Why would anyone think that Bush and Cheney can successfully fight terrorism if they willfully refuse to understand the true nature of the threat?
The third biggest mystery is why the elite press corps hasn't covered the "What has happened to Dick?" conversations that everyone I know connected with Republican circles has had over the past four years.
Posted by DeLong at October 26, 2004 08:32 PM | TrackBackI'd always assumed that it was "pumphead"-- the memory & cognitive problems or personality changes that are linked to having been on a heart-lung machine, in his case several times. He's really not that old-- only three years older than Kerry IIRC-- so my money's on the medical issues.
Posted by: latts at October 26, 2004 09:09 PMWhy shouldn't this be considered Dick Cheney's endorsement of John Kerry for President?
Cheney clearly recognized the import of the facts: that a Kerry Administration should replace this one. If even Cheney can see what the facts means, why can't the liberal media?
Posted by: boloboffin at October 26, 2004 09:18 PMIf I were Cheney, I would be immensely frustrated that the cakewalk that was supposed to be Iraq has gone FUBAR. There is no easy way out.
Plus, the French probably say, "Ve told you so." every time another car bomb explodes or another foreigner is beheaded. You never know, maybe Cheney had just got off the phone with the French.
The briefer should have offered Cheney the same friendly advice we always yell at the opposition basketball coaches. "Yelling doesn't help!"
Posted by: bakho at October 26, 2004 09:39 PMThree possible explanations:
1) Too much time as CEO surrounded by yes-men.
2) He was always a rabid right-winger and hawk
(as shown by his voting record), finding himself
as co-president with a cipher, he was at last
free to follow his (terrible) instincts
3) Pumphead
I think everybody may be a litttle off-base with the cognitive-impairment explanations brought forward to explain the curious behavior of our leaders, or else we may see a new chapter in group psychology written... I wonder instead, if maybe they know or neglected or did something bad about counter-terrorism before 9-11, and their guilt has hammered away at them, so they rushed pellmell into compensatory behavior like pseudo-Messiahs, ignoring better counsel--in order to try and make it right again, in order to try and save their own souls?
Posted by: Jonathan Swift at October 26, 2004 09:52 PM"3) Pumphead"
More like Powerhead, a.k.a. the same that happened to Castro after he marched into la Habana.
Posted by: ogmb at October 26, 2004 10:00 PMWho cares what happened to Pumpkinhead?
He's out in seven days, along with M'Boy,
Dumbfeld, Condisleeza and Butt Wipeowitz.
http://www.princeton.edu/~sswang/pollcalc.html
Kerry 272 EV, Bush 266 EV
Kerry leads Bush by 0.1%
Rock the vote. Even 1% swing kills the deal.
Hasn't been a better reason since H. Hoover.
<shrill>Ole devil Bush corrupted him?</shrill>
No, I don't really believe that. But this administration seems to have a perfect genius for corruption. Damn if I know why.
Posted by: Randolph Fritz at October 26, 2004 10:56 PMHe's a classic case of cognitive dissonance. Self-esteem way too invested in an antiquated world view and role as indispensible courtier to kings. He can't admit reality in . . . the man is sick, sick, sick. Actually, quite a few of the aging white males in this administration are compulsively deluded.
Posted by: cs at October 26, 2004 11:53 PMWT, I couldn't fail to disagree with you less.
(hopefully he won't post again until he's figured that one out)
Posted by: Vaxalon at October 27, 2004 02:52 AM"I wonder instead, if maybe they know or neglected or did something bad about counter-terrorism before 9-11, and their guilt has hammered away at them, so they rushed pellmell into compensatory behavior like pseudo-Messiahs, ignoring better counsel--in order to try and make it right again, in order to try and save their own souls?" - Posted by Jonathan Swift
I wonder if, in January 2001, the administration didn't pass word down the FBI and CIA channels: "hands off the Saudis. No investigations to proceed on Saudi nationals until cleared by the White House."
This would explain why so many people were unfireable after 9/11. It'd explain why that FBI supervisor who blocked a search of the one guy's laptop computer was given a $25,000 bonus for exceptionally good work.
Posted by: Barry at October 27, 2004 04:13 AMPumpkin head and right wing nutsoid thinking seem the better explanations for doing things wrong initially, yes-men-pampered CEO, cognitive dissonance, the better explanation for subsequent never-say-I-was-wrong behavior. The never-say-I-was-wrong stuff, however, is so complete and thoroughgoing, even after massive flip-flops, that I suspect that is actually a very big part of the re-election plan. Carter's apparent self-doubt (from what I have read of Carter, self-doubt may have been more apparent that real) was a big voter turn-off. Bush and Rove share a fascination with the failures of former presidents.
Posted by: kharris at October 27, 2004 04:33 AMActually, I'm pleased that the chimp's puppetmaster had this outburst. I hope he has more. If he has a penchant for screeching at the serious CIA folks, that increases the likelihood that the tell-all CIA report will get leaked by someone thoroughly pissed off at the administration in time to thoroughly screw Bush in the election. Go to it, Dick!!
Posted by: Chris at October 27, 2004 05:15 AMBut wasn't Dean the Mean One?
My oh my. Bush and Cheney freak out regularily and the press sits there, drooling.
Posted by: Elaine Supkis at October 27, 2004 06:44 AMThere is a saying that goes: As you get older you become yourself only more so. Cheney was always mean, aging simply has shown him up for who he really is. Younger people care about what others think of them, older people care about making people think like them.
FYI, I am "older".
Posted by: Carol at October 27, 2004 07:12 AMNot being able to move from cocksure ignorance to thoughtful uncertainty made my top 10 list of reasons not to vote for Bush. This applies less to Cheney because he isn't as ignorant as Bush but apparently he's working very hard at it. In any case here's my (unsolicited) list because now is a good time to crystalize the thinking.
10 He led America into attacking Iraq under false pretenses
9 He has American blood on his hands with nothing to show for it
8 He has no plan for a satisfactory end to American involvement in Iraq
7 He failed to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden
6 He has strengthened rather than weakened Al Qaida
5 He has trashed relations with America’s allies
4 Abu Ghraib and all it implies
3 His decision making is faith-based rather than reality-based and he refuses to make the move from cocksure ignorance to thoughtful uncertainty even in the face of failed policies
2 He has actively supported the destruction of the environment
1 His golden shower economic policies benefit the rich at the expense of the middle class
02 He is a destroyer of liberties in America
03 He has made America less safe from a terrorist attack
04 He veils his government in secrecy and seeks to prevent the truth from reaching the American people
05 He has tarnished the global image of America as the wearer of the white hat
(OK, so I couldn't narrow it down to 10, and they are in no particular order of significance. Feel free to add your own.)
Posted by: Dubblblind at October 27, 2004 07:29 AMKHarris
"Carter's apparent self-doubt (from what I have read of Carter, self-doubt may have been more apparent that real) was a big voter turn-off. Bush and Rove share a fascination with the failures of former presidents."
An important argument. We are little interested in nuances of domestic and foreign policy, and attend instead to seeming decisiveness. We mistake proposing policies that are so blunt they will surely prove unsatisfactory, as showing strength. This is not a strong Administration, but there is an effective pretense.
Posted by: anne at October 27, 2004 07:57 AMCheney is delusional. I figure his meds are out of balance.
The Administration has been very good at connecting Osama bin Laden with Saddam Hussein in the public mind, but they've been extremely clever about it. They've never actually come right out and said it, of course.
With one exception. Cheney. He's come right out and said it a couple of times, and Bush and Rumsfeld have had to get up and say that it isn't true.
I have no clue why he hasn't been muzzled. Come to think of it, I have no idea how this administraion has gotten some very sensible people to go along with a large number of totally nonsensical policies. Credible threats of violence to families? Pod people? Orbital mind- control lasers?
Posted by: lightning at October 27, 2004 08:39 AMMaybe when he was being a decent, competent centrist he was just biding his time, doing what he was asked to do, and learning the job.
The "pumphead" explanation doesn't appeal to me because Cheney doesn't seem stupider, just meaner, more corrupt, and more adventurist. My preferred explanation is some kind of pep pill of the amphetamine type in his mix of medications. Amphetamine makes all of your ideas seem true and brilliant.
The other is the "we're an empire and make our own reality" thing, which I think is the real one. People have been talking about a monopolar world system for over a decade now, and as far as I know the US military can easily defeat any single military in the world (without, as we've seen, being able to control the conquered territory). So their models are Caesar, Alexander, Cromwell, Bismarck, and various other leaders who made their own rules and succeeded. (Leave Mao off the list for one reason, and the unsuccessful Hitler and Napoleon for a different reason.)
Cheney was never a Centrist.
He was always right wing, he only agreed to be VP when GWB made it clear he was not running for President to be like Bush I, but to make real changes.
(Ron Suskind covered this so did Nicolas Leman in the New Yorker)
Cheney kept his head down and did his job when he was in the White House, previously. For the first time, he was in a position to do what he really believed.
This senility argument is just running like wildfire on Bush and Cheney and it ignores how radical the two of them are.
I keep reading newspaper endorsements for Bush that call for renewed centrist leadership and it makes me want to blechh..
It's a bit like Hitler, no one in the intelligentsia believes they will actually do what they say they will.
But they will do it, if given a chance.
If they win this time, they will do so with a greater mandate than last time: look how 'moderate' they have been the last 4 years.
Posted by: john at October 27, 2004 09:10 AMSomebody suggested power turned him into the Cheney we see today. I think it could be the opposite, lack of power.
I've always felt it wasn't the sex or lying about it that drove Clinton's antagonists mad, it was that he ended the Reagan Revolution so soon after it started. And, not just Reaganomics, but also Reaganism, the belief that government is so incompetent it should never be trusted to solve your problems.
Cheney is arguably the most powerful man in the world and he's powerless to save Reaganism. Yet, the bad heart theory is a pretty good one. Also, what do your Republican friends theorize, Brad?
Just asking.
Can somebody tell me what Cheney said to the hapless CIA briefer regarding Zarqawi and Hussein?
Posted by: Kate at October 27, 2004 10:02 AMTestosterone replacement therapy (off-label Rx) is a HUGE med/pharma fad with the shaker-mover wannabe set. I often have wondered how many of the DC "Carthago delenda est" firebrands are experiencing its benefits.
As for the recent onset of the Lord Protector's piques, this passage from Ms. Cheney's opus magnum:
"Let us go away together, away from the anger and the imperatives of men."
suggests otherwise.
It should be obvious to anyone what the issue is: that CTC briefer just hates America.
Posted by: Lewis Carroll at October 27, 2004 10:53 AMThe "Cheney has never been a centrist" thesis is supported by James Mann, whose Rise of the Vulcans argues convincingly that Cheney has always been extremely right-wing (Mann uses the term "conservative," which I don't like, because I see these characters as radicals).
From the Washington Post review of the book:
"'We have it in our power to begin the world over again,' Ronald Reagan liked to say, quoting Thomas Paine. But the efforts of the Vulcans to create a new world order today, Mann persuasively argues, are at heart not new at all. They are an effort to repeal the inhibitions and restrictions that have constrained American power in the last 30 years and to revive an earlier moment when the unapologetic and unbridled pursuit of global primacy was a widely accepted national goal. — Alan Brinkley"
Posted by: mcm at October 27, 2004 10:57 AM"The third biggest mystery is why the elite press corps hasn't covered the "What has happened to Dick?" conversations that everyone I know connected with Republican circles has had over the past four years."
Why is this so mysterious?
Your "elite press corps" is a corpse. It hasn't covered anything that didn't come in by fax from the RNC or straight from purdy-mouth Scottie in a long, long time. If it can't get a story together from press releases, it turns to making one up. Anything is easier than working.
Paid enormous amounts of money and shown great respect -- as long as they DON'T do any actual journalistic work -- why would they change and begin covering a genuine story?
Posted by: Abbot Joseph at October 27, 2004 11:04 AMDick Cheney's behavior is not surprising from a bully and a draft-dodger.
Posted by: Steve at October 27, 2004 11:21 AMPharmacologics aside, I'd look at a convergence of parallels. First, he was a good toadying underling for years, then ran Halliburton as a fiefdom (virtually all major corporate managements are run as fiefdoms). When the cringers become the top dogs, they rage, bite, and kick.
The parallel is the end of the Cold War. It was a major constraint on American freedom of action during the Ford and Reagan periods, and then it ended with USSR collapse. But the hapless and feckless Bush the first couldn't make any hay out of it; then that unspeakable Clinton deliberately turned away from taking "our due." He had to be hounded out.
And then you had the liberated toady suddenly in charge and itching to wreak his will on a supine world. At long last, no constraints. Result: at home, the social policies of the 20s (if not the 1890s) under a veneer of 50s bright harmony; abroad, unrestrained power willing to accept the tribute of those who would help achieve the goals he had in mind, or who reminded him of the way he saw himself in his own country.
Truly, a spectacle from the classical era.
Posted by: Altoid at October 27, 2004 09:50 PMrefinance mortgage
Posted by: refinance mortgage at October 29, 2004 03:33 AM3431
directv
direct tv directv satellite direct tv satellite directv dvr direct tv dvr direct tv tivo directv tivo directway
direcway
directway internet directway satellite direcway internet direcway internet free hbo free cinemax free dvd player satellite radio http://www.satellitetvboutique.com
directv
direct tv
directv satellite direct tv satellite directv dvr direct tv dvr direct tv tivo directv tivo directway
direcway
directway internet directway satellite direcway internet direcway internet free hbo free cinemax free dvd player satellite radio http://satellite-tv.cjb.net
Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.
Posted by: hgh spray at November 20, 2004 07:24 PM413 http://www.top-texas-hold-em.com
texas hold em
Posted by: texas hold em at November 22, 2004 08:59 AMBrad pitt nude elvis presley pictures, ludacris pictures pamela anderson and tommy lee videos. Aaron carter pictures jesse mccartney beautiful soul, brad pitt photos derek jeter pictures. Jake gyllenhaal pictures jesse mccartney pics, johnny depp pictures jesse mccartney pics. Pictures of tom felton tyson beckford pictures, davey havok pictures arnold schwarzenegger pictures. David beckham pictures vin diesel pictures, davey havok pictures ll cool j pictures. Josh hartnett pictures sid vicious pictures, jimi hendrix pictures free pamela and tommy lee videos. Brad pitt movies deion sanders pictures, pictures of taj mahal david beckham pictures.
Elijah wood pictures ll cool j pics, tom cruise movies derek jeter pictures. Carmelo anthony pictures allen iverson pictures, howard stern pictures jimi hendrix pictures. Martin luther king pictures ray charles movies, orlando bloom poster jesse mccartney beautiful soul. Tom brady pictures marilyn manson videos, kenny chesney pictures lil rob pictures. Ben affleck pictures jeremy sumpter pictures, david beckham wallpaper lil romeo pictures. Kobe bryant pictures jake gyllenhaal pictures, howard stern pictures vin diesel gay. Bob marley poster tom welling pictures, john wayne movies daniel radcliffe pictures.
Posted by: jesse mccartney pictures at November 22, 2004 09:10 AMBrad pitt nude elvis presley pictures, ludacris pictures pamela anderson and tommy lee videos. Aaron carter pictures jesse mccartney beautiful soul, brad pitt photos derek jeter pictures. Jake gyllenhaal pictures jesse mccartney pics, johnny depp pictures jesse mccartney pics. Pictures of tom felton tyson beckford pictures, davey havok pictures arnold schwarzenegger pictures. David beckham pictures vin diesel pictures, davey havok pictures ll cool j pictures. Josh hartnett pictures sid vicious pictures, jimi hendrix pictures free pamela and tommy lee videos. Brad pitt movies deion sanders pictures, pictures of taj mahal david beckham pictures.
Elijah wood pictures ll cool j pics, tom cruise movies derek jeter pictures. Carmelo anthony pictures allen iverson pictures, howard stern pictures jimi hendrix pictures. Martin luther king pictures ray charles movies, orlando bloom poster jesse mccartney beautiful soul. Tom brady pictures marilyn manson videos, kenny chesney pictures lil rob pictures. Ben affleck pictures jeremy sumpter pictures, david beckham wallpaper lil romeo pictures. Kobe bryant pictures jake gyllenhaal pictures, howard stern pictures vin diesel gay. Bob marley poster tom welling pictures, john wayne movies daniel radcliffe pictures.
Posted by: jesse mccartney pictures at November 22, 2004 09:11 AM7444 http://www.texas-hold--em.com
texas hold em
Posted by: online texas hold em at November 26, 2004 04:35 AMstop sign meens stop but not say so when you see the sign not stay forever just stop and keep on going
Posted by: Upskirts Mania at November 27, 2004 06:11 AMSome day soon I will be back.
Posted by: Upskirt Sniper at November 28, 2004 03:08 AMReally good looking site
Posted by: Wet Lesbian at November 28, 2004 03:11 AM