Another Brilliant Neocon Idea

It's difficult to know what to say: The New York Sun wants Dick Cheney to run for president. Our catastrophically incompetent veep may have only a 34% approval rating, but the Sun's editors think he'd be a fine candidate. They make their case based on Cheney's "experience," and, somewhat strangely, on the assertion that "Lynne Cheney would make one of the greatest First Ladies in history." But their real interest seems to be in the notion that he would serve as some sort of rearguard defender of Dubya's presidency:

Were Mr. Cheney in the race, it's hard to imagine that the president's approval ratings would not be five or 10 points higher. The reason is that the administration would have a defender on the campaign trail as part of the public debate.

[...]

Lawrence Kudlow wrote a column a while back saying he hoped President Bush asked Vice President Cheney to run for president in 2008. It was a fine idea then and it still is — not because the current field is particularly weak, but because Mr. Cheney is so much more experienced and shrewd a figure, one who could help settle some of the arguments about the Bush years in favor of Mr. Bush. A White House aiming to get Mr. Cheney elected could also avoid some of the hazards that befall lame-ducks — drift, brain drain, irrelevance. Such a campaign might lift Mr. Cheney's own standing in the polls.

Given that Cheney already seems to spend a lot of time running around defending his Bush's policies - to no discernable effect - this seems like an odd argument. But hey, if the conservatives want somebody this weird and creepy representing them on the campaign trail, who are we to argue?

Labels: 2008, Dick Cheney, New York Sun, Presidential election

  ¶ Posted by Paul Curtis 1:33 PM 2 comments

  The Stench of Stale Hubris

Wolcott:

When Dick Cheney famously told Pat Leahy to go fuck himself, he and the rest of the administration clearly never anticipated the day when Leahy would return to powerful chairmanship; I think they internalized Karl Rove's visionary scheme of a permanent Republican majority and thought the future was in the bag. Now they're holding the bag and it's leaking all over their laps.

I've never mentioned it, but there was a particular point implied when I named this blog Alien & Sedition. It's also why there's a picture of Jefferson in the top corner there. The point is the same one made by the proverb about the Chinese emperor who asks his wise man to tell him one thing that will always be true:

"This, too, shall pass," is the answer.

Labels: Dick Cheney, James Wolcott, meta

  ¶ Posted by Paul Curtis 1:48 PM 4 comments