Why is Cheney such a monstrous dick? A TPM reader gives a plausible explanation

[BurtWorm]

What made him especially dangerous during the Bush years was his unprecedented power grab, for which the Constitution and the governmental institutions had no immediate remedy. And he had a willing mugging victim in George Bush and the Republican power structure.

If there's justice, Cheney should be shaking in his boots. Cause he's due for some. Long overdue.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/Sm7YUOjI7-M/a_very_powerful_explanation.php

TPM Reader JB makes the point ...

I've always been pretty dubious about the whole Cheney personality change theory, and not just because Bart Gellman doesn't seem to give it much credence. I think it overlooks a much simpler explanation.

Dick Cheney acted as George W. Bush's Vice President in ways he did not as Gerald Ford's chief of staff or Defense Secretary under the elder George Bush because George W. Bush was not Ford and was not the elder Bush. I don't really think the matter is any more complicated than that.

During the younger Bush's first term especially, Cheney operated in ways that suggested he really didn't think his nominal boss was really up to the job. He treated associates not directly useful to him with contempt and disregard for their roles in the government -- something Ford would have discouraged and the elder Bush would have as well. George W. Bush barely noticed it, though he may understand it now.

Neither of the earlier Presidents Cheney served were giants. They were both career government men, sensitive about the prerogatives of their office and aware that their own success in public life was due to how well they worked within the rules, not how creatively they broke them. They also, in fairness to Cheney, did not experience anything like 9/11. Cheney earned his reputation for being smarter, shrewder and harder-working than most of the people he worked with in government. During the second Bush administration he had few checks on his authority, and after 9/11 especially felt an imperative to fill the vacuum left by his President's limited interest in the details of government.

Cheney could not have been Cheney if Bush had not been Bush.

[FSogol]

1. So, you are saying "W" should of "mounted" Cheney to show him who was in charge?

Or maybe pee on Cheney's stuff? :crazy:

[BurtWorm]

2. *Someone* should pee on Cheney.

:patriot:

[TahitiNut]

6. It wouldn't surprise me if Lynn gave him "Golden Showers" upon occasion.

:shrug: Nope. Not at all.

[BurtWorm]

7. It wouldn't surprise me if Mary and Elizabeth gave him some too,

Sick motherfucker.

[lutefisk]

10. Thank you. Now I have that horrible image in my mind. Ewww. . . nt

[TahitiNut]

11. If you're going to use the name "lutefisk" then it's not "Ewww.." It's "Uffda!"

:silly:

[onlyadream]

3. I wonder if there's a connection

between Cheney's latest public interviews and Obama considering to prosecute those responsible for ordering torture. Did Cheney just piss Obama off?

[alsame]

4. From the minute Cheney

picked himself as VP candidate, it was clear who was calling the shots. Bush was just the front man.

[EFerrari]

5. Cheney saw his op to be himself when he chose himself for VP.

And he is a monstrous dick.

[louis-t]

8. That's not an "explanation".

An "explanation" would be more psychological: Why is he such a dick? My theory is that he is a bitter, angry, hateful, mean sonofabitch because his health has been horrible for 30 years. He has earned or stolen more money than most of us will ever see, yet he cannot enjoy it. Normal people tend to become more humane when suffering from poor health. Not ol' Dick. He is jealous of anyone who can live a normal life. He enjoys killing and torturing because it makes him feel alive. He can barely walk from a car to his office without assistance. His idea of hunting is being driven around a hunting preserve and shooting out the window. He has taken the coward's way out, and he IS a coward. Bullies usually are.

[BurtWorm]

9. I'm thinking it explains how the monster in Cheney got into power.

A stronger president a) wouldn't have needed him to pick a VP as the party nominee and b) wouldn't have let him grab all that power.

Why he's a dick is less interesting to me. Less pertinent to the mess the world is in.