He Who Holds The Hammer Drives The Nails

Isn't it about time we stop focusing on King Dubya, and close in on the man with the big head and bulging eyes? I, for one, am sick to death of all the attention lavished on Bush's antics, while our REAL ruler is allowed to operate in relative obscurity. I'm grateful to see Cheney's hunting exploits played out in the press, but it hardly indicates what Cheney's real role in our lives is. The illusion that our all-hat, no-cattle president is in control and makes significant policy decisions is a very toxic one. If we had Cheney, a man who snarls when he speaks and compulsively rubs his hands together, out in front, we would have a better grip on reality.

I'm starting to think of politicians as nothing more than professional actors, and to regard them as such. Bush is playing the lead role in The Osbournes, and Cheney the lead in I, Claudius. We know which role is more interesting to the American public, and we're badly misguided for it. A reality TV show about a trailer-park president with a colorful family history, spewing Texas-sized malpropisms and raising twin bimbo party animals, gets all the ratings when paired with a Masterpiece Theater presentation of the Emperor alone in his chambers, plotting our demise. Hey, we know what we like here.

Cheney is pretty much a self-made man, and his history shows it. His sense of self-preservation is certainly intact, and his loyalty to his friends is touching. If only he pledged such fealty to the rest of us. He has no problem letting the buck stop with the chimp, though, especially when it counts the most. That's what he's there for, and Cheney knows when to defer to the big guy. It's not he who has to face the music. I doubt if Cheney could keep the blood washed from his hands long enough to appear in public that often. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain, he says, and we return to our fascination with a tragically stupid president. It's akin to seeing a bad accident, and not being able to turn away.

It's hard to know just what would happen if Cheney were cornered, but you have to figure that he wouldn't go quietly. He didn't get this far without having a savage instinct for survival, or the means and will to dispatch his enemies. We can only hope that his sociopathic psyche will someday work against itself, and he'll take the other neocons, or even the Supreme Court, on a nice long hunting trip.