The Cheney Joke

The current vice president is also the moaner-in-chief, always complaining about the critics of his Bush’s administration. There’s not a day that goes by, it seems, when he’s not attacking an opponent. It’s been getting so absurd that it’s as if he’s going for the title of joker-in-chief.

Lately, one of his favourite targets has been US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In Japan and Australia Cheney questioned Pelosi’s patriotism. He, of course, doesn’t admit that. He told ABC News…

I'm not sure what part of it is that Nancy disagreed with. She accused me of questioning her patriotism. I didn't question her patriotism. I questioned her judgment.

How often did Cheney refer to the former Republican Speaker of the House as “Dennis”? I’d bet that he referred to him as “the Speaker”, or maybe as “Congressman Hastert”. After all, he never refers to Bush as “George” or to the Secretary of State as “Condi”.

I doubt very much that this was an accident.

Cheney has long used language to express his contempt for his many (many, many) critics. His use of the Speaker’s first name implies he was trying to lower her status. But he also uses language to try and shift the focus off the Cheney Bush Administration’s failure in Iraq.

Chief among this is his tiresome, constant drone of complaint that opposition to the Bush war provides support to terrorists. In Australia, he added a new twist to his grumpy rhetoric, claiming terrorists planned to establish

A caliphate covering a region from Spain, across North Africa, through the Middle East and South Asia, all the way to Indonesia—and it wouldn't stop there.

That language is reminiscent of what was once used to justify the Crusades which, not coincidentally, is what Islamists accuse the Bush Administration of waging. Cheney’s words would seem to justify their concern.

Or maybe Cheney’s just having a big laugh at our expense. Maybe he’s some sort of comic genius, playing his jokes totally straight, as if he really believes what he’s saying. I know—that’s just wishful thinking. Either way, the joke’s on all of us.

January 20, 2009—the end of their reign—can’t come soon enough. And that’s no joke.