Shut up?

Was ex-Vice President Dick Cheney born boring and tiresome, or does he just have a knack for it? In any case, what on earth makes him think he’s so wonderful, so brilliant, so uniquely intelligent that anyone but the roughly 28 percent of Americans who still claim to be Republicans would care in at all about what he says about, well, anything?

Traditionally, when a presidential administration leaves office, it refrains from criticising its successors (except around election time, of course). Bush has held to the tradition, but Cheney had pointedly refused to do so.

Naturally, America’s wingnut media hang on Cheney’s every syllable, but the mainstream news media has been eating it up, too (controversy makes money). But why, exactly, is he being so annoyingly vocal when we all thought we were finally rid of him on January 20? Why doesn’t he just shut up?

Some probably assume he’s trying to build up interest in his memoirs, hoping to boost sales, and that’s surely part of it. But I suspect his real motivation is to try and protect himself from prosecution. He must realise that he’s unlikely to face a trial in the US, unfortunately. He may be charged overseas, but he wouldn’t care about that (even if it could mean he’d never be able to leave the United States or risk arrest overseas). So Cheney’s trying to get in first—they say the best defence is a good offense and Cheney’s nothing if not offensive.

Another possibility is he can’t accept not calling the shots in government, and that his party was utterly defeated in the last elections: After eight years as de facto president, he thinks he should still be in control. There are mental health professionals who can help him with that.

I think it’s obvious that Cheney’s defence of the indefensible, his embrace of criminality and his determination to shred the US Constitution and change the presidency into a dictatorship make him not just an unindicted criminal, but also such a crackpot that no one should pay any attention to what he says.

On the other hand, every time Cheney or Republican Party Leader “Boss” Limbaugh open their mouths, the Democratic Party gets another convert, making the 2010 elections look better and better for the Democrats. So, while annoying, it’s not all bad!