Who Do You Despise More, Dick or Liz?

The Cheneys were at it again yesterday. On Tuesday, daughter Liz, who served in the Bush State Department, undiplomatically denounced President Obama on Fox News for agreeing to release photographs of Americans abusing prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's become "fashionable,' she said, "to side, really, with the terrorists."

Right.

For good measure, Pops jumped into denounce Obama's plan for helping the ailing auto companies. And according to the Washington Post, he's going to address the American Enterprise Institute, his stomping grounds before he became George W. Bush's vice-president, on May 21 on how to keep America safe. Presumably, he won't be praising Obama's efforts in Afghanistan, as Max Boot, a genuinely insightful neocon, does today in a superb column in the Los Angeles Times. According to Boot, "If anyone is up to these difficult tasks, it is the A-team that the Obama administration has assembled."

Both Cheneys aren't simply trying to defend the Bush administration's record from being besmirched by lily-livered liberals. One theory is that Papa Cheney has simply lost it, that, as the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson put it, he's a crazy old coot who needs to be shipped out to Wyoming, where he can go fishing with his corporate buddies and leave everyone else alone. But there may be more to it than sheer craziness.

Both Cheneys are also seeking to lay the groundwork for a "Who Lost America?" debate should there be another terrorist attack during the Obama presidency. Just as the right fulminated about liberals "losing" China in the early 1950s, so the Cheneys are ginning up the hard Right to denounce Obama and his advisers as traitors.

Ultimately, though, their snarling has less to do with the Democratic party than the GOP, which is at war with itself. On the one side are the movement conservatives such as the Cheneys. On the other side are cooler heads on the right such as David Frum and David Brooks who recognize that Obama may leave the GOP stranded in the wilderness for decades. For now, the former holds the upper hand as the GOP wallows in its self-righteous indignation about being toppled from power.

But it's already clear that the Cheneys will be active for years, even decades, to come, as Liz profiles herself as the rising star of the party. She's the anti-Meghan McCain -- truculent, strident, abrasive, a zealot. The acorn has not fallen far from the tree. So, friends, whom do you despise more, Dick or Liz?

Comments

[upbeatdem]

Why do I have to choose? They are both thoroughly disgusting. What I resent the most is the fact that we had to suffer through 8 years of Bush/Creepo destroying the country and now this man, who could never be found while he was in office, is out trashing our current president and trying to ruin the new administration. He should be in prison. Since he is not, he should get lost and stop the destruction.

[Jezreel]

Definitely both.

[oldgeek1]

I don't like Dick should be the motto for all Republican men.

[YellerDawg]

I think I'd have to go with him. He is what he is, and she is the fruit of his loins. The sins of the father are visited upon the daughters.

[quest44]

Anyone wishing that Pelosi hadn't taken impeachment off the table yet ?
I do ! I wish the Dems had not been so timid and pushed along with the majority of us citizens to impeach Bush and Cheney before they had done any more harm ,,but not only did we have to deal with them both for 8 long agonizing years we now have to deal with Cheney's face in the news trying to make himself look like the good guy and Obama the bad guy.
Damn convict Bush and Cheney of war crimes and lets be done with these two forever !
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree so its no wonder that Cheney's daughter is just as obnoxious as her father !

[ReedYoung]

Even as obvious as it is to an objective observer that Richard Bruce Cheney is a war criminal, Liz would be a truly remarkable individual if she had the courage and moral clarity to publicly admit that fact about any member of her own nuclear family. That she defends her father when a television producer is foolish enough to broadcast her is no surprise or scandal, it's the reason the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination includes family members; the testimony would be worthless anyway. Liz Cheney's lies don't influence me to despise her, or to form much of any opinion about her at all. Every word out of her mouth is predictable, the inevitable defense of a family member. I despise the idiots who keep giving her a platform.

[Borborigny]

Really, now, do we have to split hairs? They're both thoroughly despicable -- can't we just leave it at that? Oh, alright, the father is worse.

[Genna]

Both.

[billw8017]

The world is rife with Jingo reactionaries, and America has its share. The former VP is pathetic in this regard, a guy who got everything wrong and never learned from his mistakes. He does seem to be a good family man and it's nice to see his daughter speak up on his behalf, a sorry cause that does disgrace her, but a courageous one.

While we don't want to be overly wimpy and the Cheneys can be said to be among America's enemies though only from their ignorance which as pointed out elsewhere among these comments includes some responsibility for the 9-11 fiasco (they were, after all, in power and had shielded the Saudis who flew the planes into the trade center towers), Democrats shouldn't want to be the party of unrelenting hatred (not for gays, not for minorities, not for the young and poor, not for migrants, not for unions or demonstrators, and not necessarily for Republicans). That stand is taken (except Republicans loath Democrats who make them "want to vomit"). Let us be earnest and righteous, obnoxious though that may be in its own way.

[blueken]

Every night the GOP prays for two things, one that the economy goes to hell in a hand basket, and two that there is a major attack on this country. These are the guys who call themselves true patriots. My biggest fear is that they will come back into power.

[blueken]

I love how Cheney and Bush seem to overlook the fact that 9/11 happened on their watch. Of course they say, who knew? Well..... let's see, Clintons staff told Bush's staff the number one threat to the United States was a guy named Osama and an orginization called Al Queda. The FBI knew that several people on the terrorist list had snuck into the country, and one FBI agent thought that Arabs going to flight school that weren't interested in learning how to land were a little suspicous. For 7 1/2 years they kept America scared of another attack, but if one occurs on Obama's watch, they will get all "See, See, I told you so." They make me sick.

[Yurdelite]

Excellent.

[HidingintheDeepSouth]

I couldn't have said it better.

[LBDrivingSchool]

How is Liz Cheney qualified (and I use the term loosely, given the low, low standards of contemporary talking headism) to offer her opinion on the teevee? What has she accomplished? What expertise does she have? Other than being the daughter of a former vice president, what's her claim on our attention? Seriously. I have no idea.

Maybe she and Amy and Chip Carter and Chelsea Clinton and the Bush Twins could do a public affairs show where they offer up their opionations on the issues of the day--"Executive Power 2: Electric Boogaloo."

[thereWego]

How is she qualified?

How the hell is Barry qualified?

He's not! The state of of country proves it.

If the US gets hit by terrorists in the next few years, Barry's done, THAT'S the bottom line.

[Octoberluna]

um..yeah...ok

[LBDrivingSchool]

Well, he was elected overwhelmingly, so that makes him the President. And Liz??

And Bush was reelected, even though 9/11 happened on his watch, after he was specifically warned that bin Laden was determined to use hijacked airplanes as weapons. So apparantly being an abject failure at keeping the US safe is no barrier to reelection.

[scooperss]

That's like asking "which came first, the chicken or the egg"?

[wordguy11]

If I had my druthers, I'd take Cheney, the behind-the-scenes puppet master. There is no absence of arrogance in that family. It's almost like someone claiming their religion is better than the next guy's. The Cheney family, with daughter Liz now of the opinion that what she says matters to anybody, is apparently moving towards an aristocracy. How can the guy who created such foreign policy nightmares, point his finger at the Obama Administration and say we are worse off because of it? That we remain in harm's way is largely the work of the man whose shoot-from-the-hip mentality has given new meaning to the term "ugly American". Andy Gastmeyer, from "Beyond One-Minute Fifteen"

[rgblue]

LIZ.

It's become "fashionable,' she said, "to side, really, with the terrorists."

That is possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard.