Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Dick Cheney's Selective Memory: Sometimes the People Count, Sometimes They Don't

Dick Cheney is a political creature, which explains his head-spinning hypocrisy on the role of grassroots movements in the political process.

Asked this week about the recent tea parties by fake journalist Sean Hannity, Cheney endorsed the protest movement. Here are two Cheney quotes:

I thought the tea parties were great.

***

I think when you get that kind of grassroots sentiment being expressed, thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people all across the country, that will have an impact on Capitol Hill. It will have an impact, I think, on the political process. And it's basically a healthy development.

Such sympathy for regular people is a far cry from Cheney's previous attitude toward the organizing of everyday folks. When he was vice president, Cheney thumbed his nose at protesters.

In a broadcast interview while in office, Cheney had this exchange with journalist Marth Raddaz:

CHENEY: On the security front, I think there's a general consensus that we've made major progress, that the surge has worked. That's been a major success.

RADDATZ: Two-third of Americans say it's not worth fighting.

CHENEY: So?

RADDATZ So? You don't care what the American people think?

CHENEY: No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.

2 comments:

Tulsan said...

Speaking of Cheney duality...

Liberals have been a bit conflicted in their theorizing about Cheney's behavior during the W administration.

Was he this evil political mastermind, or maybe he suffered a stroke after 9/11? Or somehow both? Why did he not seem crazy when he worked for Ford and Bush I?

A reader at TPM has come up with a simple and sensible explanation of why Cheney behaved as he did. It's worth reading.

By the way, just today, "Man of the West" noted an analogous apparent contradiction in my own assessment of the GOP in the comment section of the recent AltTulsa post,
Nutballs Speak Out at Glenn Beck Tea Party
.

There, MotW accurately restated my position:

"Republicans are idiots who couldn't be trusted to successfully run a popsicle stand; on the other, they are a diabolically well-organized and well-disciplined organization..."

I hope I was able to resolve it satisfactorily.

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