Full speed ahead

In his most recent campaign speeches, Bush has been accusing Dems of not having “a plan for victory” in Iraq (no one ever wonders whether we have a plan for victory in Afghanistan, have you noticed that?), just as if every member of his administration hasn’t made it clear repeatedly that the opinion of Congress, and indeed of the American people, is irrelevant. Cheney, even while repeating the they-don’t-have-a-plan talking point in an interview to air on ABC Sunday, made that position clear yet again: “It may not be popular with the public. It doesn’t matter, in the sense that we have to continue what we think is right” (which he says is to go “full speed ahead” in Iraq). What the American people as a whole might think is right does not – you heard it hear first – matter. I’d love to be able to force the Bushies to sit down and write an essay on what they believe is the meaning of representative democracy, the will of the people, and all that Poly Sci 101 stuff. But I think we get a pretty good sense in the binary opposition Cheney created in his next sentences: “That’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re not running for office; we’re doing what we think is right.”

We’re not running for office; we’re doing what we think is right.