A few scores to settle

Goodbye, Number Six.

Dick Cheney gave more interviews in his Legacy of Shooting Things in the Face Tour, with doughy wingers Sean Hannity on Monday and Bill Bennett and Fox on Tuesday and McNeil-Lehrer today.

He said that he plans to write a book because “I’ve got a lot of stories to tell, and a few scores to settle.” Charming. He added, “I’m going out with a good heart.” He did not say who it used to belong to.

He scolded members of Congress who were briefed on warrantless wiretapping but who refuse to defend it in public, accepting (“Exactly”) Bennett’s characterization of their stance as “political cowardice.” It’s interesting that George Bush’s pseudo-Wilsonian idealism and Cheney’s Machiavelli-with-extra-douchebaggery pragmatism lead them to an identical denial of the validity of any position than their own. Cheney says that the Obamaites need to “overcome their campaign rhetoric,” and “be objective” about torture and surveillance and the Patriotic Act: “if they’re fair-minded about it, they’ll recognize that it’s important to continue those policies.”

Were the deaths of 4,500 Americans, 100,000+ Iraqis worth it? Yup, totally.

Jim Lehrer asked some basic political theory questions, like, should a government in a democracy implement policies the people disapprove of? Cheney: “That’s what elections are for”. Ah yes, the “accountability moment” theory, otherwise known as elective dictatorship.

Anyway, he says, he doesn’t “buy” that the Bush admin is so unpopular. “I find, when I get out and talk to people, that that’s not the unanimous view as you would have -- the things that count for me in terms of the people I want to make certain are with us are, for example, the American military -- the young men and women who serve, the folks who go out and put their lives on the line to carry out the policies we’ve decided upon.” You’re not unpopular if the people with guns are behind you.

Shame on Cheney for attempting to attribute political opinions to the United States military.

He also denies being highly partisan. After all, “Joe Lieberman is my favorite Democrat.” So that settles that.