Friday, August 11, 2006
Cheney Has Become Irrelevant
To illustrate, after Sen. Joseph Lieberman lost to Ed Lamont in the Connecticut Senate primary race, Cheney immediately injected himself into the fray and placed a news conference call to reporters. Here's what Cheney said via Media Matters:
So...the laconic guy has suddenly become Mr. Chatterbox; and yes, this is the very same vice president who last year while on vacation never saw fit to offer words of comfort to the decimated victims of Katrina in the Gulf Coast.The thing that's partly disturbing about it is the fact that, the standpoint of our adversaries, if you will, in this conflict, and the Al Qaeda types, they clearly are betting on the proposition that ultimately they can break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task. And when we see the Democratic Party reject one of its own, a man they selected to be their vice presidential nominee just a few short years ago, it would seem to say a lot about the state the party is in today if that's becoming the dominant view of the Democratic Party, the basic, fundamental notion that somehow we can retreat behind our oceans and not be actively engaged in this conflict and be safe here at home, which clearly we know we won't -- we can't be. So we have to be actively engaged not only in
Afghanistan and Iraq, but on a global basis if we're going to succeed in prevailing in this long-term conflict.
But his telephone press interview, alas, was mostly ignored by mainstream media. No exclusive front page hype in the New York Times, Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal.
This morning in an online chat with Washington Post Congressional reporter Jonathan Weisman, Media Matter reports that a reader asked him why the Post failed to headline Cheney's commentary in a story.
Ouch!Jonathan Weisman responded: "The vice president also said the insurgency in Iraq is in its death throes, and that U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators. I'm afraid to say his utterances are losing their news value."
And on Thursday during a campaign stop when Sen. Hillary Clinton was asked about Cheney, she offered the "Darther" her special brand of love, Raw Story reports.
Double Ouch!I don't take anything he says seriously anymore," Clinton said when asked about Cheney at a later campaign stop. "I think that he has been a very counterproductive--even destructive--force in our country, and I am very disheartened by the failure of leadership from the President and Vice President."
Cheney has gone from most powerful vice president in history to irrelevancy; and noting how Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice appears to have won the internal fight between her and Cheney over the Lebanese ceasefire, Howling Latina can almost hear Cheney flapping and quacking all the way from Wyoming.
