In an interview with ABC's Martha Raddatz, Vice President Cheney brandished his usual contempt for public opinion:
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? [Sneers.]
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.
Watch it here.
This got me thinking: Suppose the interview had continued along the same lines:
RADDATZ: Actually, sir, the polls aren't fluctuating. The American people turned against the Iraq war years ago.
CHENEY: So? [Sneers.]
RADDATZ: Some might say that a democracy fighting a war that its people don't support is in trouble -- that it has lost its way.
CHENEY: So? [Sneers.]
RADDATZ: That doesn't concern you?
CHENEY: No. Sometimes you have to sacrifice democracy in order to protect it. [Sneers and winks.]
RADDATZ: Historians already speculate that the Bush Administration will be considered a failure and quite possibly the worst in history along with the Buchanan and Harding presidencies.
CHENEY: Historians? Who cares? [Sneers.]
RADDATZ: Historians aside, sir, public disapproval of the Bush Administration is unprecedented.
CHENEY: So? [Sneers.]
RADDATZ: Sir, people consider the failures and incompetence in Iraq, the failures and incompetence in addressing the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, the mortgage crisis, and the declining economy, and...
CHENEY: Iraq has been, I think, a success by any definition. We're making great progress there. Not only that, Iraq has offered tremendous growth for great American firms like Blackwater and Halliburton. [Sneers.]
RADDATZ: Sir?
CHENEY: And, we've lowered taxes for millions of deserving Americans. [Sneers and winks.]
RADDATZ: Sir, many say that those Americans are not deserving -- that the Republican tax policy is a matter of making the rich richer at the expense of the middle class.
CHENEY: So? This is our due. [Sneers and snarls.]
RADDATZ: Getting back to Halliburton, it's actually not an American company.
CHENEY: Martha?
RADDATZ: Sir?
CHENEY: Go f*** yourself. [Sneers and winks.]
DISCLAIMER: Most of this interview is fictional. It could never happen like this.
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3 comments:
After hearing so much about his desire for consolidated executive power, this guy just frightens me more and more. And 97% of Americans likely have no idea what his motives are.
I wonder what will happen when he and Bush leave office. Will the next Democratic president, for example, release the minutes of Cheney's energy task force? Will he or she remove the ban on access to presidential papers? One hopes so, although Cheney banks on a human impulse to not surrender power once you have it, regardless of your political philosophy. It's cynical, but then he's the most cynical politician to hold high office since Nixon.
You know, even if they do release all of the nasty evidence, people will be so worried about the economy, they won't pay attention. Bush has engineered his own perfect exit strategy with this recession.
It will be years before most people have a hint of what has gone on. Long enough to forget that they didn't care enough to pay attention to the warning signs at the time.
Wow, I turned into the queen of negativity here today!
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