Why is Dick Cheney So Scared?

by paradox

Politically another extraordinary weekend has passed, the former Vice President freshly out of office yet still yapping desperately on the appalling Sunday political shows (“our best format.”) Perhaps the greatest unwritten rule of American politics is that former Presidents do not criticize the current administration in any sense, their turn is over and the next President gets a clean unfettered chance. It has never been, until VP Darth showed up, that a former VP ever said anything, nobody could give a shit, but Darth is as we all know a special American VP anomaly, Bush was his puppet, so what the hell is going on?

If a torture prosecution starts on the Bush administration Dick Cheney is chained and going to prison, and if the obituaries for the Republican Party were foolish presently they certainly would not be then. The evidence of multiple felonies is easily everywhere, if the prosecution starts Cheney is toast, so is his Party, everything must be done to keep the start from initiating.

Okay. Readers may recall I forecast the future (surely the quickest path to a face splat) that the Bush administration torture story—even with Obama dribbling out a new felony every month—is headed implacably toward the memory hole, it was there already years ago, in fact, but some have insisted that somehow prosecutions will start this year.

Mm. Dream on. Some readers think I’m failing terribly in my duty by forecasting failure, a legitimate point that concerns me, truly, but utmost adherence to reality and the ability to learn for the future far outweigh some foolish possible treasonous effect my text could have.

Reality: advocates for torture prosecution are very lonely in the blogosphere. Executive, Congress, and Journalism all have their very urgent reasons for letting the dog lie, and it will be extremely difficult to start a prosecution from the liberal blogosphere or a few sane voices in New York. The only hope we have for this critically needed justice is the appointment of a special prosecutor by the current Attorney General, all else is wasted time and energy.

The bi-weekly repetition of new discovered felony from some fresh released document is irritating and tiring. Terrible crimes were obvious many years ago, the last thing we need is evidence (this element, in fact, is precisely what slots torture as already in the memory hole), we need precise paths of action to make the current Attorney General, Holder, appoint that prosecutor. All else is folly, for again, foes to prosecution have easily and patiently waited out news of their crimes for many years, nothing happening is always the result.¹

The reality is that the blogosphere, somehow, has to leverage Holder to act, even with a frowning President looming over his shoulder. The Attorney General is supposed to be independent of Executive, yes, and the rule of law is supposed to be a paramount Democratic value. Reality demands that tactics to move Holder know that loyalty to Obama must exist and formulate tactics accordingly.

Again, in one sense I desperately want to see Dick Cheney and George Bush in prison for the monstrous hurt they’ve hurled us into. Long exposure to the ho-hum abuse of American Democracy—Dick Cheney is not the first American politician to skate—steels the soul after a while to expect nothing and use reality as best we can to get something, anything, that helps the little people.

Getting constantly outraged is easy and tempting and a total setup for utter futility, too much is wrong in American politics, quick disgusted burnout is inevitable. Outrage outlived its utility with torture years ago, what can be done to motivate Holder?

Digby said yesterday she felt failure surrounding us on torture, brutally oppressive media and political voices have twisted the framing completely away from the simple reality of terrible crimes committed. That’s precisely what having all those very powerful political players lined up against you listed earlier delivers, failure, if the blogosphere can’t motivate Holder in the next 90 days no one will be talking about this story at Christmas.

I hope not. Hope is a good thing, they say, if very thin gruel some mornings. Hope and the realism to somehow motivate Holder will be initiated. Only Attorney General Holder can deliver justice, all else is folly.

[1] If the repetition of truth for endless years that never motivated anything is irritating, then the preposterous idea that a Congressional commission on torture merits sneering instant angry disgust, what possible path to justice could ever be delivered by those utterly craven, weak, scurrilous loudmouths?

Since 2000 Congress has rolled over and been dead, oversight and accountability are horrid concepts to its members, why, campaign finance reform might pass if we have to possess character!

That is the screaming reality and record, and it offends me to hear some lame idea that these weaklings could ever do anything with some useless commission. As citizens we can only put with so much offensive horseshit in our lives, and a Congressional commission on torture would crush us with it. It’s prosecution or nothing. \