While I agree with your assessment that the former vice president is engaged in a desperate strategy to cover up (and avoid the consequences of) his own official misconduct in authorizing torture, I also believe that he (and the GOP in general) are engaged in a crude political calculation–that since the odds favor another terrorist attack within our borders, they are willing to play those odds by preemptively blaming Obama and the Democrats. There is, bluntly, a level at which they see the potential for mass loss of life and destruction of property as a political "plus". It is because this is true that the right has overreacted so savagely to John Brennan's pointed remarks last week.
People who regard this kind of speculation as outrageous and unseemly fail to understand that Cheney and his supporters–having already not only rationalized but celebrated torture and the weakening of the constitution in the name of national defense—have crossed a bright line into truly Strangelovian territory. These people are shameless; it is virtually impossible to malign them, it is simply that the truth itself is so malignant we can hardly bear to give it credence. ( Source)
I re-watched the Tracy/Hepburn flick State of the Union over the weekend. It's another classic Capra film that is clear-eyed about the everyday corruption that infects our politics. But while that's so, it refuses to be cynical about it because of its confidence in an idealism that slumbers in the American soul that is always there to be awakened.
But while the kind of back room political political game the movie depicts is a one the Dems still play, and we saw it in the deals made with the banks and pharma, Republicans like Cheney are playing a completely different game. The Dems are old school in their corruption–they try and hide it from the American public behind a veil of idealistic rhetoric; Cheney represents an innovation that is far more chilling. He doesn't even feel the need to pay lip service to American ideals anymore.
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