Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Cheney II and Bush Cultists, Too
So it took all of six hours or so for the news to change with the Dick Cheney story.
Apparently the victim, Harry Whittington, has had a shotgun pellet get into his bloodstream and get lodged near his heart, giving him a mild heart attack. Whittington is still OK, though.
Before we wander on I want to mention something that struck me the second I heard about this story yesterday: Cheney was being given a pass by the media. I kept hearing mention of the accident and then “the other guy came up behind Cheney,” like it was Whittington’s fault.
Not that it’s a big deal, but it isn’t unimportant, either. Cheney shot another man accidentally and Whittington didn’t exactly jump in front of the gun. As AOL News reported, “Several hunting safety experts agreed in interviews that it would have been a good idea for Whittington to announce himself. But every expert stressed that the shooter is responsible for avoiding other people.”
This is common sense to me. I’m sure there was no malice involved, and Whittington is receiving the finest medical care, but how about a little responsibility here? How about a public statement with an apology, Cheney? Whittington is going to have bird shot lodged in his ass for the rest of his life. It’s the least you could do.
In case you hadn’t noticed, Big Time isn’t big on apologies, or even keeping the press apprised of anything, for that matter. I hope the apology and public statement isn’t a week in coming, and I hope it isn’t leaked to the public via a private citizen, as the V.P. is wont to do nowadays.
I am always willing to give a tip o’ the hat to other bloggers who rock out with a particular posting, and that time has come today. Glenn Greenwald posted a great one recently that is probably the best blog post I’ve read in months. No other post so accurately skewers the worst of conservative blogging. That means you, Little Green Footballs.
I’m glad Glenn is getting so much attention, because he is a truly intelligent and vibrant blogger. He has repeatedly highlighted a great point: there is a dangerous difference between conservativism and cultism, and while I don’t like the former the latter is dangerous to the very fabric of our nation. From war to indefinite detention to torture to warrantless spying, what scares me is that these cultists have yet to find a limit to the power they are willing to cede to the president. I wonder exactly how far Bush would have to go before they said “stop,” or even “better him than a democrat,” which seemed to be the prevailing opinion of conservatives in 2004.
As long as the RNC transmits talking points to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity on a regular basis these people will never crawl out of the Platonic cave they labor in. I think the problem has less to do with political philosophy and more to do with bias: if Clinton were doing this do you think they would be so fanatically supportive? Do you honestly think they would be so eager to defend executive authority if the executive was a democrat? Need I resurrect the quotes of prominent republicans from the brief air war over Kosovo eight years ago? Remember the howling about “jackbooted thugs” when the ATF stormed the Koresh compound or when Elian Gonzales was taken from his home?
No, my friend. These people are all about Big Government when it suits their purposes and small government when democrats are in charge. Conservative governments don’t run up record deficits and conservative governments don’t start pre-emptive wars based on lies, republicans do. Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Rice do, and Pat Roberts trails behind to stonewall congressional investigations and beat down witnesses. Ditto for the other powerbrokers in the Republican Party like DeLay, Frist, and Hastert.
And spare me the “bad apple” theory. Every single one of the most prominent republican politicians in Washington is complicit in this. This isn’t a bad president we’re talking about: this is an entire political party that has simply gone AWOL. This is Karl Rove or “Scooter” Libby leaking Valeria Plame’s identity at Cheney’s behest and Pat Roberts publicly parroting the GOP spin and doubting she was ever undercover. This is Rick Santorum teaming up with Tom DeLay to run the “K” Street Project and then voting for every initiative and power that Bush asks for. This is Bill Frist lying about diagnosing Terri Schiavo and ramming an insane bill through congress and Bush flying back from vacation to sign it within 24 hours. This is Ken Mehlman simply existing. This is every rapacious thing Bush has done defended rabidly by republican congresspeople. This is an ugly political machine that is destroying our nation.
# posted by BitterHarvest @ 3:34 PM 
