This is going to be one of ‘those’ posts, so if you are a Republican, and can’t get by the party designation, move along now.

Last night, the Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney, appeared on Larry King Live. I’m not a regular watcher of the show, for reasons of time slot more than anything else. Mr. King is a fine interviewer, and as close to Phil Donahue as we’re likely to get in these hectic, latter days of the Bush administration.

My wife and children were quick to assert that I should not get too worked up, and should refrain from using the retort ‘rrrrr-ra-rrrrr’ to anything the talking head on the television screen might say. [For those who need explanation, those three syllables are almost the sum total of what the caricature of Cheney says on the Comedy Central show 'Lil Bush']

Seriously, and party distinctions aside, does it not hit like a lead hammer that this man is the poster boy for what is wrong with American politics?

First, this man is about a charming as a pit viper. How he manages to persuade anyone of anything is inscrutable.

As the interview begins, I made a bet with my son how many times national security will be given as a reason to avoid an answer. I lost count, not because there were that many times, but for the fact that I simply was getting more disturbed the longer the interview went. When a 12 year old girl [my daughter] can pay attention to a conversation like this, and without other prompting announce “I think he’s lying”. [Note - I have been sworn to silence thus far, and so my misgivings about this person are not present in the room when this comes out]

When a lie doesn’t come to the man, he simply gives a reason, most notably the quip about national security, why he cannot answer. I’ve seen other interviewers try to pin him down on certain answers, without a shred of success, so perhaps Mr. King tacitly admits futility at the outset.

Mr. King asks him politely why he has been so insistent upon the course he is forcing the country to take, and without pause, Cheney inserts the fact of their apocryphal read on the matters of state, and that the unwavering course comes from the abiding knowledge they possess.

This continues for an hour, and I get more and more uneasy about what is coming into our living room. It is the same feeling I got when I saw President Clinton say he had nothing to do with Monica Lewinsky. Bill Clinton was wrong there, and should have told the truth, as he must have known that information was available to fuel the specific questions that were asked. It really wasn’t our business, but the Republicans needed something to slur him, and they got what they wanted. It is the same feeling I got when I saw Richard Nixon stand and say he was not a crook. [However, by today's standards, he was 100% correct]

The absolute worst moment, for anyone with an IQ in 3 digits, had to have been when Mr. King asked if, in a time of quiet reflection, this man ever had any doubts about the course of the country, and any actions taken. Without pause, Mr. Cheney replied with an emphatic ‘No’.

To not have had the least bit of reticence, at any point along the journey thus far, is to me the absolute admittance of irrational behavior. This made the introductory statement that Mr. King will be speaking with possibly the most powerful man in America that much more frightening.

[tags] Larry King Live, CNN, Vice President Cheney, Bush Administration [/tags]

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