Dick Cheney’s Daughter is a Lesbian

Am I the only one who finds that frighteningly ironic and somewhat amusing? The manner in which he deals with this “personal issue” exposes the hypocrisy of his rhetoric. He is a Family Values Conservative who cannot fully support his own daughter’s right to get married and raise children. He is the father of a Lesbian who cannot publicly condemn a lifestyle that he and his Neo-Conservative colleagues privately despise.

For a Vice President who is currently experiencing Spiro Agnew-like dismal poll numbers the last few weeks have really plunged him into the depths of historic job failure. His confrontation with Wolf Blitzer questions about his daughter having a child and the gay marriage issue were reminiscent of his passive-aggressive silent treatment to John Edwards when he brought up the “L” word in the VP debates. Somehow, this overly arrogant public servant thinks that he is the sole arbiter of what is proper public discourse and polite behavior. He is the policy maker who won’t discuss policies that affect his family.

From muted honesty to delusional recklessness, the Blitzer interview uncomfortably shifted to Iraq and Cheney’s insistences that the war is still going well. With Nixon-like Paranoia he blamed the Press for not reporting the good news. I thought that policy was abandoned following the American people’s awakening during the 2006 election. Apparently, our VP is either still in denial or he really believes Karl Rove’s political tomfoolery.

Recently, the PBS series Frontline report on the “Dark Side” exposed the depths and lengths that Cheney and Rumsfeld plotted to change the Federal Government. Bits and pieces of their Dr. Evil-like plan have been coming out in press reports, but it seems that recently the information has been more incriminating. Although Cheney as a sitting Vice President won’t be forced to testify in the Scooter Libby trial, there has already been some damning allegations presented. Obviously, we will never know the entire truth and even the legal truth won’t be revealed until the end of the trial, but it is clear that Cheney knew more about the CIA leak then he originally admitted.

His corruption and hypocrisy appear to make him uncomfortable in his own skin whether he is talking about his daughter or trying to stand behind his President. In last month’s State of Union, Cheney was seen with his usual scowl behind Bush and it even turned to a noticeable frown when the President admitted that man-made forces affect “Global Climate Change.” The watered down recognition of Global Warming by the most anti-science President in recent history could not even be supported by his VP with at the very least a neutral facial expression.

I guess that little George went a little too far for the most powerful Vice President that this nation have ever experienced. In 1999, Bush hired Cheney to head the exploratory committee to select a running mate and he chose himself. I can’t think a more power hungry and calculated maneuver. Talk about chutzpah. The plan that he hatched with Rumsfeld back in the Ford Administration was now poised to come into full fruition.

In the 2000 VP debates, Joe Lieberman made a point of how good the economy was under Clinton’s Democratic Administration and how Cheney prospered as head of Halliburton. Cheney countered with a sharply worded response that the government had nothing do it, implying that it was his hard work and forces of the free market economy that led to his windfall profits. The audience rewarded Cheney with polite laughter and a bit of applause which won him the debate point. Lieberman never countered and the topic was changed.

The reality of Halliburton’s financial success is that it was completely and utterly government funded in a most non-free market manner. Cheney was instrumental in changing military expenditure policies during George HW Bush’s administration to allow private sector companies to profit by providing the services that were previously in-house. Cheney actually took public office for a personal gain. He took a pay cut in government, only to reap massive amounts of compensation from Halliburton, then went back into government to continue the cycle of war profiteering.

In contrast, former Vice President Gore, who is passionate about preventing Global Warming, brought the issue to the forefront in the last few months for apparently altruistic reasons and a voluntary need for to do civic good. Besides selling a few books and his documentary, he received very little personal gain. Although it was speculated that this would be his springboard back into Presidential Politics, at this point it does not appear that he has any ambition to seek higher office. He merely uses his name recognition and prestige to affect public policy in a way that can only be admired by friend and foe alike.

I cannot see a starkest contrast to the unmitigated disaster of Dick Cheney’s Vice Presidency. If it wasn’t for the debacle of the Clinton impeachment and Republican control of Congress for the first six years of Bush/Cheney, I believe the call for impeachment would have been much louder. It’s probably still on the table for the next couple of years depending on how the various congressional hearings pan out. If it ever gets close to impeachment, resignation seems to make more political sense for the Republican Party. Cheney could blame it on health problems and the new sitting VP would be an asset to the 2008 ticket rather than the albatross that Cheney is.

Bush could nominate Condoleezza Rice making her the first Black and the first woman to hold such a high office. It would follow the patter of rewarding poor job performance; Rice ignores terrorism threats as head of the NSA then gets rewarded with Secretary of State. With a less than exemplary record of diplomacy at the State Department, she looks ripe for promotion in Bush’s eyes because loyalty is more important than performance. Just as faith is more important science, in this oligarchy of hypocrisy.