The Cowardly vs. The Craven
Cheney & the Democratic Congress

US Main Stream Media just had one of those perfect storm moments with its contrived coverage of former VEEP Cheney and President Obama's almost concurrent address a few days ago. While Cheney, defending torture, concentrated on the defense of his administration’s failed national security policy, Obama focused on his problems closing Guantanamo. The issues were different, but that was dismissed or intentionally overlooked by a media hell bent on making the facts fit a sensationally contorted story line.

I characterize Cheney as a coward because he dodged the Vietnam draft with five deferments while nearly 60,000 of his fellow citizens died in action. I call the members of Congress craven for not voting for funds to dismantle the Guantanamo prison which is clearly in the US interest.

Creepy as it is, Cheney's media blitz has involved his daughter and his wife, using them to justify his actions in office. When analyzing his post election driven conduct, one can assume, given his previous efforts to avoid military service, it is not based on patriotism. So what motivates his frenzy?

His speech opposite Obama's was given at the American Enterprise Institute, a place that harbors and spawns the discredited Neocons. So ideologically, he retreated into the womb of his beliefs. This probably imparted a sense of security, much as a rat dashes for his hole. His Neocon pals were unlikely to throw their Gucci loafers at him; instead, given the audience's pro Israel fixation, if vexed, probably would toss less damaging kosher dill pickles to demonstrate their opposition.

It is understood that Cheney's ubiquitous appearances involve a post de facto defense of Bush policies and effort to avoid investigation and possible prosecution for his role in it. More likely it involves keeping his public flame burning to enhance his demands for a two million dollar advance on a book he plans to write. Republicans have an established record for greed.

Beached Republicans Rove, Condoleezza, Rumsfeld, Matalin, Paulsen, George and Laura all are engaged in book authorship as if this process will provide expiation for their misrule. So that they not fall into despair, there is always room for these Republican misfits at FOX NEWs. If they believe tell-all books will burnish their legacy, they are mistaken; the Sunnis, Kurds, and Shiites in Iraq plus the Taliban and al Qaeda Arabs in Afghanistan/Pakistan will write the final chapter on the GW Bush Administration.

John Milton’s 17th century quotation, A good book is the precious life blood of a master spirit... did not anticipate these scurrilous Republicans who attempt to fend off obscurity by reinventing themselves.

Obama's own Democratic Congress stuck it to him when it stripped out a request of roughly 80 million for closing down Guantanamo out of a 91 billion war supplemental budget. Ostensibly, the Democrats claimed they needed a detailed plan to determine how the money would be spent. The fact that the Congress just robotically authorized 91 billion for war without the foggiest idea of the detailed expenditures, makes this argument absurd.

Backed into a corner, the Democrats fell back to the position that claimed their constituents were frightened by the prospect of releasing terrorists into US zone of the interior. This was equally bogus; there was no chance these prisoners could escape from max security US prisons. The we want torture Republicans grabbed on to this and mounted a campaign to keep Guantanamo open, to politically embarrass Obama and justify Bush's building of the Caribbean concentration camp.

There has to be a better justification for a Democratic Congress to intentionally make Obama look weak. My sense is that it goes to friction between the White House and the Democratic Congress. If Obama was blindsided by the vote, he should blame his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel, self-important and self-absorbed, is also arrogant and a weak link in Obama's White House Staff. It is his duty to make certain legislative relations are sound and the White House is never caught by surprise.

The Democratic vote against the funds was craven, at the least based on the two official reasons provided. So my fellow Americans, take your choice between frightened Democrats or avaricious Republicans to rule you. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA Ret

FYI: Sister Sarah Palin has a book contract on her exploits and unregulated motherhood to be written by a phantom; her side kick, Joe the Plumber, already wrote one no one read. Alas, we have two more candidates for the Republican literary hall of fame.