Why Jonah Goldberg Hearts Dick Cheney

Let’s have Jonah speak for himself:

Why do I like Dick Cheney? Because at a time when everybody talks a big game about how they don’t like people-pleasing politicians who live by the polls, Cheney is pretty much the only guy out there who walks the walk. He truly doesn’t care what people think about him. I love that … In particular, I like his stance toward the media. His view of the Fourth Estate is a bit like that of a bull elephant annoyed by varmints shnuffling around his feet: He’s not bothered enough to squish ’em

Such STUPID writing. The word is not squish – the word is LIE. Now I’m not surprised that Mr. Goldberg loves someone who lies. After all, what does the National Review do on a routine basis?

Moreover, Cheney’s approach to government is ultimately counterproductive. That’s certainly the upshot of an epic exegesis on Cheney’s tenure that is unfolding like daily Pulitzer bait in the Washington Post this week. So far, the image of the VPOTUS emerging in the series is one of almost cinematic villainy. Like Cancer Man in “The X-Files,” he always seems to be standing in the shadows, moving the gears of government to his own nefarious tune. According to the Post, he even intimidated former Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft — who, we all know, smells of sulfur and eats puppies like popcorn — into abandoning his objections to harsh treatment of enemy combatants. The vice president is famously concerned with two things: restoring the prerogatives of the executive branch, lost in the wake of the Vietnam War and Watergate, and defeating our enemies in the war on terror. Both are admirable goals. But seemingly countless sources inside the Bush administration tell the Post that he has a contempt for bureaucratic and legislative consensus-building that rivals his contempt for cultivating public support through the media. As a result, he often succeeds in bulldozing policies — on enemy interrogations, etc. — all the way to the president’s desk. But he’s isolated when it comes time to defend these policies in Congress and the public.

Now this is just STUPID analysis. It’s not that the isolation has made it difficult for Cheney to defend good decisions. Rather – it’s that Cheney is making really bad decisions as he ignores input from those who might actually understand things like how the economy works or what is good foreign policy in the Middle East. But then again – those who write for the National Review routinely ignore what the experts are saying and they write some of the dumbest things I’ve ever read. Mr. Goldberg babbles on about Cheney’s “principled arguments”. But I never heard anything of principle come out of Cheney’s mouth – only dishonesty and/or stupidity.. But that is why Jonan Goldberg hears Dick Cheney – they are a lot of like.

Memo to my home town newspaper – you are better than the National Review so why on earth do you soil your pages with the incessant idiocy of Jonah Goldberg?