Prometheus 6

I have kind of a unique perspective on Dick Cheney.  I come from the same town he did--Casper, Wyoming.  In fact my dad, a tv newsman, interviewed him numerous times when he was Wyoming's lone US House Representative and got to know him fairly well.  He told me Cheney was always ultra conservative (even more conservative than Reagan) but was never a megalomaniac.  Additionally, no matter how right wing he convictions may have been, he always had a way of calmly explaining his views in a seemingly logical way.

Growing up, Cheney became a symbol of admiration for me not for his views (which I frankly had no comprehension of) but for the fact that we came from the same remote town that nobody had ever heard of.  The fact that he was Defense Secretary was a source of pride for many people in Wyoming.  My image of him began to change during the 2000 election when I was in college and learned that he had voted against the release of Nelson Mandela.  Although many people in Wyoming will go on blindly holding allegiance to him, I know for a fact that many people with varying political beliefs who knew him personally during his days as a US representative are deeply disillusioned with what he came to represent.  I think his bypass surgery probably did have an effect on his behavior as did his entry into the intoxicating world of the oil business.

There are some subjects I feel must be considered. Unfortunately, brain damage is common side effect of open heart surgery, as I noted during last the Democratic primary last year.

I make the suggestion in all seriousness. It's just the sort of thing you have to deliver wrapped in bubble wrap.

ubstu-34,

I'm curious about something regarding the folks in Wyoming. Cheney applied for and received five deferments during the American War in Vietnam. Personally, I don't care that he looked for a way to avoid being killed. What I wonder, though is given the alleged conservative values, i.e., love of country, support for the military and anti-communism, that are attributed to folks in places like Wyoming why were they so eager to embrace someone like Cheney by electing him again and again as their sole representative in Congress? 

At the end of the first Gulf War I saw and heard Cheney in person, on his victory tour (no other term for it). He was arrogant, conservative, and condescending to detractors, e.g. to the Union of Concerned Scientists. All normal behavior for a Secretary of Defense who had just "won," but not over the top so you couldn't stay in the same room with him. That seemed to come later. He may have gone totally bitter when he had to do whatever he had to do to get the VP slot.

He may have gone totally bitter when he had to do whatever he had to do to get the VP slot.

I don't know what Cheney actually had to do to get on the ticket but he was the person selected to chair the team that was in charge of selecting candidates for Bush to consider. The team recommended Cheney to Bush. I meant to write that Cheney recommended himself to Bush and there being no other candidates put forward by the committee... 

ptc, as long as a representative brings government money to a district, he or she is in good shape for re-election. But I take your point. There are different standards applied to jingoists. For example, how can Clinton be called a near-traitor for deferments, while Cheney has never been called that? Different attitudes and pronouncements about the military, maybe, but they did (or rather, didnt do) the same thing regarding their own (lack of) service.

ETA: Re what Cheney had to do, I can only suspect what part of his soul he sold to become CEO of Halliburton in the first place. But I'm also thinking of change of residency-- you know, what they picked on Hillary Clinton for. He was a transplanted Texan who dashed back to Wyoming just before the 2000 election so he and Bush wouldn't both be "Texans." This is especially interesting in light of ubstu-34's comment about how he was regarded in Wyoming.

i agree that it's a tedious question why 'Cheney is Cheney'--there will always be monsters in the world.  The real question is how did Cheney get the power he did, and most have corrective actions associated: stupid president; not enough formal power centers under the president; CEO syndrome; lack of skepticism in the press; etc.

Cheney and the Bushistas were able to do what they did because we believe what we believe until we're forced out of it. We all think we know how things work...we trust our understanding of society in the same way we trust the sidewalk not to collapse under us, though we know it does, on occasion, collapse. Whatever your position, you can do what you want as long as everyone, say, two social strata away can continue without change.

PT

Wyoming is a heavily Republican state.  Wyoming has not sent a Democrat to Washington since the late 70s.  It is quite easy for a Republican incumbent to hold office for years without any series possibility of being unseated.  Cheney used to joke that the reason he didn't run for Senate was because he would have had to beat out Alan Simpson in a Republican primary.  I think the Wyoming electorate warmed to Cheney because he was able to cast himself in the role of a local boy sent to Washington to prevent the federal government from intruding on the affairs of the people.  Of course, this logic is paradoxical given the fact that Cheney had become a creature of Washington by the time he joined the House of Representatives as Wyoming's sole representative.  Like most Wyoming Republicans, however, Cheney tapped into the suspicion that many in the Rocky Mountain west have of the federal government.  The popular catch phrase the Republicans use time and time again is "war on the west."  They market themselves as the defenders of the peoples' right to attend to their own business.  Cheney was brilliant at this.  He could also spout off on arcane subjects like grazing fees and petroleum rights. topics which might put many voters to sleep but which impressed many Wyoming voters as an indication that he had their interests at heart.  Since Wyoming has such a small population, it is often the case that voters have a personal connection to the people who represent them.  My mom, for instance, was friends with Cheney's brother-in-law.  Wyoming's current Senator, John Barrasso, performed surgery on my brother's knee following a football injury he suffered in middle school.  I attended summer camp with the daughter of Wyoming's other Senator, Mike Enzi.  Cheney's dry demeanor, a trait likely to turn off a more cosmopolitan electorate, reinforced a sense of familiarity that Wyoming voters have with their elected officials.  He briefly flirted with running for president in 96, but it would have been apparent to most political strategists that he did not have the personality nor the stamina to publicly empathize with voters or to shake their hands and kibitz with them for hours on end.