It has been certainly interesting, if not particularly enlightening, to observe the spectacle of the right wing Republican attack strategy unfold and unveil itself through the auspices of the mainstream media since virtually the first day the Barack Obama Administration began.

Even before his inauguration as he assembled his key staff and cabinet from the confines of temporary government office space in downtown Chicago, the 44th President-Elect extended the hand of bi-partisanship to his resoundingly vanquished political foe, Senator John McCain in a private meeting- attended by much media fanfare- which included South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham. Throughout his arduous campaign for the Presidency he had promised the American people that he would do this, and in the very first weeks and months of the new administration Obama assiduously attempted to fulfill this pledge.

Repeatedly, he reached out to Republicans in gestures large and small, whether this included inviting them to join him at the White House to watch the Super Bowl or meeting with them on their own turf in their caucuses, or by offering them several high profile and influential cabinet positions. A keen student of American political history and ardent fan of Abraham Lincoln, President Obama’s approach to governance invited favorable comparisons to the administration of the 16th President and his “Team of Rivals” cabinet so eloquently described by Pulitzer Prize winning author Doris Kerns Goodwin in her 2005 book.

But the tone would be set and the die permanently cast even in the first days immediately following the inauguration. Blithely breaking with longstanding political tradition during what nominally has been the “honeymoon period” of any new president, a gathering of House Republicans caucused with their leaders-most prominent among them Reps. John Boehner and Eric Kantor and decided to utterly refuse to work in a bi-partisan way with Obama as he and the Democrats scrambled urgently to craft an economic stimulus program to rescue the nation’s perilously slumping economy. And indeed, not one Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives would vote to support the President’s $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act--- heralding the beginning of an opposition strategy Washington media pundits have dubbed “The Strategy of No”.

This has been the consistent tone and posture of Republican members of both the House as well as the U.S. Senate. But like all political strategies and policy pursued in a democracy such as ours, their ultimate wisdom depends upon the reckoning of voters who will certainly make that determination in the mid-term Congressional elections of 2010. And the Republicans in the Congress have made a bold bet that their strategy of non-cooperation with the President Obama agenda will pay them big future dividends---which may or may not prove to be the case. But at least they will be held to account and be subject to the prospect of being penalized.

But the same cannot at all be said for that small band of right wing Republicans who have emerged as Barack Obama’s most shrill and outspoken critics, most prominent among them- former Vice President Dick Cheney. Although Dick Cheney much earlier in his political career was elected and served a number of terms in the U.S.House before being appointed to the string of high executive posts which culminated in his selection as former President George W. Bush’s 2000 running mate, his experience as a member of Congress apparently left a bad taste in his mouth--- in regards to political accountability.

A number of distinguished former colleagues who knew Cheney both in Congress and in higher realms of government have remarked over the years how much he has changed into the more strident and self-possessed personality we have come to know today. Included on the list of critics are former President Gerald Ford and General Brent Scowcroft. It was often noted during the second term of the Bush Presidency that Cheney would virtually brag that since he held no ambition for higher public office he was “free” to be his own authentic self. To some this was interpreted to mean that he felt free to say and do pretty much whatever he damn well pleased regardless of the consequences--- because he had outgrown the normal constraints of politics.

But in a democracy when a powerful public figure can function beyond constraints, it sets a dangerous precedent because the whole point of elective government is voided, and all accountability can be lost with devastating results.Through the policies he championed especially in our foreign policy while serving as an all-too-powerful Vice President he seemed to operate with the mindset and sensibility of an autocrat rather than a true adherent of our democracy.

And so it is not surprising at all to learn that he advocated interrogation tactics for Al Qaeda detainees that violated Geneva Conventions as well as the American Constitution;  or that the United States Special Prosecutor who won a felony conviction of his chief of staff Scooter Libby personally believed the former Vice President was involved in the “outing” of CIA operative Valerie Plame, in retaliation against her husband who opposed the Bush Administration plans to invade Iraq.And it is not so surprising at all that Mr. Cheney would object to an investigation into the entire record of the Bush Administration torture and detainee policies and be consumed with a fear that the investigation might not stop at the CIA but become a “witch-hunt” that spreads up the entire chain of executive command.And it is not surprising at all that Dick Cheney is critical of President Obama’s method of using a patient and thoroughly reflective approach to deciding strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan rather than impulsively plunging our nation further into a wider war in a region of the world with  a long and unblemished legacy of breaking the ambitions of foreign armies, at a time of continuing great national economic peril.


And no, it is not at all a surprise that this former Vice President (who was never after all truly President) has emerged as one of President Obama’s most vociferous, shrill and persistent critics. Neither is it amazing that he has joined a right wing chorus consisting of his publicist daughter Liz Cheney, and the radio-talk show host and entertainer Rush Limbach for whom he professes love and featuring the soloist former Alaskan governor and Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin- someone also recently out of office.

For when one considers the overall assets as well as the attributes of such a group as this, it is easy to see how much they possess in common. Un-elected, self-appointed, un-credible, and un-accountable, they are all of a kind.


R. Lee Cook
November 23, 2009