Re: the Cheney speech....

Simply because Cheney repeated so much stuff that's already been discredited, debunked, disproved and/or shown to be grossly illegal, one can't help but think that one of two things are behind Cheney's media blitz. Either he's trying to win a war crimes trial in the court of public opinion as a means of deterring his eventual arrest and prosecution, or he's trying to make the case that he's as crazy as a shithouse rat, and that he's incompetent to stand trial.

There's the outside chance that he really does think that what he's saying is an argument for the merits of his actions and decisions and orders while VP, but, then, that would just be a corollary to the second possibility above. The fact that so much of what he said can be tied back to his "unitary executive" premise that none of it was illegal because the President (and by extension, he) ordered it seems to directly contradict any questionable sanity theory. Moreover, having a few totalitarian legal hacks and yes-men on your side doesn't make the unitary executive theory any more of a legally sound defense. That's been tried before... here and abroad.

What Cheney clearly does not want, judging by the content of this latest diatribe of his, is to actually test his arguments and evidence as a defendant. His earlier calls to selectively declassify a couple of documents is likely proof enough of that, and it's definitely a road marker to remember--if enough horror stories leak out, and public opinion turns on him and Shrub to a degree that forces Obama to begin proceedings against them, he'll very likely try a graymail defense, something that would have absolutely no traction in an international court.


So, Dick, best advice I can give you is this: this is a great time of year to visit the Costa del Sol.