Steve Benen posits the theory that Cheney is on tv, driving down the fortunes of his own party, because he has a book to sell:
Reports indicate Cheney may end up with a deal with Simon & Schuster, because it’s home to an imprint run by Mary Matalin, who is also publishing Karl Rove’s book.
This might offer at least some hints about Cheney’s recent motivations. A book written by a failed former vice president may not compel publishers to pay the big bucks, but a book written by one of the leaders of the modern Republican Party, and the GOP’s leading attack dog of the nation’s elected leadership, might generate a more sizable advance.
I’ve always found Carville/Matalin fascinating. It’s pretty clear neither believes in anything beyond the next pay check, no matter how much they bray about morals and principles and what not.
I guess it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Matalin is helping Cheney sell the Republican party down the river for a seven figure book advance.
For the past six years, every Bush insider who wrote a book critical of the administration — Richard Clarke, Paul O’Neil, Scott McClellan — has been accused of just trying to make a buck by trashing an unpopular administration. There’s a delicious irony in seeing the ultimate Bush insider do even more political damage by trying to make a buck defending an unpopular administration.
redbeardjim
There’s a delicious irony in seeing the ultimate Bush insider do even more political damage by trying to make a buck defending the administration.
Not to mention trashing a popular administration.
DougJ
Good point.
Bill E Pilgrim
I think there are two reasons he’s out there pushing so hard. The first is that he can, that is, he was muzzled while still in office. Now, who can tell him not to?
The second and main reason I bet is that he saw that all this outrage could actually lead to prosecution, and wants to stake a claim way off on the extreme side of supporting torture, because that way the “middle” ends up being “Oh well I guess bad things happened but let’s let it go”.
Which is exactly what the Broders have in fact been saying. Cheney knew that the firestorm left unapposed could end up with actual, serious consequences he’d have to face. Let’s hope he still does.
omen
all that blather for a lousy bookdeal? what, he didn’t rake enough dough for halliburton & KBR before and after being vp? how big o’ pile of money does he need?
gbear
The deluxe edition will have a cover of finest puppy hide.
gbear
…and include a coupon good for a free baby sandwich.
Dennis-SGMM
Chapter One: Arrrrgh! Terrorists!
Chapter Two: Arrrrgh! Terrorists!
Chapter Three: Arrrrgh! Terrorists!
….
superfly
He is out there to lay blame for the next attack, everything else is ancillary.
regular_joe
“…Cheney is on tv, driving down the fortunes of his own party, because he has a book to sell?”
Nonsense. If anything, Cheney’s got a bridge he wants to sell: it’s a bridge to no where for the GOP.
The real reason Cheney is on TV is to keep torture a political issue in order to stave off prosecution. Watching — yet AGAIN — as Mr. They’re-Trying-to-Criminalize-Politics trots out the same old lies he used to sell the Iraq war — this time, to keep his sorry ass out of the slam — is putting me off some of my favorite TV news shows…
demkat620
Oh yeah, that’s just great. The media man crush will be out of control. Tweety will be drooling on the set,we will get to hear another round of love for Uncle Darth.
When does this country ever get freed from these assclowns?
JenJen
@demkat620:
That’s the part I find so annoying. I went to the Inauguration, I sang hearty choruses of “Na Na Hey Hey” in a crowded bar while George and Laura flew off into the sunset, and I thought, “Well, that’s over.” It was such a relief.
But Cheney won’t go away and give us the peace we have earned through our patience. I keep thinking of him at the Inauguration, looking like a broken old man in that wheelchair. That was the image I wanted to be left with, not this snarling creep who won’t get the hell off my television.
Can’t always get what you want…
By the way, I am really looking forward to Colin Powell’s appearance on “Face The Nation” tomorrow. Bet he rips Ex-Vice a new one.
smiley
@superfly:
I have no doubt that that is true. His second book will be titled, “See, I told you so.”
Added OT: Would someone please tell the pundits and politicians that Joe Biden is the vice president. Cheney should be addressed as former vice president Cheney,
calipygian
Chapter One: Drinking Myself Our of Yale
Chapter Two: Fucking the Skank Again to Get My Fifth Deferment
Chapter Three: If Only Nixon Had the Ruthlessness of Stalin, This Country Would Be Way Better Off
Chapter Four: And We Would Have Gotten Away With Selling Arms to Iran if it Weren’t For Those Damn Kids
Chapter Five: That Saddam, He’s Not THAT Bad
Chapter Six: Haliburton – My Name Is Richard B. Fudd, Millionaire, I Own A Mansion and a Yacht.
Chapter Seven: Hey This Bush Fellow Looks Stupid Enough
Chapter Eight: Arrgh, Terrorists!
Chapter Nine: Shooting My Friend In the Face While Drunk Wasn’t Enough, Now I have to do it to the New President
Jim
I actually think that’s only half right. I think Carville’s the greedy one, the one who feeds off camera lights. Matalin’s a troo beleever. Happy to cash the checks, of course, but with a pathological and (to me) utterly bewildering devotion to Poppy Bush and then Darth Cheney (one of the few things I like– or, more accurately, don’t dislike– about Dumbya is he doesn’t like Matalin).
Politically, it’s an odd progression. I think Poppy made the working class girl from South Side feel like she had class, and Cheney speaks to her innate malevolence
dmsilev
@demkat620:
He does certainly drool a lot, though to be fair, it’s bipartisan. Tweety just sucks up to people who have or had power.
Speaking of Darth, it occurred to me that he’s actually living the character arc in reverse. We started with this menacing agent of evil, who probably would have strangled people with his mind if he could have. Now, we’re getting bits of Whiny Anakin mixed in. Suggesting that soon, the menace will be gone and the whining angst will be all that’s left. Note that this is backed up by the recent appearance of his humorous jiving sidekick Mike Mike Steele.
-dms
uila
In Cheney’s defense, when he got that baboon heart transplant, who could have predicted it would come from an evil baboon?
Jim
Cheney, Rumsfeld and their underlings have been mocking Powell quasi-publicly (Woodward’s books, anonymously sourced articles) for years. Past time for that mannequin in a uniform, who sat quietly while those two trashed the country and the Constitution, to speak up, even if it’s pretty much too late to make up for the damage he let happen.
wasabi gasp
I’m not buying the money angle, either, more likely a defense attorney’s opening statement. But eventually, just a record of shamelessness for history to judge Sockpuppet Bush a bit quicker than expected.
Wisdom
The left has reached their jump-the-shark moment on Cheney and torture. It is only a matter of time before Oprah has someone on the show to be waterboarded.
Someone needed to man up and do what was necessary while the best the left has gets caught lying about what she knew and when. Like any typical lefty, she was for it before she was against it. And rather than take responsibility, she rolls out the “they lied to me!” trope because she knows democrats will lap lap that up.
Cheney should write a book about all these weasels.
DougJ
Ha!
brian griffin
@Bill E Pilgrim:
$2m can sure help to pay legal fees.
Pilgrim’s exactly right– Cheney’s a political operative who can see he’s in real danger here.
He’s shrewd enough to know that Obama is very slowly building public consensus, before anything is done by the DOJ. Obama builds support, then moves; that’s always his modus operandi, and building support on this will be extremely slow. Cheney’s only hope to avoid eventual prosecution is to keep this a partisan affair, and his goper cohorts aren’t helping him any by harping on Pelosi.
So he’s got to try to massage public opinion himself, to keep prosecutions politically impossible. No one else (outside his own family, which should tell us something) is doing it for him.
There is no statute of limitations on war crimes– so now he’s started, Dick doesn’t even have the option of shutting up. Ever. We’ll just have to get used to him, unless he finally gets prosecuted or some “conservative” pardons him.
JenJen
Please share the moment where Dick Cheney “manned up.” Ever.
redbeardjim
Oh, I get it. Wisdom is trying to call Nancy Pelosi a “lefty”.
Took me a while to figure that out.
kay
I think the media are wrong.
I’m betting Americans (in general, the 60% in the middle) think it’s unseemly and inappropriate for a former Vice President to spend so much time on television trashing a sitting President.
No former VP has gotten this much airtime and attention, and all of his statements are negative. It’s completely unprecendented.
That’s not even taking into account the bizarre spectacle of brazen nepotism inherent in Liz Cheney appearing hour after hour and citing “my dad”. My goodness. That’s just unreal. No shame in the Cheney household. Trotting out his daughter?
I’m betting it ends up backfiring, big time. They can natter on about free speech all they want, It’s plain, gut-level offensive, on an emotional level.
Steve T.
I was just wondering who the D’s might field next time for governor here in Louisiana. If Carville decided to do it he would clean Bobby Jindal’s clock. And, oh, what a show it would be! Carville’s a master at running a campaign, he loves the spotlight, his Dem bona fides are impeccable, and with that Cajun accent he can lay on the good-ol’-boy good and thick to win that rural vote. And the debates!! The Ragin’ Cajun versus Kenneth the Intern?!? Pure comedy gold.
Unfortunately, his present gig is probably much too sweet. He won’t do it.
DougJ
You know, I might have to vote for Jindal if the alternative was Carville (not that I live in Louisiana).
beauzeaux
I have to agree with the folks that say this is part of Cheney’s gambit to avoid being prosecuted. He and his motley family are working their collective butts off to sway public opinion just enough to make prosecution unpalatable to the public at large, and therefore unlikely to happen. The book deal is one more part of that effort.
demkat620
@dmsilev: Yeah, remember when Tweety thought it was a great idea to hire Michael Steele to head the RNC?
Good Times.
Little Dreamer
@omen:
I don’t think it’s about money, I think it’s about setting the record straight. He seems to have this obsession with trying to finally get everyone to believe he was right all the time.
He was wrong, he will always be wrong, and no matter how many books he sells, public opinion will still be against him.
He has no clue.
kay
@beauzeaux:
It feels wrong to me, and I’m betting I’m not alone.
I would not be comfortable were a Democrat indulging in this daily media barrage. I’m generally a person who ascribes to unspoken rules, although I’m politically a liberal. I see the value in those rules. I’m having a hard time believing rank and file Republicans are comfortable with this, because they’re generally more traditional than I am. We have an election, and the last guy leaves the stage for a time. He doesn’t stick around. Them’s the rules.
We have these elaborate traditions for the transfer of power, and, as in all ceremony, there’s a solid reason for that. It’s breaking some kind of unspoken rule to pretend an election didn’t happen.
Laura W
@JenJen: (I sent you a question.)
Tsulagi
No doubt Cheney, to show the stuff he and his fellow teabaggers are made of, will volunteer. You know, to walk their talk. That would be great comedy. Far more likely Other Priorities would dust off his old well-worn copy of Deferments for Dummies to rack up #7 for his string.
And if you think they’d see that irony, you definitely haven’t been paying attention. Cluelessness is a wingnut hallmark. RedState, trying to diversify their income beyond buying balls, would among the early starbursters to put up a amazon link to buy Six Deferments’ book. Country First.
linda
karl rove and james carville are appearing together at radio city on tuesday, to be hosted by charlie rose.
i wonder if mary got a booking fee for that one.
Anton Sirius
@Steve T.:
Good Lord. And I thought the idea of McAuliffe running things in Virginny was horrifying…
Who’s next, Stephanopoulos for governor of Massachusetts? Lanny Davis in Maryland?
kay
I’d go even further. I think the pundits recognize how off-kilter it is, and so they came up with a rationale, that we “didn’t have this debate in the election, because McCain and Obama were both against torture”.
Why did they feel they had to justify this bizzare power grab? Offer Cheney an excuse?
Because they’re like me. They know it’s somehow just wrong to have the last President and the current President on stage at the same time, duking it out. We don’t know what to do with that. We don’t have a mechanism for when they won’t leave office, willingly, I mean.
Little Dreamer
@kay:
Well, considering there were quite a few of us who couldn’t see Bush and Cheney just up and walking out the door voluntarily, this doesn’t surprise me one bit. Do I think it’s out of order and he should stop? Yes… but, quite frankly, I’m not surprised at all.
omen
@beauzeaux:
if the man is so desperate to be proven right, is there nothing he’d stoop to? what’s going to be the piece de resistance?
omen
argh
Stephen1947
Lawrence Wilkerson says on CNN that Dick and his fellow Bush admin lawyerly scum shouldn’t make any international travel plans. Of course he’ll probably be safe in Dubai or Uruguay…
dmsilev at 15 – how long before Darth devolves into Jar Jar? He’s already got the super-annoying part down pat.
Michael
Chapter Ten: I’m white and I’m scared of everything, but most especially of brown people. And I’m speaking on behalf of every other chickenshit blowhard who thinks like me.
Chapter Eleven: Making money for me and my friends by creating and exploiting your fear.
Chapter Twelve: It wasn’t about getting Iraq’s oil. It was about making our oil more expensive.
Chapter Thirteen: Arrgh, Terrorists.
jrg
Why is it assumed that re-writing history, covering his own ass, and selling a book are mutually exclusive?
gnomedad
@calipygian:
Arrgh! What’s that from?
Little Dreamer
@omen:
He’s going to talk himself up on tv until he’s blue in the face because nobody will listen to him, then he’s going to have a fatal heart attack, and then Liz is going to go on tv after and say “See what you did? You killed my dad, waaaaah”.
Then there will be a week long funeral where the media will present the life of Cheney as if he was some kind of honorable man, and by the time the mourning and the burial is over, half the media will be convinced Cheney had some kind of great foreknowledge that none of the rest of us had. Fox News personalities will be completely beside themselves with grief and and half the country who doesn’t know any better will actually shed a tear.
kay
@Little Dreamer:
I’m surrounded byy Republicans. I live in a conservative area. None of them are mentioning this, and they’re usually thrilled to give me a hard time, with any perceived Obama “loss”.
I’m guessing they aren’t comfortable with it. Maybe I’m way off base, but I don’t think so. I’m not hearing any triumphant crowing, and these are people who call me up to belligerently ask me where the stimulus money is, like I have it in my desk drawer, as a joke.
Maybe the media can make it seem routine, like we always have two Presidents at one time, but I don’t think so. Just one. Can’t have two. Nope. We have to draw the line on that.
Little Dreamer
@jrg:
they are not mutually exclusive, but I think we are wondering which is his number one (priority) reason for writing the book, knowing he may have additional reasons.
I’m sure he’d like to make money on the book, I also think trying to get people to accept his side of the story is a much stronger motivator.
gnomedad
@linda:
It sounds like the WWF. Maybe Joe the Plumber will step into the ring swinging a folding chair.
Little Dreamer
@kay:
Why would you think Republicans would mention it? They wanted George and Dick to stay in there to begin with (that way that black family couldn’t have moved in).
No, for the last few years, I and several other non-Republicans have considered that perhaps George and Dick might not leave. I was actually surprised to see they turned the keys over – but then Dick when on television.
Delia
Well, it’s more than just public opinion that’s been shifting in favor of reason and light. The Village itself had begun to get a little weak and tottery around the edges under the New Regime, the Olbermann-Maddow dynasty, the Left Blogistan onslaught and all. Old Dead-Eye Dick has perceived this long-term danger and rushed in to prop it up. This is where he really is having an impact, because all the Very Serious Idiots are beginning to obediently fall in line and proclaim anew what a wise man the old bastard is.
Little Dreamer
@kay:
From time to time I’ve needed a little miracle to be performed to make my life not suck. When that happens, I don’t go around and tell everyone about that miracle worker who is performing the miracle, I just keep quiet and allow the miracle worker to do whatever magic he/she can to fix the problem.
I think this is why you’re not getting any feedback. They may be hoping Cheney can do something to upset the current sitaution.
Tony J
Yeah, but for the “rank-and-file” of today’s Republican Party, tradition was already violated when a Negro Muslim Soci@list was foisted on the nation by vote-rigging Agents of ACORN and the anti-conservative bias of the Liberal Media. Patriotic Americans are supposed to fight back against illegitimate regimes through the medium of tea-bags and applauding when serious conservative voices, like Cheney’s, speak their kind of truth to the elites in Washington.
Seriously, though, I think Chairman Steele has already provided the answer to your query. Tradition went out the door when 2008 reduced the Republican Party to a regional movement dominated by crazy-assed fundamentalists and radio shock-jocks. The lunatics have taken over the asylum and any ‘traditional’ conservative who doesn’t like it can shut the fuck up.
kay
@Tony J:
My local Republicans aren’t wingnuts, by and large. They had a county-wide intra-Party battle, the wingnuts won, some city council races, and some school board seats, and then the Chamber of Commerce types wrested power back.
By the end of the wingnut reign, they were calling me and telling me to find a Democrat to run for school board, which I did, they voted for him, and he won. He barely speaks to me now because sitting on a school board is really a thankless job, and I insisted he had some duty to do it. He can’t wait until his term is over. I’m going to send him a nice note on his last day. It’s a horrible job. I feel bad about it.
Anyway, they want their kids to go to college like everyone else. The school board members from the wingnut faction scared the shit out of them. Don’t mess with striving middle class ACT score aspirations, is all I can say. They wanted school board members who actually saw some value in education.
BUT, they’re traditionalists, by and large. They like things to stay the same, and the VP appearing daily for weeks and trashing the sitting Prez so soon after an election is not traditional.
Svensker
@gnomedad:
Say, whatever happened to Joe the Plumber?
Brian Griffin
@Little Dreamer:
his priority is staying out of jail.
the book will be his opening statement, and the cash will pay the lawyers. it all fits together quite nicely if you ask me.
Comrade Baron Elmo
The Bugs Bunny toon where Bugs and Elmer exchange personalities. Rich guy Elmer is having a nervous breakdown and thinks he’s a rabbit, and he tricks Bugs into taking his place in the loony bin. The doctors, when confronted by Bugs in Elmer’s bed, are alarmed at how far his delusion has progressed, and administer hypnosis to bring him back to “reality.” They have Bugs recite over and over again, “My name is Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht.” Naturally, it works only too well… and the cartoon shifts to the traditional “wabbit hunt,” only with the roles reversed. Hilarity ensues.
Little Dreamer
@Svensker:
He whigged out. ;)
oh really
There. Now it makes sense.
tammanycall
@DougJ:
It’s obvious you’re not from Louisiana because you don’t know anything about it. Carville may not be a DFHer, but he’s still a true believer. So is Matalin. As for their great crime of freelancing: Joe Trippi and Bob Shrum hop from pay check to pay check, too. That’s what consulting is. The difference between the former pair and the latter is that the latter always lose. Now, if you’re annoyed that they execute the talking points, take that up with their party’s national committees or the format of the cable news shows.
And Carville is not running for governor. Jindal is vulnerable but local Dems want someone they can invest in. I would look specifically at State Senators and Reps from the Crowley area. (If anyone cares.)
/former Louisiana resident