A Powerful VP

In the seventies we had “Tricky Dick” and his involvement with Watergate. Now we are possibly seeing another Dick go down in history as possibly “Shifty Dick.” One shouldn’t be surprised that Richard Nixon appointed Dick Cheney to his first job in the executive branch back in 1969. Birds of a feather flock together.

I hope I’m wrong, but when the dust settles and believe me there’s plenty of dust, we will find that Dick Cheney was the one running the White House. I don’t want to cast stones on him yet, but I just don’t get good vibes when I look at this man. He reminds me too much of a sleazy used car salesman that I dealt with back in the 70’s.

He has slowly earned the reputation as the most powerful Vice President in American history. One article that I read lately states that he has fourteen people on his national security staff which has a finger in every pie. I have always believed that George Bush is only a puppet figure (a marionette) with Cheney and Rove and Rumsfeld taking turns in pulling his strings.

A recent book published in England about Tony Blair has the following remark: “Blair and his aides had less friendly dealings with the ‘sometimes intimidating’ Vice President Cheney, which gave discussions a ‘certain Soviet woodenness.’"

Those who have known him over the years remain astounded and describe how indifferent he is to the thoughts and feelings of others. "He has the least interest in human beings of anyone I have ever met," says John Perry Barlow, his former supporter. Cheney's freshman-year roommate, Steve Billings, agrees: "If I could ask Dick one question, I'd ask him how he could be so unempathetic."

In time, I’m sure a lot more will surface on the man who’s done a good job of keeping a low profile. Stay tuned.