Replies

I read his autobiography, “In My Time”. Not a bad read. Cheney comes across as somewhat conservative on economic issues, very conservative on defense issues and almost a liberal on social issues. The patrician Bush type Republicans have this in common: they don’t want to “rock the boat” too much which you have to do when it comes to social issues because it’s a war for the soul of the country. They don’t want to seem mean or angry. So even while Cheney sort of came of age in Washington under Reagan, he was really always a Bushite. The irony of it all was that, when he got to be VP, none of his good manners made a damn bit of difference to the left: they savaged him from day one: he was Darth Vader, Prince of Darkness, a snarling, satanic figure with blood dripping from his fangs.

Politics in the age of the liberal left is blood sport. You have to willing to take the gloves off and hit hard and hit often. No attack should ever go unanswered. But we would do well to do it like Reagan: with a big smile.