Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is catching flak for dissing the former Vice President, the lead guy in the Cheney-Bush administration, during Monday's press conference.
As dday over at Hullabaloo points out:
The Village is rising in solidarity to defend and protect that most fragile of egos, Dick Cheney. Because they have respect for the institutions and the office, you see.
Slightly less remarked-upon than the honor of St. Dick is yet another verdict on the torture that he directed and authorized while sitting in that office. I know in the Village you can earn respect without being respectable, but this fake outrage over a one-line insult when prisoners around the world were beaten, strapped naked to cots, suffocated by water, dragged around by collars and confined into a small box, to just name a few techniques, at the behest of THE SAME GUY THE PRESS IS DEFENDING, is a little tough to take.
A little tough to take says it politely. If there hadn't been eight years of media sycophancy in the case of Dick Cheney, the current phony outrage about disrespect for the former Veep might leave one gasping in disbelief. Given the record, it's just another installment in the what-else-is-new sweepstakes. As dday says, respect is earned.
Remind me again. What respectful thing did Cheney say about President Obama in his interview with the fawning John King? Something about Obama having reduced the security of Americans? That gets a pass, but comparing Republican Party chief Rush Limbaugh to the ex-Veep is a diss? On the contrary. For all of Limbaugh's baggage, at least he's not on the short list of people who should be investigated and prosecuted for war crimes. The torture he delivers is confined to words.