Since leaving office, George W. Bush has been laying pretty low. But his No. 2 hasn’t. Dick Cheney, shadow-president of the United States from 2001 to 2009, has been making the rounds of both the lecture circuit and the talk shows, defending, explaining and trying to enhance the legacy Dubya left behind.
But this is not to say that the ex-Veep has been successful. His assertion that Rush Limbaugh rather than Colin Powell is a better star for the GOP to follow provoked everything from howls of derision in the media to quiet groaning amongst true conservatives.
Listening to Limbaugh is like listening to a garbage disposal with a spoon stuck in it.
All of which merely goes to demonstrate who the real power was during the Dubya years.
Bush is afraid to speak out now because his safety net has disappeared. If he made a gaffe while president there was always someone around to either patch over it, reformulate the words so they made sense or scold the media for playing "gotcha". In the worst-case scenario Cheney could always call a press conference and state flatly what the policy was, the president’s prior words be damned. But GWB’s severance deal doesn’t pay for such perks, and he’s too vain to put together a team on his own. So any explanations will have to wait until "his" book comes out, memoirs that I’m sure will contain one word of Dubya’s for every 9,999 by his ghostwriter.
Does anyone know if they have come up with a title yet? How about "My Pet Gloat"?