One of the best shows currently on TV is ABC's lawyer drama/comedy/whatnot "Boston Legal", starring the great James Spader and William Shatner as lawyers in the fictional law firm Crane, Pool and Schmidt. Shatner's character in the show is Denny Crane, the staunchly Republican senior partner in the firm. Oh yeah, he's also completely insane. I'll leave it unwritten whether there's some sort of correlation between being staunchly Republican and completely insane. This is fiction, after all. Or is it?
Below be spoilers for an episode of Boston Legal. Don't read if you haven't seen the second season of BL yet, but intend to do so.
A few episodes ago Denny Crane, also a gun nut, ends up with a client he doesn't particularly care for, and who's probably guilty of the crime he's accused of comitting: rape. Of course, the only course of action for Denny Crane is to shoot his client in the kneecap. I mean, what else could you do?
Denny Crane eventually escapes prosecution by claiming self defense. The episode ends with Denny claiming the Republican party have asked him to run for mayor of Boston.
Denny Crane is a man convinced he's always right. He has a remarkable disdain for poor people, is 110% in favor of the Iraq war, is a total homophobe, etc etc.
In light of recent events involving the Vice President, the parallels are obvious. An elderly Republican with health problems shoots a guy, absolutely convinced he's done no wrong. Sounds like anyone you know?
It makes sense, I tell ya! They even have the same initials: D.C. (if we disregard the fact that Mr. Cheney was christened Richard Bruce Cheney, which, for the purposes of this diary, we will.)
Of course, Denny Crane is a fictional character on a TV show. Dick Cheney is unfortunately quite real.