Dick Cheney: "The Hand Inside The Sock" Speaks

Can someone reliably inform me when was the last time that really senior members of a previous 'administration' arose so quickly and so aggressively to attack the policies of their replacements?

Nominally the Chimp's Vice-President, Cheney was in fact and function at least Co-President. He was the brains behind the outfit. He's the one who had the impenetrable bunker and the man-sized safe. Many (y'r ob'd't s'v't included) peg Cheney and the PNAC as the initiators of the Chimp's ascension to the Oval Office. Far from Bush choosing Cheney who chose Cheney, rather it was the Cheney/PNAC cabal choosing an easily manipulable "brand," and managing it into the White House. What ensued was a disaster from which I doubt the country will EVER actually emerge, in any shadow of the condition it was, when the Busheviks were installed to such conservative ecstasy in '92.

The truth of the matter is this: Obama's basically a one-termer, a distraction, a convenient dupe selected to be the scapegoat for the last 8 years of chaos and clusterfucks. He'll end up being blamed for the consequences of policies he didn't author but lacked the real power to suspend. Though he's no "liberal," he is non-white, and the plan is to--if not explicitly cause, at least not to intervene to prevent--blame his administration for all the ills set in train by Cheney's pack, and use the 'failure' to discredit the people and the agenda that, ironically, Obama does not champion, but can be "seen"--as a "non-white"--to represent.

Even recognizing that, doesn't it strike you as a BIT excessive--slightly over the top, perhaps; at LEAST a little unseemly--to have the former "power inside the sock" out in public bad-mouthing the new guys so soon? I remember #34 (Eisenhower) and since. Stephenson was always the gentleman. I don't think he ever criticize Eisenhower until after Ike was out of office. Did Ike (or even Nixon) take to the hustings to chide Kennedy? Did Humphrey attack Nixon, ever? In my memory, Carter refrained from criticizing Reagan. Mondale kept his own council until he was nominated to run against Reagan. Even after losing, GHW Chimp kept his mouth shut for a while, and Quayle was never heard from again. Gore was exceptionally generous to the Chimp, in 2001, and was silent until nearly the 2004 elections.

So this shit from Cheney is both excessive AND unprecedented, in my memory anyway.

Memo to Dick "Darth" Cheney: Shut the fuck up, you snarling old shitwhistle.