July 4, 2007
Roscoe Born, prior to writing a morally unsupportable editorial in the Sunday Baltimore Sun, was Washington editor of Barron's magazine and a reporter in The Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau. A money-guy, branching out into political punditry. His pitch is essentially, will someone please take George Bush into a quiet, unthreatening environment and talk a little Cheney-sense into him?
In an opinion piece, titled, Nation Needs Intervention to Get Cheney Out of Office, he opens with the daring premise that
“Seriously, now is the time for a real intervention.”
Thus Roscoe chastises us for our six year ignorance, fear and failure to act that characterize
* the American people,
* their representatives in Washington,
* the press,
* TV and radio (if radio any longer rates as media).
Gently, almost timidly, this ex-shill for the moneyed class has had enough. One wonders when (and how) the epiphany occurred.
“Those close to President Bush, people whose faith and loyalty he cannot doubt - first lady Laura Bush, his parents, perhaps an elder statesman or two, his preacher - need to assemble in his White House quarters one night soon, lock the door and sit the president down for a serious, forever-secret talk . . . the subject would not be the Iraq war, at least not primarily. The focus needs to be on Vice President Dick Cheney.”
Ah, Daddy's knee. The loving wife, taking George's head in her lap. What a breakthrough concept. A president who has unremittingly damaged his nation, domestically and internationally, needs to be coddled and velvet-gloved by a ‘forever secret talk.’ Milk and cookies, then a nap. Roscoe continues;
“Mr. Bush's confidants need to gently but frankly tell him this:
“With the detailed record that The Washington Post has compiled of Mr. Cheney's extremism, his contempt for the law and constitutional democracy, and his thirst for aggression, the nation no longer can run the risk that he could become president. And Mr. Bush, who seems to care about his place in history, no longer can allow his name to be associated with that of Mr. Cheney, who may be the most reviled vice president since Aaron Burr.”
Uh huh. And let me understand this, Roscoe. You just became aware of all this after reading the Washington Post, or is it that you think the public has finally been encouraged to pay attention? Either way, let me whisper in your ear that the press has been complicit in 9-11-fever and insufferably derelict their duty. You, I hasten to remind, are a member of that errant fourth estate.
“The president's interveners might try to impress on him the reality of the situation: According to a consensus of public opinion polls, more than 8 in 10 Americans disapprove of Mr. Cheney. Seven in 10 disapprove of Mr. Bush.”
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