Cheney Just Wants To Be Loved

Torture or not: It's illegal and wrong

Just like the fuzzball (that's what Rush calls himself), Cheney just wants to be loved:

Despite his storied stoicism, Cheney does not want to be remembered as the man behind the most dismal era in American foreign policy in modern history. He began his now infamous Face the Nation interview by saying, jokingly we presume, that “it’s nice to know that you’re still loved and are invited out in public sometimes.”

This is a great look at Cheney's motivations and it humanizes him:

The Cheney currently on display is a unique specimen of a special time. At the end of the day, the former vice president is a Cold Warrior, a man formed by the United States' long confrontation with the Soviet Union. Cheney's experience as part of the administration that declared America the victorious superpower tells us three important things about him relevant to his current behavior:

He is conditioned for protracted fights. The more ideological, the better.
He always needs a “foremost adversary” in order to organize his world. This explains his attraction to the neo-con obsession with Saddam Hussein, in the face of real al-Qaeda dangers. It also explains his implacability in his battles with the Obama administration in defense of the Bush administration.
It's hard for him to believe that the world can change, despite all the contradictory evidence. He keeps fighting the same war, in the same way. In March 1989, when he was officially sworn in as defense secretary, he assessed the changes taking place in the Soviet Union in the following manner: “Containment has worked. Deterrence has held. Principle has paid off. Still, dangers abound. ... We must guard against gambling our nation's security on what may be a temporary aberration in the behavior of our foremost adversary.” That is the same Dick Cheney we have now. Read the rest at The Prospect