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Feb 13, 2006

Cheney Watch: Just A Little Mad

Cheney-Nra2

Every so often, a priceless image turns up that runs rampant across the web.  This shot, taken at the NRA's 2004 national banquet, has gone completely viral.

People are already laughing and mocking Dick Cheney for the fact he shot a friend this weekend while hunting.  I can't help wondering, however, if it goes beyond that.  In my last Dick Update, I questioned Cheney's choice of attire in light of a recent meeting with Hosni Mubarak.  To me, this image demonstrated a similar arrogance.

For a guy who always seems put out and whose smile typically feels begrudged, the gift of this weapon (an original Cecil Brooks flintlock rifle) at the NRA banquet had a remarkable effect.  Like a moody kid who just woke up and realized it was Christmas, this is one of the very few images where Dick Cheney evidences a clearly non-circumscribed smile.

On the contemptuous side, however, I think we need to think about the wardrobe once again.  At a clearly formal banquet surrounded by his closest supporters, in which he was also the keynote speaker (and he got the killer present), Cheney wears a suit?

As a psychological construct, the fact the term "mad" has multiple meanings is no accident.  Contempt, as a continuous symptom, leads to all kinds of craziness.  If it was anyone else, you would say that what happened on Saturday -- with Cheney taking a shot at his hunting buddy -- was an unfortunate accident.  When it involves someone like Cheney, however, it's hard not to also consider it just a little mad.

(image: NRA. April 17, 2004. Pittsburgh, PA. Via michaelmoore.com)

Comments

What are these three non-outdoorsman-looking types doing with a gun?

The habit of under-dressing is a matter of social class. A person with higher status can underdressed without fear of loosing status. Cheney gives us the bare minimum in this department and seems to resent having to even do that!

next time you see a photo of some gang members showing off their weapons think of this photo.

Can't wait to hear the Republican spin this week about how the shooting was a good thing and he planned to do it, and how he's promoting freedom by shooting whoever he pleases.

"That be u.s...cant'r'ride horsees...d'oh!n't shoot straight...&...we be the bo-tai draft...fresh outa the 2nd indochina war."

The look of the guy on the left reminds me of this picture of Dubya with a new guitar when he should have been in New Orleans. His attention on the hand, and a kind of a "should I really have given him that? He really doesn't know what he's doing with it; do I dare to point that out?" expression.

Dick saying, "well f**k me the real thing "

Cheney has a history of these fashion fuck yous. I don't care what he wears to an NRA function, but I do when he's representing our country at a http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/210033_cheney29.html>Holocaust remembrance.

Cheney must be a person who seeks comfort whenever possible. I have worn a tuxedo only a few times and have never been comfortable in them. I bet Cheney feels about the same, evidenced by the BAG's scrutiny. Of course it comes off as arrogant. I'm just your average slob, but the VP has to have some measure of social tact. I guess I understand how he might say, to justify his underdressing, that appearances aren't everything. But maybe he doesn't realize he appears to be a tooth-gnashing monster. Anyway, he looks very comfortable with that weapon. Not out of the ordinary I guess for somebody who knows how to use weapons, but that he never has looked very comfortable in the other pictures I've seen clearly means this is Cheney in his element.

Something you said reminded me of that film, "Insomnia," in which Al Pachino shoots and kills one of his fellow officers chasing after a killer, played by Robin Williams, in Alaska. Pachino is haunted through the permanant summer days about if he shot his friend on purpose or on accident. The audience never sees the shooting, we just see Pachino look and shoot. Even he doesn't seem to know if he did it intentionally.

I agree with futurebird that Cheney's deliberate underdressing is his way of signifying that he's of such an elevated social class that he can dress any way he damn wants. But I wonder what this says about his marriage. He and Lynne must lead very separate lives if she doesn't check out how he's dressed before he leaves the house. It seems like that's the least a devoted Republican wife could do.

Cheney's bad dressing and this bizarre shooting incident show how despite all his political power and the fear he inspires, his personal life is one of isolation and desolation. No one cares enough about him to confront him about his sloppy (and insulting) clothing sense. And I wonder how honest his doctors are with him about his medical condition. Here's another area where Lynne Cheney and her daughters seem curiously disengaged. Should he really be going on these hunting trips in his condition? Should he even still be in office? We don't love Cheney, but at least his wife and daughters should.

The Coretta Scott King post got me thinking about the changing role of the Vice President. Remember when George Bush the father was VP? His job mainly consisted of representing the U.S. at state funerals all over the world, so he had plenty of experience in how to act at a funeral (or memorial service), experience which his son obviously didn't have.

Al Gore did more than attend funerals; he was supposedly much more involved and informed about what was going on in the Clinton administration.

And then Cheney...? There's the theory that he's the dark prince, actually running things. Whatever the truth, he obviously has rejected the duties that the VPs formerly had; even when he is forced to travel or attend some function, he won't even dress appropriately.

But this NRA function is the only time he's ever looked so happy...

Marysz, surely Cheney has hot and cold running servants, valets and aides who would know what attire would be required for every public appearance. He doesn't need Lynne to tell him what to wear. I'm sure he decided he didn't want to wear a tux and since he's vice-preznit, he doesn't have to. Cheney is nothing if not consistently arrogant: "I had other priorities."

True, though--I've never seen a picture of him exhibiting such unfeigned happiness. It's telling that only a gun can elicit such joy from the miserable creep. And I suppose that's a comment on the quality of marital contentment in the Cheney household. Why would any woman, even a Republican woman, love this cold fish?

Since Bush and Cheney have been regarded as semi-devines and/or demi-gogs, there are many that watch them-- so inevitably they both make fashion statements. And it will probably be worth watching those statements change as their political fortunes sink into the ooze.

Cheney still wears the sneer and the Fashion Fuck U. Except when he has a big bad gun in his hands. We can probably expect more of the same, with the sneer getting sneerier.

Bush used to wear his smirk and the jackets that were covered with emblems and eagles and bombs and gold braid and so on, kind of like a kid playing at war. And those jackets had his Commander-in-Chief name on it, just in case anybody should forget.

What happened? Now Bush doesn't grin so much, and he seems to be wearing suits with color-coordinated ties. Red ties for when he wants to display his awesome power. Maybe it isn't as much fun being President as it used to be.

Its kind of hard to send Dick to Mrs. King's funeral when the guy was one of what 2 congress people to vote against the Dr. King holiday.

I suspect he is not wearing a tux because he would look like George Costanza from Sienfield, or that is the though I get (the one where he is going to the opera and has the tux that does not fit him). I suspect that he wore those other fool outfits because he does not have the sense to let someone else dress him, or there is some inside insult we do not know about.

They guy is dispicable so I do not put it past him to try and show up people and causes. The guy tapped King, and likley hung with Saddam - and if he did not his buddies did.

I also don't go for the Dick is in charge line of reason. I am sure his advice pulls big time weight and he has been around with these clowns for a long time. But look at it this way. Bush 41 in charge of the CIA, Bush 41 is VP when Regean takes naps all day, then Bush 41 serves as President. Before that Prescott Bush is a Senator and has Richard Nixon as his protege, then we have Jeb Bush as Gov. of FL, and the biggest loser in the family George as Gov. of TX. Then baby Bush 43 gets a crack at President....face the facts the Bush's are the worst royal family in the history of the Earth (so far).

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PS. As for Dick sending in his money for his duck hunting licence on Sunday or Monday:

Sends in his $7 for his bird hunting licence. Of course after he got tanked and shot someone in the face.

Of course this is more than Dick and Bush did after they porked New Orleans with crappy levy's, hey maybe they can send the money that it would have taken to strengthen the leveys now.

Losers.

I would just like to comment that, judging by my name and all, I think that being "just a little mad" is okay. Sometimes it can't be helped.

The danger is when it goes beyond "just a little" and moves right in to total friggin eye-popping mad, which is what the Bush/Cheney Administration seems to make me all too often.

Was Cheney "tanked" at the time? It's certainly suspicious that he couldn't meet with investigators until the next morning, yet they're saying that "alcohol wasn't a factor". But how do they know if they couldn't see him?

I'm a country girl and heart and while I like the gun laws here in NYC I feel like a country kid ought to be able to learn how to shoot without being laughed at by a bunch of soft-handed liberal elitists.

But, this is not the first time hunting has gotten Dick less than positive attention. Consider the http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/2693558/detail.html>massive and unsportsman-like hunting trip that alarmed a few people back in 2003:

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported today that 500 farm-raised pheasants were released yesterday morning at the Rolling Rock Club in Ligonier Township for the benefit of Cheney's 10-person hunting party. The group killed at least 417 of the birds...

They call that hunting?


Dick got 70 back in 2003. You'd think he'd know how to hit his mark after that.

I'm a country girl and heart and while I like the gun laws here in NYC I feel like a country kid ought to be able to learn how to shoot without being laughed at by a bunch of soft-handed liberal elitists.

But, this is not the first time hunting has gotten Dick less than positive attention. Consider the http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/2693558/detail.html>massive and unsportsman-like hunting trip that alarmed a few people back in 2003:

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported today that 500 farm-raised pheasants were released yesterday morning at the Rolling Rock Club in Ligonier Township for the benefit of Cheney's 10-person hunting party. The group killed at least 417 of the birds...

They call that hunting?


Dick got 70 back in 2003. You'd think he'd know how to hit his mark after that.

What is the protocol of Pres and Veep being together at public functions ? I understood that for security reasons this is discouraged. I believe that if the P+VP are killed the Sec of State assumes the # 1 position. As all three collectively hunt together in foreign countries, would they be allowed to go hunting in a private, enclosed and confined area within the USA ?

Ironically, now this image is an argument for gun *control.*

I saw a clip of this event on the BBC, and it looked pretty bizarre... There was an elderly person (I think a woman) wearing a yellow Davy Crockett style jacket and some strange hat, and that's who handed the rifle to Cheney. There's a very small photo of her at the link for the NRA Banquet provided in the post.

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