President Cheney??????????

Over at Slate, former NSC staffer Daniel Benjamin looks into the nightmare of present-day reality and sees.... President Cheney:

It has become a cliché to say that Dick Cheney is the most powerful vice president in American history. Nonetheless, here is a prediction: When the historians really get digging into the paper entrails of the Bush administration -- or possibly when Scooter Libby goes on trial—those who have intoned that phrase will still be astonished at the extent to which the Office of Vice President Dick Cheney was the center of power inside the White House -- and at the grip it had on foreign and defense policy.

Scared yet? Read the whole piece.

And check out Kevin Drum: "As a wise man said back in January 2003 regarding Cheney and his curiously enduring reputation for competence even in the face of mountains of contrary evidence, 'his terrible judgment will, at some point, become impossible even for the Beltway crowd not to see.' Looking back, perhaps historians will say that November 2005 was when they finally saw it."

Let's hope so.

See also Digby at Hullabaloo: "It's finally coming into focus that every single one of this administration's so-called grown-ups are idiots. There were people who knew that the avuncular Dick Cheney was something of a nut, but nobody believed them. He just seemed so darned competent compared to the callow Junior, there was no need to look any further."

Yes, Dick Cheney, enabler of torture. I can't believe I used to respect this guy -- way back when (I was stupid). Now at least I can refer, via Drum, to his "relentless moral cretinism".