"Vice" President Cheney

I particularly recommend the detailed profile of Dick Cheney that commenced Sunday June 24 in the Washington Post. Here's the link: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/chapter_1/
The series will continue through Wednesday. We need to know the lion if we are to beard him.

I was especially struck by the sentence: "{Cheney's] controlled demeanor, ranging mainly from a tight-lipped gaze to the trademark half-smile, conceals what associates call an impish sense of humor and unusual kindness to subordinates." I wonder what Scooter thinks of that "unusual kindness" now.

Dick Cheney represents a cautionary example to any (like me) who may be fiercely anti-bureaucratic. It seems that, in a complex and pluralistic society, bureaucracy is one of the essential bulwarks against disaster -- or at the least foolishness.