Ruthless People: The Cheneys

Last week I earmarked  the Nov 14th Salon article on the biggest Dick of all, Dick Cheney, whose heart-less remarks about his heart donor underscored the ongoing belief of us Munchkins that, he's never had a heart to begin with and the transplant didn't work the way it was supposed to.  Quoth Dick:

"When I came out from under the anesthetic after the transplant, I was euphoric.  I’d had–I’d been given the gift of additional lives, additional years of life.  For the family of the donor, they’d just been [through] some terrible tragedy, they’d lost a family member.  Can’t tell why, obviously, when you don’t know the details, but the way I think of it from a psychological standpoint is that it’s my new heart, not someone else’s old heart. And I always thank the donor, generically thank donors for the gift that I’ve been given, but I don’t spend time wondering who had it, what they’d done, what kind of person."

This week we have another Cheney blunder in the works.  Liz Cheney, daughter of cold hearted Dick and his chilly wife Lynne, has expressed her disdain for same sex a.k.a. gay marriage, dissing her lesbian sister and spouse in her political bid for the Republican Senate race in Wyoming.   Rather than sit on the sidelines, Mary Cheney's spouse took to Facebook: 

I was watching my sister-in-law on Fox News Sunday (yes Liz, in fifteen states and the District of Columbia you are my sister-in-law) and was very disappointed to hear her say “I do believe in the traditional definition of marriage.” 

Liz has been a guest in our home, has spent time and shared holidays with our children, and when Mary and I got married in 2012 – she didn’t hesitate to tell us how happy she was for us.  

To have her now say she doesn’t support our right to marry is offensive to say the leas

I can’t help but wonder how Liz would feel if as she moved from state to state, she discovered that her family was protected in one but not the other. 

I always thought freedom meant freedom for EVERYONE.

 

 

 

 The compassion in this family is epic.  Machiavelli ain't got nothin' on them Cheneys.

Can you imagine throwing your sister and her family under the bus in a quest for a Senate seat? 

Can you imagine being the person whose heart ended up in Dick Cheney?  Were it me, if I weren't already dead, I'd kill myself.

Can you say "ruthless"?   



Dick Behaviour

Sanjay Gupta's interview with Dick Cheney aired last night on "60 Minutes".  What could have been an unendurable puff piece by a timid interviewer, turned out to be an intensly challenging give and take between two forceful personalities.  

 

I have no love for Dick Cheney.  He embodies the worst characteristics in Washington politics:  the entitled attitude of those who see themselves as omniscient and omnipotent.  Were he omnipresent, well, we'd have a god.   This is a war profiteer, a sneering know-it-all, an ambitious Iago who, were it not for his extreme health problems, more likely than not, might have run for President. 

That's one scary possibility. Even more scary was the state of his health throughout his Vice Presidency.

Cheney was one over-sized, weakened, barely pumping heartbeat away from the Presidency.   Dr. Gupta (or "Goop-Ta" as Cheney referred to him at one point) recounts the damage inflicted and attempts to keep this man alive:

1. 5 heart attacks
2. Open heart surgery & quadruple bypass
3. Stents and defibrillators inserted (more surgery)
4. Multiple angioplasties and catheterizations
5. Heart pump
6. Heart transplant two years ago

As Dr. Gupta repeatedly points out, these kinds of medical problems result in limited blood flow to the brain with potential side effects in cognition, memory, decline in decision-making, etc.  Cheney refused to acknowledge he had been counseled about these side effects nor was he worried about his decision-making at the time. 

In the "60 Minutes" interview, Reiner says he worried that Cheney couldn't stand the pressure that came on Sept. 11, 2001, the day terrorists attacked the U.S. Medical tests seen that morning showed Cheney had elevated levels of potassium in his blood, a condition called hyperkalemia, which could lead to abnormal heart rhythms and cardiac arrest.

Reiner says he watched news coverage of the day's events on television and thought, "Oh, great, the vice president is going to die tonight from hyperkalemia."  huffingtonpost.com

Cheney proudly recounts the critical decisions he had to make.  What a tough guy.  John Wayne on a defibrillator!  Yet, interestingly enough, in 2007 he had his defibrillator "modified" to prevent terrorists from hacking in and giving him a heart attack.



I do not share his enthusiasm.  It was not that long ago women were considered too "emotional" to serve as leaders of the land due to everything from monthly hormonal changes to crying  to menopause.  Most of you reading this blog will remember when a serious discussion involving a woman running for president included the oft repeated phrase

"I wouldn't trust  a woman with her finger on the button."

Gupta's interview will get scathing reviews from the Right and kudos from the Left.  He did his job.  He did not back down from one of the (formerly) most powerful men on the planet.  He approached this from a medical point of view and showed the emperor-in-waiting without his clothes.



Can't wait to see Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert riff on this.