I've been asking myself what kind of political system is it that gives us both a Cheney and a Trump. Not a very good one.
72
Guilty. I voted for them, but then expressed my opposition to the Iraq War, only to find myself with few friends who agreed with me - on either side. Let's not forget to cite Paul Wolfowitz, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, and Ariel Sharon. Think back to 9/11 and the choice that was made. 1) Declare war on Afghanistan - was that even a country? - and Iraq. Oh, of course, there was WMD. The Neocon argument was that Israel wouldn't survive unless some, or one of its neighbors, became a democracy, or 2) send in Special Forces to take out Osama - which was we eventually did after planting the seeds for ISIS.
Since we are looking back, let's spend 20% of the money eventually spent on the "War on Terror" and use that as intelligent foreign aid (I know, no such thing) for our neighbors to the South - the folks in our own hemisphere. Where would that have led?
Instead, we get the Orange Haired Hysterical Oracle and the Evil Caravan. I agree, Maureen. You can draw a straight line from one to the other. All about choices.
146
What an absolutely brilliant column this is,
116
I firmly believe he went bad after all of his heart surgery. Pieces of debris are fouling his brain.
13
How amusing that Maureen Dowd, after listing their sins, decries the sudden respect anti-Trump Republicans are getting on MSNBC or by Democrats.
She wrote column after column bashing the Clintons, even called President Obama "Bambi." She contributed quite nicely to the rise to power of the Bush and Trump administrations.
286
What in the world did you mean by this?
"Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party."
I assume Michelle's party is the Democratic Party. So, say what?
142
Cheney may be the worse of the two villians but Trump is the most hated because he is in your face with his lies and insults. He has no respect for women, makes fun of the disabled, repeatedly rants that the 'press is the enemy of the people' which somehow reminds me of Karl Marx referring to religion as 'the opiate of the people' and he has alienated our allies with his nationalistic America first garbage. He has divided our country like no other since the Civil War which is the absolute worse of all grievances. Cheney may have been responsible for starting wars and profiting from war but these as horrible as they may be are far less damaging than what Trump has accomplished. He needs to take his loyal followers and just go away. This is our America not Trump's America.
81
Best in a long time. I can't believe the 'new' Dems are upstairs about the firing (resignation) of Sessions, one of the most morally egregious people in government. They're also weeping over Mueller & his FBI buddies. J. Edgar Hoover anyone. I remember when we called these people 'the pigs. There were the National pigs & the local pigs). Why the weeping. It's because recently, the FBI has gone after Trump & his cronies.
So now they're wonderful. & of course, Cheyney. Much more devastating to the world than Trump, so far.
23
Who are the Pygmalions of Palin?
67
Trump may be razor blades but Cheney was smooth as oil.
Both these men raise the question of the lack of intellectual acuity on our part, the civilian audience, buying tickets to their carnival sideshow and Wild West rodeo.
I am not confident we have the resilience to do anything to counterbalance such a pair, and coming replacements, of con-men.
45
just because the fascist of the bush regime have problems with the fascist trump regime doesn't mean they have any ethics or morals. they are both extremely bad for America and the rest of the world.
Neocons or white nationalist - all horrible
70
Thanks Maureen for reminding us of one of the most evil Republicans ever to hold office. The Sith Lord to Darth Vader or in W's case the Daft Vader.
As observed here, it was the absolute moral capitulation of the likes of Hillary Clinton etc in supporting the Iraq War. The wanton & craven cowardice the Democrats displayed throughout the 2000's, cowering in corner pleading 'don't hurt me'.
The wilful gutlessness of Barack Obama, when President, who not only failed to go after the war criminals of the Bush era but also failed to go after the thieving criminals who engineered the GFC. With the acquiescence of George W but also Obama, not only failed the people that put them into power but couldn't wait to hand out billions to those very same criminals who instigated one of the most audacious thefts in modern time.
Trump's greatest sin is the fact he does not have the guile or wit to hide his crimes in the way the likes of Cheney was able to. The Democrats claim the 'moral' ground, thrust upon their high horse as they screech about the grifters currently in the White House enabled by the GOP. What these latter-day 'progressive' Democrats can't abide is the gaudiness of Trump, with his overt racist chauvinism in his reality TV mode.
So again America, you have no one to blame but yourselves for allowing your politics to be debased by rank opportunistic thieves who know that their opponents have the bluster & strength of conviction of a wet lettuce leaf across the face.
41
I agree with every word of this column, but, Maureen, have you ever looked in the mirror? Has the Times? At critical moments, the NYT ignored stories (FBI investigation into Trump/Russia), misled (Judith Miller) and downright lied ("Clinton Cash" swallowd whole) to the American people. The press needs to do better, and kindly talk to someone other than Trump supporters in small town diners.
160
Thankfully, we are not in charge of deciding these things, but there is a God who will. Justice will be served. The day of reckoning will come. In the meantime, we need to keep bailing this ship of state out and redirecting its course towards greater justice, freedom and equality for all, that arc of progress towards the greater good.
10
Absolutely on point, Maureen. Anyone who construes trump as an anomaly has been living blissfully with their heads in the sand. This is business as usual and has been for decades.
46
Probably your best and most important article recently, but as far as the worst take your pick, Cheney, Trump, et al.
Trump is the product of a long string of Republican Cabals, blunders and down right illegal and terrorist actions.
When Trump pushed his competition out of the way, he displaced a lot of Republican low life whose intent now is mostly sour grapes that they didn't get away so obviously with what Trump has done without flinching. Reagan .ed to Newt Gingrig who led to Cheney who led to Trump, a trail of dark planning by the GOP which does not need a competition as to who is the worst.
33
I absolutely agree; we forget our appalling recent history at our peril. But those now in power are an immediate, and I would judge existential, threat. We ignore their horrors at our peril too.
28
Also, control your impulse to gush over Joe Biden. This month he will present the Liberty Award to George W. Bush for (wait for it) his support of veterans.
Michelle's affinity for Bush would exist if her own daughters had been in the position of having to volunteer to be cannon fodder for his wars. I don't mean to be harsh, but that's the simple truth. She's a fiercely protective mother, as she should be.
When you have an all volunteer army, it's much easier to detach yourself from the atrocities. I'm sure even many Times readers were shocked at the photos out of Yemen reminding us what starving children look like.
Sometimes when I'm in the bleakest of moods I wish they would all go away and let us start over. But this time, we have to pay close attention.
48
@TM
Sorry, I meant to say "wouldn't exist."
12
#Trump vs Bush/Cheney It is an interesting comparison, but Cheney is over, long gone.
Trump is very much NOW and has done significant damage to all of us in many ways other than body count.
For example, I want to maintain our democracy and free press, but after Trump's disgraceful interactions with our press the last couple weeks I sincerely worry about that basic stuff.
His failure to respond to real crises in Puerto Rico and Cali also concern me as does his ongoing interactions with #Putin.
Did I mention encouragement of bigotry, sexism and intolerance, and his criminal tax activities and other ?? criminal actions during our election process with payoffs to Stormy etc?
Crooked Trump's body count is not as high as Cheney's, true, but he probably has scored more points against our democratic way of life, our checks and balances, and against our positive reputation in the world.
I know I've had more than enough of Trump!
The last couple of pressers he ran and his totally condescending and snide interactions with reporters doing their jobs were totally UNACCEPTABLE IMO.
37
Cheney kept the con. The ponzi scheme salesman's straight face.
Trump is terrible at keeping the con. Too emotional and troubled.
Cheney got what he wanted. Trump never does.
13
I recall Cheney responding to the fact that the public had largely opposed continued participation in Iraq that he did not care what the public thought. Thereafter, Democrats took both Houses of Government as well as many State and local offices. You might have thought that the drubbing would have chastened Cheney, but of course it did not. I consider myself a conservative but I still was reminded of the Antichrist whenever I saw Cheney whispering in W's ear.
53
Thank you Ms. Dowd. Your best yet. A presidency needlessly waging war and destroying the lives of 10s of thousands needs to be ranked among the most vile.
Let's not forget though that our country is now complicit in the death of thousands of Yemeni innocents.
45
However Trump is not finished yet and he has the presidency and controls the GOP with an iron fist. Trump as Bolton and Jared in league with Saudi and Israel are plotting the collapse of Iran. Forcing out Mattis and installing a lackey Sec of Defense the Trump regime can launch a war with Iran based on lies which Trump does easily. Backed by 40% of the population Trump will get the country to rally around him and bask in the glory of being a great wartime president. Trump has his lackey Attorney General and Supreme Court justice to attack his enemies perhaps put Hillary under house arrest over her e mails or trumped up charges. Trump can out do the monster Cheney in causing havoc here and abroad as he has more power and his by nature nasty,vile and has the authoritarian mind set to order troops to shoot or torture civilians he views as troublesome. Trump needs to be reigned in hopefully by a democratic House.
33
America deserves apologies from the never-Trumpers whom Maureen has mentioned by name, and those she hasn't: Nicolle Wallace, Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt, David Frum, Bret Stephens, Bill Kristol, SE Cupp, every living member of the Bush family, Stuart Stevens, John Weaver and more. They brought us here. I agree with many of them on their anti-Trump statements. But I would like them to apologize long and hard for how they contributed to the trashing of values and norms that brought us to Trump's regime.
69
If you have not had the chance to see Sasha Baron Cohen persuading Mr. Cheney to autograph a waterboard, watch it now. It’s breathtaking.... in more ways than one.
22
What happened to the succinct, pithy and insightful comments from Socrates, Gemli, Rima and Christine M, et al? Now anointed The NYT defacto commentors they wax prophetic in lengthy diatribes. Bring back the killer insight, the brevity of ironic twists. I love them all, but wow, these are called comments not treatises, right?
11
spot on, Maureen!
4
I never imagined our current madness. I thought GWB's was the worst voters would support. As bad as it was, GWB's administration didn't work to demonize Blacks, Hispanics, and Muslims in America. Thanks to Trump, now Republicans are far more blatantly promoting men who harassed women and who openly lied in Congressional hearings.
Is Hell on its way when we think Jeff Sessions is the best we can get as an Attorney General?
Maybe the crazy "Christians" approve Trump's response to the fires in California. I wish Jesus would take all of those climate change deniers to some other planet so we can work to heal this one.
37
I think Freudian's observations help understand human beings' self expressions. Here are conceptualizations which I think elucidate people in the USA presidential administration:
Anal expulsiveness: The characteristic state of a person who exhibits cruelty, emotional outbursts, disorganization, excessive self-confidence, rebelliousness and general carelessness. Conflicts with bullying parents regarding toilet can produce a fixation in this stage.
[This character trait reminds me of D. Trump expresses himself.]
Anal-retentiveness indicates traits such as miserliness, obsessiveness, obstinacy and meticulousness, orderliness, stubbornness, and a compulsion for control. [This character trait reminds me of ways M. Pence expresses himself.]
Neither person demonstrates sufficient self-awareness regarding their characteristic self expressions. Each shows insufficient forms and consciousness of mature forms of self expression:
"Maturity and creation for the enhancement of lives. This is not just about creating new life (reproduction) but also about intellectual and artistic creativity. The task is to learn how to add something constructive to life and society.
Adult character...is not fixed at an earlier stage. The person who has worked out their [early childhood conflicts]is [rather] psychologically well-adjusted and balanced. To achieve this state you need to have a balance of both love and work [in your life, and, in general, with other people].
5
How lucky we are that we get to pick a psycho favorite.
29
From a phycological viewpoint after 9/11 the country needed to strike out at something so as not to feel helpless. Iraq was it. And there will always be manipulators ready to take advantage. This does not excuse the rotting souls inside of these individuals, but the only defense against then is our own individual rationality. Unfortunately history has not been kind to this defense.
6
The premise of this piece is faulty and the argument supporting it erratic and specious.
If Max Boot is listened to now, it’s because what he says about Trump resonates. No one is giving him a pass for his past position on Iraq.
And who in the Democratic Party pays attention to wack-job John Bolton? Or remembers the good old days of Sarah Palin? Or torture-lawyer John Yoo? The fact that Yoo writes an Op-Ed that echoes one liberal position doesn’t mean that liberals have learned to respect him.
The fact that Trump’s own odor is so overwhelming doesn’t make Cheney smell sweet. He still stinks.
It’s not about personalities. It’s about facts and truth. Cheney’s war crimes won’t be erased, Palin won’t be any smarter nor Reagan any less of a failure in economics as a result of Trump’s corruption.
54
You always lift my spirits with your words...oh, to write in such a manner!
The detestable Dick Cheney was always evil in my eyes. Creepy is a good word. The fact that W let him swarm over the swamp was always frightening. I agree with Mr. McKay...the latter would always be preferable, but we overreact to Trump's rhetoric on a daily basis. The reminder of such souls lost and on Veteran's Day...such sadness.
Never stop, Maureen.
8
In regard to “it’s not even close”, the Trump administration has two more years, there’s still time for him to up his body count.
11
10 thumbs up for this column. Yes, Trump destroyed the Republican Party, and you know what? It deserved to be destroyed. Nothing Trump has done has approached the insanity of the Iraq war. Yet.
23
Let's be clear on one point. Trump is the worst president in US history. The contest is over. He has nothing left to prove. He won.
Re the 600,000 people that died in Iraq, it will seem but a pittance when Earth dies.
20
What No mention of Cheney’s partner in Crime Donald (i missed out on all the good wars) Rumsfeld?
28
Two thoughts. As ever:
(1) I remember reading--oh, years ago--an account of the 1950's. That would include the McCarthy years.
"He LOOKED like a bad guy," the author commented. "He smirked. He scowled. He sniggered. He had a heavy, jowly face."
And elsewhere, I remember a photo taken of some McCarthy opponent. Standing on the steps of the Capitol. And--guess who took the opportunity to sneak in behind him as the shutter clicked. Grinning to beat the band--"Hey guys! isn't this FUN!"
Well, I suppose some guys just LOOK like bad guys. They've got VILLAIN written all over them.
Maybe I ought not to single out prominent personalities of the present day and tack that label on them. Possibly you can guess who I mean. Or maybe not. No matter.
(2) The Trump bashing bothers me. Just a bit.
Do I like him? No. Do I admire or respect him? No. Did I vote for him? No. WILL I vote for him? Never! Never!
But the columns of this newspaper are filled with well-reasoned, well-expressed denigrations of Mr. Donald J. Trump. My only concern is--
--you guys (in large measure) are preaching to the choir. I suppose SOME readers of the New York Times are avid supporters of Mr. DJT--but I cannot think them very numerous. And--
--they turn in comments now and then which are published. The vitriol (if any) is filtered out.
That still leaves Mr. Dick Cheney. What to say?
Sounds like a good movie. I should check it out.
Thanks, Mr. Dowd.
5
Some Soviet leader is supposed to have said "You will sell us the rope we hang you with." It other words "Your Greed will be your demise." Twas greed that got us here, Les Moonves greatest crimes were committed while he was actually working. Ditto his peers in all of media.
Insert Cheney's name where it says Eichman. Ditto all republicans from reagan onward. From Wikipedia; The banality of evil...
"Arendt's book introduced the expression and concept the banality of evil.[6] Her thesis is that Eichmann was not a fanatic or sociopath, but an extremely average person who relied on cliché defenses rather than thinking for himself and was motivated by professional promotion rather than ideology. Banality, in this sense, is not that Eichmann's actions were ordinary, or that there is a potential Eichmann in all of us, but that his actions were motivated by a sort of stupidity which was wholly unexceptional.[7] In his 2010 history of the Second World War, Moral Combat, British historian Michael Burleigh calls the expression a "cliché" and gives many documented examples of gratuitous acts of cruelty by those involved in the Holocaust, including Eichmann.[8] Arendt certainly did not disagree about the fact of gratuitous cruelty, but, she claims, "banality of evil" is unrelated to this question. Similarly, the first attempted rebuttal of Arendt's thesis relied on a misreading of this phrase, claiming Arendt meant that there was nothing exceptional about the Holocaust."
5
You left out LBJ.
He sends 500,000 US troops to fight in South Vietnam, some say for his political agenda.
Then 4 years later he essentially quits and leaves the troops hanging there. Oh, he also took some military pressure off the folks trying to kill the US troops that he sent there.
He was either insane or just plain evil - as evil as they come.
5
@Jp
Sorry Jp but you are dead wrong. It was Kennedy who started the build up and LBJ went along just as Kennedy did trusting the Pentagon personnel to be telling the truth.
When LBJ "quit" as you call it what had happened is that the Traitor Nixon had secretly intervened in the Paris Peace talks, an act of treason, to get the South Vietnamese to not sign the peace accord (He promised he would get them a better deal) that was all done and waiting for signatures. LBJ realized he would not win and did not want to tear the nation apart further by exposing Nixon's treason so he decided not to run.
It was Nixon who left those men and women hanging for 7 more years not LBJ.
29
The Champagne is chilling for the day the mechanical heart of this evil person ceases.
14
MD wrote a column recently about Gary Hart. If you want to go back in history, you can blame everything -- 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bush, Cheny, Obama, and Trump -- on Lee Atwater, who on his deathbed revealed that he had orchestrated the "monkey business" debacle that led Hart to pull out of the race.
10
Maureen:
I love your writing!
What a brilliant panoramic exposure of past eras!
Even your old articles included. Read them all.
Why is it so eay to confuse us?
Thamks!
4
While remembering Cheney, we shouldn't forget Rumsfeld. I always had difficulty trying to decide which was the more satanic.
24
"Michelle Obama has written in her memoir that she will never forgive Trump for pushing the birther movement. Yet the Pygmalions [Republicans] of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party [Democrats]."
[ ] are mine. Can anyone explain these two sentences to me? They make no sense. How are Palin's Pygmalions celebrated in the Democratic party?
Sometimes tolerated by Dems perhaps, but usually at the end of a long stick.
16
@SJL
I also asked this question.
This is typical Maureen Dowd. She really isn’t different than KellyAnne Conway, and both enabled Trump.
23
This is such a good and realistic view of things. Even Obama should be mentioned with reference to the vast number of drone strikes carried out during his administration. He was a very warlike commander & chief. People are so out of touch with the underlying reality. Trump says some things that I disagree with but the media's coordinated hatred for him stems from the fact that he campaigned with his own money and is not "owned" by global corporations and billionaires. Wake up people!
6
Excellent column Maureen.
Cheney was far worse, though the present danger now is certainly perilous and much more scary.
The major difference between Cheney and Trump is that Cheney had the full gravity of a dark Shadow Government behind him. The biggest corporate concerns including oil and defense spending were enthusiastically in his corner as were the Vampires of Wall Street.
Military and particularly Intelligence were his broad-shouldered sidemen at all times. Murdoch and Fox and other disciples of Goebbels kept the psychological operation humming smoothly....
And all of that, made this. The stealthy hit-man has turned into the maniac with the cleaver.
11
It’s discouraging that we are left with a choice between worse and worser.
13
Ask yourself what would you have done different if you were them?
It takes a lot to get to the top, and power changes you.
I know if I was in their shoes you would've liked it even less ;)
2
Crowds did not gather last week to protest Jeff Sessions' firing. They were protesting the manner in which he was replaced -- with a Trump lackey who has been investigated (or is still under investigation) by the FBI for involvement in a fraudulent business operation that harmed many people, who has indicated his strong opinions regarding the Special Counsel's investigation and whose placement in the position has not been confirmed by the Senate. The protesters' concern (indeed, the concern of millions of Americans) is that Donald Trump may have placed Whitaker in that position in order to interfere with, close down and/or gather information regarding the Special Counsel's investigation. Very few of the protesters (likely not a single one of them) is sorry to see Jeff Sessions leave Washington. To him we say, "Good riddance!"
17
Yes but don't underestimate trump - he's just getting started.
9
I don't know if I buy the logic. Someone with nothing to lose can cause a lot of damage.
3
I usually agree with Ms Dowd, but she presents us with a faulty analogy in her “professional assassin” vs. “maniac with a meat cleaver” scenario.
The analogy would be more accurate if each of the two options had the world’s largest nuclear arsenal at his command.
In that scenario, I’m choosing the sane professional for obvious reasons.
6
This essay seems to ignore the incalculable potential damage that Trump's mental illnesses could cause. Cheney was indubitably an evil man. But, he, by all appearances, was in control of his mental faculties. That gives the opposition something to aim at.
With Trump, he is so clearly mentally unbalanced and malleable in his political ideology, if he even has any, that it is nearly impossible to know how to begin. By the time the latest absurd lie is spoken or disastrous political action is taken, like appointing a man to be the head of law enforcement in the U.S. who ran businesses shut down for fraud, he is already on to the next irrational act.
The other very dangerous part about Trump is that he has tens of millions of followers who continue to insist that is the media that is lying about what is happening and not the man documented to have told thousands of lies about things ranging from trivial to important every day of his Presidency.
Trump may not, as yet, have done as many bad things/damaged the present and future of the planet as the previous Republican administration but, give him a chance. He has been in office for less than two years and is off to a roaring start.
16
We must never forget the war crimes committed by Cheney and his co-conspirators. Those who profited off of the destruction of Iraq and the slaughter of its citizens (Haliburton, Erik Prince/Blackwater, etc.)are no less evil. Yes, Cheney was/is an insidious insider who took advantage of W. Trump is an outsider but to say he is an easy target is missing the point. It is true many (including the major cable outlets) are cashing in on Trump's malevolent incompetence and there is plenty of hypocrisy to out. But Trump is shrewdly taking advantage of and exacerbating the racial and cultural divides that have plagued our nation since it's founding and do not minimize his trampling on our democratic values and institutions. His incompetence is no excuse. We have gangster in the Oval Office. But he will be gone but not soon enough.
12
Hopefully Trump won't read this and decide that he needs to up his monstrosities to stay in the game.
More seriously, the issue of deliberately lying enablers and lickspittles (LIndsay Graham, anyone?) was relevant then as today. It seems to me that there's more fact checking and push back in some of the press today however.
Some. Does no one fear for their souls anymore?
6
Let no one ever utter a single false equivalency between our two political parties again. Regardless of your personal political views, it should be obvious to all reasonable, logical adults that the Republican party is the far more villainous one.
Can’t wait to see this movie!
9
Perhaps it started when George Washington executed the gentleman noble, Major André, as a spy ?
One can read Anna Seward's poem on the subject.
I understand Maureen Dowd's premise for this piece and agree that Cheney is an evil person who changed our country, risking the lives of our soldiers and killing hundreds of thousands of people here and in Iraq. However, I wonder why Maureen chose to write this op-ed today when we are in the midst of a Constitutional crisis with a clearly out-of-control president who is dismantling the foundations of our government and altering our standing in the world. We really must focus on the current situation of a frighteningly-unfit president and unfit Republicans in Congress who refuse to challenge him and protect America. The issue is what is happening now and how we can save the country from this corrupt administration. Despite the past, we need to focus on what is happening now.
17
movies like "Vice" will recount history.
One sad thought is the legacy that Donald Trump is leaving his family ... History will eat Trump alive.
6
Maureen is 100% correct. As bad and appaling as Trump is, he did not get us into a war on false pretenses that lost hundreds of thousands of lives, maimed even more, and cost trillions of dollars that could have been used to build our failing infrastructure.
Of course, Trump is unhinged, incompetent, dangerous and capable of anything - and needs to be removed ASAP.
The blight on our democracy is really at the hands of the Republicans going back to Reagan. Future historians will hopefully make this clear.
19
On the money (almost literally). Your best opinion piece in years.
3
Democrats need to concentrate on the nation’s healthcare,education ,immigration. Once they ,at least, have promoted their policies to the electorate on these issues, they can start to investigate plethora of Trump’s administration “dubious” activities. The rural areas need special attention from the Democrats. The important strategy for the Democrats is timing, with regard to the 2020 elections. The chaos that is expected in the next two years is a problem,and clever strategy is required to find a way for the electorate to embrace the Democrat’s policies on Health,Education and Immigration.
8
Interesting contrarian spin, Maureen. And far too many easily rebutted points to go into here. Others have already pointed them out. However, I find it fascinating that once again you give George W. Bush a pass as nothing worse than naïve and insecure, and lay all of the blame on master manipulator Cheney. That is simply a wrong reading of history. And doubly ironic from somebody who is so fiercely harsh on both the Clintons and the Obamas and waxed so benignly in her affections for the Bushes, father and son, to chastise us for not holding that administration to more account. Meanwhile, as has been your wont with Republican administrations during their actual time of ravaging and defiling our country and the constitution, you are conspicuously quiet as the racist, misogynistic, narcissistic and gaslighting liar-in-chief overly plays to the very worst impulses in our population. Since you seem to have a newfound fervor for holding people accountable for what they did during the early 2000’s, perhaps you might want to start by looking in the Mirror, Maureen?
45
The real question is why did America give power to either of these vile men. Why wasn't the population of America educated to the point where they could see them coming.
24
Most of us did see them coming. and both were delivered to us not by the public but the antiquated electoral college
27
@Son Of Liberty
no.
Look back to the Nixon admin and the 70's when the criminal cabal that has stolen our government by the people began tanking the economy to provide the stressor necessary to win votes to get reagan elected so they could gut the government of the very people who would have prevented W or Cheney from ever rising above congressperson by making everyone aware of who and what they were. Cheney's greed would have prohibited him from being allowed into government service other than by election before reagan. During and after reagan greed was a requirement to get hired.
6
Stay on your game Maureen and don't let what 8 years of Bush/Cheney did to wreck this country and the world be forgotten.
While Obama did a masterful job cleaning up the mess and repairing the economy that our moron of a president takes credit for, he made a mistake not forming a like minded Church style Committee to hold the incompetent, immoral and murderous Bush/Cheney regime accountable. Rumsfeld and the whole cabal of war mongering neocons were wrong about everything and should be in prison.
Two Bushes, two needless invasions of Iraq, millions of lives lost, the table set for 9/11 - there's your Bush Legacy.
32
@Douglas, and he is still out there, painting in his free time.
5
The guy with the meat cleaver is, in part, thus columnist’s fault. Hillary Clinton just wasn’t pure enough for Ms. Dowd, and she seemed in thrall of mr. trump’s celebrity.
27
Dear Ms. Dowd, This is the best column that you have ever written. By a mile.............
8
Dick Cheney went to Pakistan, 1980's, after Gen. Zia hanged President Bhutto.He encouraged Gen. Zia to promote Islamic warriors in Pakistan's madrassas. Read the book, "Charlie Wilson's War" about Cheney & team being in Pakistan arming the roots of Al Qada.
11
@Michael shenk
Don't forget reagan "Anyone that religious cannot possibly be a bad person".
6
The Electoral College has outlived it’s usefulness. Alexander Hamilton favored it as a check on the electorate lest they be duped. Hamilton and the other Founders believed that the Electoral College would make it less feasible for the voters to be manipulated. It has become a grossly unfair process because it gives smaller, less populated states, more power per vote than states with larger populations. Clinton received three million more votes than Trump and the latter won thanks to the Electoral College. Time for a change.
30
Right on Maureen, I can`t wait to see the movie . I was thinking that these evil people like Trump and Cheney will always be around in our government, they are a product of Reaganism mated to neo-con greed. The saddest thing are the GOP voters who think they are helping them. They can`t see they are voting against their own interests, against unions, against a living wage and against the actual American way. Not too mention the war profiteering. How many one percenters made money on all the wars since W.W.2?
19
Rubbish. Give it up, Maureen. This hollier than everyone else liberalism reminds me of the time when many opposed to the Vietnam war proved reluctant to welcome former war supporters to their side. To be sure, there is a lot of blame for the Iraq war around and it does not all land on W and Cheney. Among others, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John Kerry and John Edwards voted to authorize the Iraq war before they opposed it. John Yoo may have written the memo but Dianne Feinstein and other Dem Senators were briefed on detainee mistreatment and waved it through. But that was then and this is now. Trump and Trumpism will not be defeated without a lot of Republicans turning on him. So let's welcome Max Boot, Elliot Cohen, Steve Schmidt, Nicolle Wallace to the cause. And W and Dick Cheney too, if they're willing.
11
@John Burke
Republicans turning on Trump must include those in the Senate and House of Representatives, otherwise we’re whistling into the wind.
10
Amen.
3
I think most rational people are aware that our current misguided president would not have been elected nor lasted a week in office without the protection and help of the GOP. In Nixon's time there were GOP members who said he is our president, we must support him through illegal invasion of Cambodia, etc, and extending the Vietnam conflict for 7 unecessary but deadly years. Nixon still holds the award for highest body count of people killed by his actions. Reagan had his demonizing of people on welfare and AIDS patients; GW Bush his Lee Atwater and Willy Horton ads; Bush the lesser went big for the war + tax cuts approach to crippling government, and like Trump, had no ability to understand or interpret complex information about the Middle East. The whole Bush family was way too close to the Saudis. Democrats have their flaws, but Republicans have been either crazy, corrupt, or wildly incompetent, even before Trump. Clearly, Trump is a whole other level of totally wrong for the presidency.
21
Can we ever forgive Sandra Day O'Connor? How was she convinced to allow the completely predictable tragedy. We know that 9/11 merely the pretext needed to invade Iraq and try to secure its oil.
4
Quick and helpful solution: PROSECUTE WHITE COLLAR CRIME.
A serious, well funded and continuous enforcement of our laws against white collar crime would catch so many of these bad actors, and friends and financial backers of them.
27
Unless we do something about it, Trump will be President until January of 2025. If the professional assassin is in a hotel room ten miles away planning the hit and the frothing maniac is in your kitchen with you, which do you choose to deal with first?
4
George Orwell had it right. Vast power easily corrupts. I want Obama back please.
17
Better late than never, Dowd comes to the party. Richard Bruce Cheney, draft dodger, profiteer, consummate liar, architect of the Middle Eastern conflagration, torture apologist and war criminal. Without any doubt the most evil man of the twenty-first century so far. Bush was titular in his horrible Administration in name only. Cheney self-selected himself, violated the Constitution running as a citizen of Wyoming despite actually being a Texan like Bush and is in every way a blood-soaked mass murderer. He cannot travel outside the US for fear of arrest. Perhaps this film will shine a small light into the dark cavern of his soul and the banality of evil.
33
@Chuck Burton
Nicely stated. To be fair, among American candidates for the highest order of infamy should be Donald Rumsfeld and that CEO dude from Blackwater (the private army that served Halliburton and the US in Iraq).
10
I would rather have neither type of maniac anywhere inside USA government offices.
22
Cheney's in the past. You can't live there anymore. But we can deal with the horrors of the GOP and their leader now and in the future. Get focused Marueen!
14
Maureen, a terrific column, thank you. But somehow you forgot to mention that your fellow Opinion Columnist Tom Friedman also supported W going into Iraq. Always good for job security to follow Israel's advice.
10
Just have to wonder every day what is so wrong with the Republican party and it's adherents. Why do they seem over and over to represent the very worst of policies for governance and benefit to not only their own voters but the country. What is it that attracts the type of people who make up their politicians that seem to be of the lowest caliber: liars, thieves, cheats, the ignorant and uninformed, to wit, Trump, Ryan, Bush (W), Cheney, Nixon, McConnell, ad naseum. Fear, hatred, and greed is the stew that seems to underscore Republicanism. Why can't these patriots who "love" their flag, religion, and guns seem to bring a bit of that brotherhood to their policies?
14
@No My view is that the GOP does not consider the citizen population to be their constituents; they don't care what is best for the public. They work for and obey their rich donors like the Mercers, Kochs, Adelsons etc. The donors have very different ideas and goals than the average voter. It's kind of an unacknowledged coup d'etat.
8
"Sweaty and swarthy" Ms. Dowd? Yes, we know that you mean Nixon, but however little you intend it, a phrase like that plays into racial stereotypes.
3
Yeah, we’ve had bad guys aplenty inhabiting the Oval as well as within their coteries.
But have we had a president possibly guilty of treasonous acts, conspiring with an adversarial power and lying to America some 6000 times since he was sworn?
Some presidents have Not been “really fine people,” but I doubt any have been so culpable of such heinous behavior. That includes Nixon.
13
@Regards, LC What do you make of Nixon's secretly negotiating with Hanoi before he was elected, and under-mining LBJ's negotiations by telling Hanoi they'd get a better deal if they waited for the Nixon inauguration? In fact they got the same deal after 7 more years of war and killing that could have been made in 1968. I consider Nixon to have been a traitor and war criminal.
6
@Bonnie,
Yes, I learned of this in Ken Burns’s documentary.
I recall LBJ characterized it as an act of treason.
I don’t disagree with your observation; however...
I believe conspiring with Russia poses a far greater threat to us and the planet.
3
I can only speak for myself: the run up to the Iraqi war was an unconvincing exercise in double speak that failed to convince. I waited for the evidence that would justify going after Iraq, such as evidence of actual WMD's, any actual ties to 9/11, etc. , and it became quite clear that this was about nothing but finishing up daddy's war, grabbing more potential oil assets for our oil barons, and pumping up the coffers of the defense contractors. In the years that have passed, my opinion of Bush/Cheney hasn't risen at all, but the most damaging thing from that time was the incredulous response of the American public in reelecting them to a second term. I wish I could say we have learned something out of those events, but for much of the country, it is pretty obvious that they haven't, and I don't think they ever will. Is Trump better or worse? He's only getting started; there is lots of potential for damage ahead.
19
Absent from this piece is the damage Trump is doing by fueling hatred, division, and even violence. Cheney and Bush may be guilty of bad and self-serving decisions but did not spread and foment the kind of toxicity that is damaging families and communities across the US.
7
Right on point. I only regret that you left out Mitch McConnell. He is the guy in the shadows currently destroying our country.
26
Maureen Dowd is absolutely correct about Michelle Obama's party. "We came, we saw, he died," she joked. The Obama Administration, namely Hillary Clinton, is responsible for the death, destruction, and chaos that ensued after Clinton overthrew Gaddafi. Hillary did nothing to move the peace process forward between the Palestinians and Israelis. Obama made a modest effort to close Guantánamo which enabled Congress to adopt legislation that he refused to veto. His administration provided support to the Saudi-led coalition as it repeatedly bombed civilians in Yemen. And let's not forget his love of drone strikes that killed scores of Muslim civilian. In 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported that from 2006 to 2009, the flight hours of the Predator and Reaper drones had more than tripled. Furthermore, Obama refused to renew the assault weapons ban, which he said he would do while campaigning in 2008. He stated he didn't want to take on the NRA. The bottom line is Obama was farther to the right than Clinton; he wasn't progressive or liberal.
8
With Trump, it's as though the country conveniently forgot about Bush launching an unprovoked war of aggression based exclusively on lies, which killed upward of a million people, ripped Iraq to shreds, spread incalculable human suffering, set up torture chambers and gave birth to ISIS at a cost of trillions of dollars and counting.
Trump plainly belongs behind bars. But that is NOT the case with Bush and Cheney. Were the laws of the United States faithfully observed, both would be put on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity and executed.
24
"The very same Republicans who eroded America’s moral authority in the 2000s are, staggeringly, being treated as the new guardians of America’s moral authority."
Bravo--this is SO important to point out!
Bottom line: "Decent Republican" is the ultimate oxymoron.
25
I think this is the best (and most essential) column Maureen Dowd has ever written.
6
"American Psycho," as it is being applied here to the political class in America, is a misnomer.
The psychos are not American and the Americans are not psycho.
(It doesn't take Freud to figure out which party is which.)
2
It isn’t that the left likes or approves of Sessions, it’s that his successor is so much worse.
12
I am of an age in which the Iraq war protests shaped my political ideas. We young people at the time saw more old rich men forcing us young folks to go and fight for their wealth. That war was the most cynical of our twentieth-century conflicts: it was so obviously all about making more money for the already wealthy and powerful that I will never, ever trust a rich man in any position of political power again. They are all in politics for the money they can churn out of it. Cheney and his spiritual successors were and are some of the most selfish, aggressively self-interested and greed-driven people ever to darken our nation's capital.
16
"..He's got that smell/The musty old smell of a priest/The damp and mould of neglect/The smell of fresh earth dug over/ But how we forgive/ Old rivalries half-forgot/ We smile as best we can/ But I can't let it go/ But I can't let it go/ I can't forgive you, I can't forgive me.." ( Dungeons For Eyes)
Guitarist Richard Thompson's soliloquy after being introduced to Dick Cheney at a Manhattan soiree, off his album 'Still'.
7
Get rid of the Electoral College.
If America is unable to reform itself, and quickly, it will be left on the dustbin of history.
13
Every time you write an article trashing Trump, I respond by reminding the readers that during the 2016 campaign you trashed Hilary Clinton and was practically a member of the Trump campaign. The word hypocrite springs to mind. Also of interest is fact that these letters I have written in the past never seem to get printed here. Wonder why?
30
It appears that my comment in the same vein has hit the cutting room floor as well.
I hold Maureen Dowd complicit in out current national nightmare.
11
Hillary voted for the Iraq war and became buddy buddy with W. She’s no rose
2
What are Pygmalions of Palin and how are they the voice of Michelle's party?
15
Ms. Dowd, while I look forward to your pieces, they always leave me in a state of hopelessness.
Yes. You’re right about Cheney. But the frothing psycho with a meat-cleaver is the current problem. And I believe, for different reasons, the frothing guy is right that it’s the news media’s fault.
U.S. news media is money-making spectacle, not a mature responsible public service. Now, why is that? Anybody have a way to get out of this one?
Anybody?
8
Except we have a professional assassin and a frothing maniac with a meat cleaver playing good cop/bad cop with us.
3
"Michelle's party"? Do I need to remind anyone that Michelle Obama was as apolitical a First Lady as we've ever had, and that her concerns over the "birther conspiracy" propogated by our current president were about the safety of her "family," particularly her two school-age daughters who might have been susceptibile to the kind of of attack we saw at the Wash., D.C. pizzeria in 2016? In fact, Obama took office amid fears by some African Americans that he might become the target of an assassination attempt.
21
Well, but did not many Democrats vote for the war in Irak, most prominently Hillary. Big media and NYT were also willfully buying into the lies about WMDs and accusing everybody who opposed as unpatriotic. The information blackout and propaganda most Americans bought into was truly repulsive and scary.
Only foreign leaders had the sanity to be critical enough to denounce the WMD claims as questionable, e.g. the German foreign minister. Democrats by and large failed the people and the world probably out of opportunism and cowardice.
9
I have an obsessive hatred of Dick—loathe him even more than Pinochet, when he was alive, although the latter directly ordered the murder my dear friend’s husband. But, sorry, as evil, self-serving, and self-righteously conceited as this authoritarian is, he is merely the by-product of Neo-con “thinking” (sic) that began with Irving Krystal, Norman Podhoretz, Senator Henry Jackson, Jeanne Kirkpatrick and other so-called “interventionists” and “nation-builders.” There is a reason that these deluded would-be and actual puppet masters were called “Trotskyites” in the early years: they were equally utopian in their ideology. What, if not Iraq, could be a clearer reason for Cheney, Podhoretz, Eliot Abrams and the demon spawn of Irving, William Krystal (who somehow has been paid for decades to never be right about anything, including Sarah Palin), to stand up and say “mea culpa: I see now that there are limits to exporting American-style democracy, and one of them is clearly from behind the barrel of a gun.” There’s about as much chance of that type of self-reflection and growth from these so-called intellectuals whose very souls drip with blood as there is of winning the California lottery. Actually, less. Dick should be tried as a war criminal, along with Kissinger.
20
Know your psychos. I rather like it when people act outwardly crazy then you know who to intentionally avoid or distrust.
It's the quiet or silent, seemingly normal ones that are truly scary. Many neighbors always mention the psycho killer next door was nice or helpful. It's the ones we don't see on the radar who are the most dangerous. Same with pedophiles.
5
Trump didn't arrive from thin air. The country took many steps down the ladder of competence on the way to this bottom rung.
14
Good one, and right on re the meat ax vs the sneak murderer.
However, I think in the present meat ax we have a synthesis of the two. Although the death count appears to be lower, the death count of our democratic values is way higher,
Many people do not get that this present person like the others is both crazy and insane at the same time... Hi is a highly skilled and heartless killer of anything that looks like Light
5
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. The democrats lost the election in 2000 because Gore was "too boring" and because the Greens wanted Ralph Nader. It was the Supreme Court, we now say. Yeah sure. In 2016, those same people did the same thing - Hillary wasn't good enough. Bernie was so much better. Adam McKay was one of those people. At what point do we take responsibility for putting those folks in power? We could have blocked the Bush/Cheney administration and we could have blocked the Trump administration. But we didn't.
19
This article boils down to: a pox on all their houses, they're all just as bad as Trump. That is misguided, wrong and dangerous.
4
After reading your article, I feel a sense of relief that finally, in some way, there is a moment of reckoning over Vice-President Cheney's abominable behavior and practices. It's not just the extent of the visible damage this man inflicted; the lesser seen or known aspects about this man, are, in my opinion equally chilling. A man who came close to murdering an innocent civilian; a man, who had his breakfast while watching killings of civilians by drone strikes, apparently enjoying the same. The military industrial complex's biggest cheerleader and benefactor, Cheney left the world far worse than it was, and with it, America's standing in the world. If any one person needs to blamed for the decline in America's power, Trump shouldn't be the first one to blame.
11
This might be your best op-ed in some time, Maureen. I have to believe that some of those Bush/Cheney boosters who have changed sides now actually feel real remorse for the tragic results of their partisan loyalty.
2
This column misses the Meta like a blinkered driver misses the Bridge Out sign. We're way beyond politics-as-usual, so listen to Mr. Boot. Today, Trump is attacking California firefighters while his cronies accelerate the damage to the planet. Tomorrow,he'll be attacking nannies who rescue kids from predators.
12
Point taken, but really now, don’t America and the bulk of its voters at least imagine there might be more than two options; two choices?
3
I'd bet that the demographic group with the highest rate of draft-dodging and/or military service avoidance in American history during a time of war are the Reagan and Bush 43 era political "Neocons." Maybe Trump's sycophants in Congress beat that record. The Supreme Court comes in at 100% military service avoidance. Happy Armistice Day to the working and middle class Americans who comprise 99.99% of our armed forces.
13
“Here’s the question,” he said. “Would you rather have a professional assassin after you or a frothing maniac with a meat cleaver? I’d rather have a maniac with a meat cleaver after me, so I think Cheney is way worse. And also, if you look at the body count, more than 600,000 people died in Iraq. It’s not even close, right?”
This sums up neatly the evil that is Cheney.
7
A well crafted piece, thank you Maureen! There never was any legitimate reason to invade Iraq. Our leaders failed us, and hundreds of thousands if not millions of people paid the ultimate price. America is now answering for that evil which it justly deserves. We are in very dark time in our history. I hope all of us remember and learn from our country's mistakes.
11
Americans have short memories and shallow souls. They need to be reminded of exactly what is good and what is bad. They need to remember the Supreme Court's interruption of the vote count in Florida and the appointment of W as president. Those are events that damaged democratic principles as much or more than the current clown car gang that is running this country. Good article Maureen!
15
Cheney versus Trump as the most horrible pol this century... Hmmm.
Well, Cheney is like an assassin sneaking up with a club in the dark. Acting behind the scenes, he did a lot of damage and the aftereffects are still reverberating. But the Iraq war has largely been repudiated.
Trump is like a clumsy do-it-yourself poisoner, injecting a base toxin into the body politic. He barely knows what he's doing from a strategic standpoint. But every day he divides the country more, he brings our international reputation lower, and he corrodes the liberal order that largely kept the peace since WWII.
Like so many important world events, the ultimate verdict may not be rendered for many generations. Cheney's murderous escapade was like a very bad meal we're still digesting but ultimately will be expelled. Trump, through his bumbling incompetence, may yet destroy our institutions and our planet. And ultimately Trump may get many more of our descendants killed.
6
You lost me on this one, Maureen. I still haven't figured out who you are referring to that has made Cheney a new hero to liberal America. I guess I missed the memo.
11
She doesn’t suggest that Cheney is the new hero, but rather Cheney’s enablers and minions.
2
Nobody knows what he has until he loses it ... since things can always get much worse.
5
What you have to say is important! PLEASE don't reinforce the binary-banality of either Cheney/or Trump. Consider "and in addition, and in addition..." Challenged as many of a diverse US are and feel,daily. Living in a divisive, united just semantically,USA. Cheney and Trump, as people,roles, processes and ongoing outcomes didn't create an ongoing toxic WE-THEY culture. Which began when "colonialists" created the 13 colonies and violated. The original diverse populations. And amongst themselves.Created,selected and targeted "the other(s)." Dehumanizing people.Ideas, challenged by certitudes of "principles of faith." Which excluded and marginalized.THEN. Continued NOW. And during the years in between. Consider, in your outrage, that blaming Cheney and Trump, is not likely to be the most effective "treatment" to infectious complacency. Outliers, as well as those closer, who are complicit in anchoring a culture of personal unaccountability by elected and selected American policymakers. Of ALL parties! Perhaps one can decondition the Pavlovian-learned "lock her-him-them UP?"Whatever its internally experienced and externally-pressuring sources. What about the ongoing, harmful, willful blindness about what IS, that never should BE? The willful deafness to experienced existential pains voiced, by many, all around US. Not heard or listened to? What about the willful ignorance of facts, now challenged by goulashed fictions and fantasies transmuted into "alt-facts," about faux-foes?
4
“Michelle Obama has written in her memoir that she will never forgive Trump for pushing the birther movement. Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party.”
What ars you talking about? The people you mention in this article are right-wingers and/or neoconservatives, Republicans all.
20
@EJS
These right wingers have basically denounced the Republican party as it stands right now due to Trump and the Party's deference to him. Some of these ex-R's have become "Democrats" and urged their fellow R Trump haters to follow suit.
They are now on every show imaginable, making money, writing books, etc. Heros to the left now? Hypocrites?
Dowd makes a good case. America i$ up for grab$.
2
Viile is vile is vile.
“How do you like your norms broken? Over Twitter or in a torture memo? By a tinpot demagogue stomping on checks and balances he can’t even fathom or a shadowy authoritarian expertly and quietly dismantling checks and balances he knows are sacred?”
and
“Would you rather have a professional assassin after you or a frothing maniac with a meat cleaver?”
Since when must we choose between such deplorable choices? How about I’d rather have a sane, transparent leader such as Barack Hussein Obama who does not line his pockets, quietly or clumsily, and does not abuse his power by playing deadly games that put soldiers in harm’s way.
And what is Ms. Dowd suggesting with “We make the president the devil spawn and he makes us the enemy of the people and everybody wins. Or do they? To what extent is lucrative Trump hysteria warping our discourse?”
“We” make Trump the devil spawn! He is doing that by himself. Covering news of his despicable words and actions naturally lead to a response by sentient beings. That’s not hysteria, a sly term meant to undermine the female response to outrageous behavior.
Nice try, Ms. Dowd, but you are a long way off from the “We” who resisted Cheney and continue to resist Trump.
10
This is the best Maureen Dowd I've read in a long time. Welcome back, Maureen!
6
You are so so far off. Donald Trump is not a menace. News outlets like the NYT that insist in attacking rather than honest reporting are the menace.
The country feels the same way. Trump lost way fewer House seats than Obama did. That suggests he is going to win in 2020. You can cry and whine and write irresponsible pieces but 2020 will be here soon enough and odds are the President is re-elected.
You really are way out of touch with what is going on in and important to this country.
3
And Obama had far fewer gerrymandered districts in his back pocket than mr. trump does. History lesson: Obama was elected in 2008. The dems passed the GOP inspired Affordable Care Act, which the GOP then successfully demagogued into the “tea party” takeover of state legislatures just in time for the 2010 redistricting. Locking in that structural advantage at both the state and congressional levels, the GOP then launched a campaign of voter intimidation and disenfranchisement in an attempt to make for a permanent minority majority.
And yet, in two states where the man running his own election ran for governor, the D’s won one and almost won another (and in all likelihood would have won both but purges and the like in GA. )
That the D’s overcame the GOP’s electoral manipulations at all is a bit of a miracle, dontcha think?
6
Don't bother. He can't hear you.
It takes unbridled stupidity for loyal followers of greed to think that your unmitigated devotion to abusing one's personal values to identify with the devil's disciple.
The decency of our nation is presently by demonstrated by military to use force, with the right to kill, should a stone be thrown by someone who has walked a 1,000 miles for a chance to survive.
Our better angels are not in the picture.
3
I love to be reminded of the Bush years... How brutal it was to those abroad ... This time around the brutality is local and in the face of the American people . I am so impressed by the Americans resisters from all sides, even with those few who support the current leader in the name of change. Our political systems are completely 'infiltraited'. The Infil-traitors change the laws, get the contracts, take the peoples money, have a war once and a while and churn it up up up so the stock prices rise. Get the criminals, and the subhuman corporations out of our politics! The world is watching your 'resistance ' and whatever you do don't stop!!! For t This 'American Experience' will once again be relevant in the times to come...
5
What is it about people who say they are Republicans? Seems like a disease.
10
These men are evil but they were not crazy and evil. Trump is a Malignant Narcissist and a Pathological Liar.
"The Malignant Personality" by Caroline Konrad, 1999
These people are mentally ill and extremely dangerous. To recognize them, keep the following guidelines in mind:
1. They are habitual liars. They seem incapable of either knowing or telling the truth about anything.
2. They are egotistical to the point of narcissism. They really believe they are set apart from the rest of humanity by some special grace.
3. They scapegoat; they are incapable of either having the insight or willingness to accept responsibility for anything they do. Whatever the problem, it is always someone else's fault.
4. They are remorselessly vindictive when thwarted or exposed.
5. Genuine religious, moral, or other values play no part in their lives. They have no empathy for others and are capable of violence. Under older psychological terminology, they fall into the category of psychopath, or sociopath, but unlike the typical psychopath, their behavior is masked by a superficial social facade.
7
Bah. Put your own name on the list of malefactors, Maureen -- for years, you did yoewoman's work in undermining and demonizing HRC, giving cover to the nutjobs and Clinton conspiracy theorists. Hillary never should have run, because she was badly damaged goods by 2016, but a lot of that damage was done by you.
17
Just a few of the things we don't want to look at:
1) As indicated in this column, despite his rudeness and crudeness, Trump still hasn't caused as much harm as Bush.
2) He is less hypocritical than the standard issue politician He brags about his sexual dalliances; Hillary still believes that Bill's issues were part of a vast right wing conspiracy.
3) Trump successfully launched a working class revolution that toppled both parties (something the liberal elites have been dreaming of since Abbie Hoffman and Gene McCarthy).
AND he did it by spending less money than his opponents (rubbishing reams of editorials on the monetary corruption of American politics)
4) Trump is not the devil spawn from an alien world. He is one of us, with all our idiocies and contradictions.
Good luck America.
1
There's a big difference that Maureen is forgetting. W and Cheney were on the side of the US empire. In contrast, Trump got himself elected by being an outsider, somebody not wanting to improve the empire from within, but somebody who wanted to challenge it directly. And frankly that's unforgivable.
Sure he's changed his stripes since then, and seems willing to embrace more of the empire than he did originally. But that's only so he can forestall his impeachment. Let's not forget who he is. He's not one of us. Period!
Oh and he's a racist, russion colluder and emboldener of terrorists. Just in there's still anybody sitting on the fence.
6
Do you notice a pattern here? G.W. Bush may have been the somewhat hapless victim of Cheney and his cohorts, but as I recall it was George H.W. (“Popi”)Bush who recommended he bring Cheney and Rumsfeld into his administration. There’s an article in the Atlantic by James Fallows about Gary Hart’s aborted campaign against H.W. and what was probably a fabricated scandal plotted by Lee Atwater. And oh yes, wasn’t it the Bush clan who elevated not only Atwater, but Manfort and Roger Stone and Carl Rove and their tactics (Willie Horton) into the mainstream of American presidential campaigns. And let’s not forget Jeb who learned well from his father and managed to hide behind Katherine Harris’s skirts during the 2000 debacle and followed it up in 2004 with more voter list purges, Diebold voting machines and the rest. It would be hard to match Donald Trump for profiting off the presidency, but the Bushes also made their money from oil and it might be noted the Jeb’s first big real estate deal was built outside of Miami on bay front land deassessioned by the USDA during his father’s presidency. The one thing Trump might have learned from the Bushes was how to court and flatter the press.
12
I am with you on one thing: the W team were worse for America than the Trump team.
2
Some years ago I bought "Angler", the book about the rise of Cheney in the Bush administration. I was so overcome by nausea that I never got past the first 50 pages.
6
Indeed. As odious as Trump is, he has not lied the country into war....yet.
3
Who are these "war criminals" that are feted inside the Democratic Party? Who are the Palin supporters inside the Democratic Party?
I will not accept her charges since they are made mostly anonymous. What ARE you talking about Maureen?
15
Both awful.
That said, my childhood chum and I have been discussing the irony that when we were young, we didn't say the pledge and considered patriotism as kind of corny at best. Now we are the patriots, the ones concerned for Jeff Sessions (god help us), cheering along the FBI, and worried about the Constitution while people on the right who claim the mantle of patriotism are destroying the country faster than you can say jack rabbit.
3
Thank you Maureen,
I've been waiting for this piece for a long time, wondering who would write it and when. Cheney left his smudged finger prints at so many horrible crime scenes, i was beginning to wonder if he had gotten away with his version of his place in history. Sacha Baron Cohen got as close to the truth about the Dark Cheney when he asked him to sign a waterboard kit, and Cheney responded “That’s a first,” Cheney says afterward, looking up at someone off-screen, still smiling. “That’s the first time I’ve ever signed a waterboard.”
3
Bottom line: to find a decent, ethical, honest Republican person to have held office in the White House, one must probably go back 30 years to the the first Bush presidency (and even that administration was no beacon of integrity). The GOP is rotten in the core. I'm surprised that so many people are so blind that they still vote these sociopaths into office.
6
The fact that she misses the point of the protest against the firing of the Attorney General, tells me Dowd can’t be taken seriously.
4
Suspect the movie will not be shown in my daughter's state-the home of Matthew Shepard
1
See, who says we're divided? A few thousand on the far left and far right (and a few odd independent voters like me) have consistently been non-interventionist since the Vietnam War, but do we get any credit? The Iraq war was rubber stamped by both parties.
2
Thank you, Ms. Dowd. I have long thought that Cheney et al profited from the Iraq debacle. Over 600,000 dead and lasting damage done to American integrity. How was this not seen as a war crime? You are so right to bring up the fact that in our anger at Trump we tend to ignore other bad actors in America’s story. Those who permitted “enhanced interrogation” should not be claiming the moral high ground now. Shame on all of us.
3
Cheney was a heartbeat away from the nuclear trigger; and had he become president, was smart enough and rational enough to think twice. Trump has the ‘trigger’ by his side at all times. This is a chilling thought for all of mankind.
5
The goal has always been to obtain and hold onto power to facilitate filling their pockets. The right, be it the Republicans, the Tea Party, or the Trumpers, are willing to do whatever dishonest, unethical, trick it takes to get it. For them, the ends always justify the means. The right hasn't been able to win the majority vote with their policies, that mostly benefit the wealthiest and the corporations, so they've devised ways to disenfranchise the voters on the left.
Their wars are about oil and profit and Trump now makes it clear that he will support the despot leaders who support him and enrich him and his family. When Trump & complicit politicians continue to support the Saudis after the brutal Khasoggi murder, they should be demonized and chastised. They represent the American people! It's not "hysteria", it's a plea for morality, ethics, and justice. We cannot be "great" with leaders like Trump and his sycophants.
4
It’s ironic that Ms. Dowd chooses to join hands with the very group of “neocons, journalists, authors, political hacks and pundits” she accuses of “eroding America’s moral authority” to demonize President Trump as a threat to our democracy. Ironic because president Trump is the antithesis of the very protagonists she blames for inflicting damage. They, along with liberals share a love of big government because it affords them the power to rule aspects of our lives the founding fathers rightly believed they should never possess.
Claims of presidential threats, both real and imagined are nothing new. Certainly there are examples of the real variety that all should be able to agree upon. Ms. Dowd provides one, while history documents others, including a progressive president named Franklin Roosevelt denying thousands of Japanese American CITIZENS due process, stripping them of their property and incarcerating them in barb wire fenced camps for no other crime than their ethnicity. Another progressive president named Lyndon Johnson invoked governmental power to draft hundreds of thousands of young men and sent them off to fight in an UNDECLARED war in southeast asia, 58,000 of whom didn’t return home alive.
Imagined threats voiced by vituperative critics aside, history has yet to document any real threat to our democracy posed by president Trump. Curiously Ms. Dowd ignores the real threat he does pose. That being the threat to the very group of opportunists she criticizes.
I hope his next film is about McConnell.
Maybe our country will learn that the ends DO NOT justify the means. Arrogants willing to subvert the foundational tenets of America to push their agenda cost us the best of America. Trump is the result.
It is impossible for me to see this miserable, lying little man specializing in promoting fake news decry "Fake News." I find no basis to summon any respect for his followers. I can find only disgust for his enablers as they make sure that America will not be great, or a shining example, but a cautionary tale on what civilized countries should avoid.
Unlike Trump and Cheney, some of the pundits believed they were recommending a good course for the country. They should learn hubris and we should be chary of any advice from those sources–especially those that remain unrepentant. I admit that I hope Mr. Yoo's sleep is troubled.
4
I usually like and mainly agree with Maureen's columns, but this is a very dangerous piece in that it will have the effect of normalizing #45. I'm sure the flick will be popular. But, please, most of the mistakes surrounding the Iraq War concerned issues reasonable people disagreed about. Good people need to unite against the current danger, not needlessly tear open old wounds. I was very surprised and disappointed by this column!
3
I don't know if you are referring to talking heads, who I do not listen to (I don't get cable TV) but no one I know fits your description of lionizing the Republican Party of Reagan and W. Most people I know agree that Trump is merely the natural outgrowth of Rush, Savage, Reagan, W, the Tea Party et al. They created an imaginary pure hero, and Con Man Trump just noticed he could fit that bill with a few lies.
I have never been a fan of the Clintons. I just hope we Democrats can do better in 2020.
5
In recent months I have thought that Trump was America's moral comeuppance for the decimation of Iraq and the murder of 600,000 Iraqis. Most certainly evil has it's names: W, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Trump, and more.
4
and lest we forget another zombie war criminal who refuses to die and still manages to enter the american discourse as a " respected" statesman.... henry kissinger. why does time seem to absolve those responsible for causing so much death and destruction based on political lies found out later?
6
It's a timely column Ms Dowd, thinking of those killed in the Iraq, and other wars; especially a war that should never have been.
There's another war, the one on healthcare. People die, they cannot afford health insurance, they cannot afford a good policy (and out of pocket expenses), or they're denied care by insurance companies; see recent jury settlement award, young woman died from aetna insurance company decision to disallow treatment
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/10/health/aetna-verdict-oklahoma-orrana-cunningham/index.html).
Just as Halliburton existed, a new health insurer, Oscar Insurance, is co-owned by Jared Kushner's brother, Josh Kushner. It's been the only option offered for healthcare.gov enrollees at the Cleveland Clinic in 2018. It's growth in the last two years is staggering.
It doesn't matter how good your doctor is if Oscar denies care.
Healthcare taken over by corporations...how many have died, or suffer daily?
Body counts don't count to some people (see aetna's attorneys responses in the article).
3
As my first comment on this column was rejected, I will try again and hope for better luck this time.
At any rate, I agree with Ms. Dowd's basic point. As a lifelong Democrat, like her, I have been shocked and surprised at how easily, given their often questionable pasts, the Never-trump Republicans have been accepted as darlings by gullible Democrats and the so-called "liberal" media.
For some reason, we Democrats have allowed our mutual dislike for Trump to obscure the fact that at base the Never-Trumpers are conservative Republicans. Once Trump is gone, they will happily return to being Reagan-Bush Republicans.
The Never-trump movement poses a special dilemma for Democrats in 2020. Because they have been expelled from the Trump GOP, their only current access to political power and influence is through the Democratic party.
As a price for their continued opposition to Trump, the Never-trumpers are now demanding a voice in the Democratic political debate, hence their constant attacks on liberals and their demands that the party "move to the center. Added to this is the fact that, despite their political impotence, the Never-trumpers exert an extraordinary influence in mainstream media.
Given all this, it is impossible to see how Democrats can absorb the Never-trump Republicans into their party and still maintain their liberal identity. In an ideal political world, they would start their own centrist party but this is not an option under our rigid two-party system.
7
Ms. Dowd should reflect the fact that both Trump and Bush/Cheney lost the popular vote. That in itself is enough to characterize both of them as not reflective of the voting public.
As to whether Cheney was or is more of a destructive force than Trump, this is a question for historians to sort out. At the moment, Trump's relationship with the rest of the world leaders may yet turn out to be a benefit to the country. On this, the anniversary of the armistice that ended WWI, perhaps Trump's withdrawal from global involvement reflects a return to our position before that conflict began which, in an age of nuclear weaponry, may be a good thing.
1
In 2003 I was a high school choir director in a rehearsal with my 80 students on the eve of the Iraq invasion, and all I could feel is fear. Knowing that we were invading a country, and that some of the young people in front of me would inevitably be involved was more than I could bear. How could I know so surely that this was wrong, and how could my democratic senators, Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, not know. I cannot forget the choices they made, let by Bush and Cheney, ever. Thank you Maureen, for writing, and making us remember.
590
@Margaret, yet during the entire 8 years of Obama’s they did nothing to hold the Bush administration accountable.
39
@Petey Tonei - Oh, please, that's not a president's job! Obama had his hands full trying to bring the economy back from the brink of depression, wrestling with arch-enemy Mitch McConnell, and getting ACA enacted. Let history judge Bush/Cheney, as McKay's film is doing.
84
@Margaret
"How could I know so surely this was wrong." It wasn't that hard. Newspapers like the New York Times, and to be totally fair, columnists like Maureen Dowd, with a twice-weekly megaphone to the nation, failed to point to point out the foundation of lies and deceit on which the case for invading Iraq was built.
While she deserves thanks for remembering Cheney's crimes, I think there are also some things she has conveniently forgotten.
71
Cheney and Bush richly deserve Dowd's scorn, as do the enablers who supported their war and domestic policies. But we must not forget to include among that supporting cast the Democrats in Congress who voted for the Bush tax cut and those who endorsed the war in Iraq.
Last week's election elevated a number of newcomers to the Democrats' contingent in Congress. We must hope they do a better job of representing the real interests of this country than have some of their party's leaders over the past two decades.
613
@James Lee All they are interested in is indicting Trump. I haven't heard a substantive word from Pelosi about helping the working class and protecting the borders and not illegals.
11
Nancy from must have missed Nancy Pelosi on multiple networks stating the 1st order of business for the 2019 Congress is ensuring millions of Americans don't lose affordable health insurance if they have a pre - existing condition. Republican lawsuits were out to eradicate all protection. I suppose protecting those of us with pre-existing conditions isn't a substantive enough issue (word) for Nancy in Michigan but millions will 'agree' to disagree.
39
@nancy
Not true. The Dems are proposing legislation on infrastructure (which the R's could have done anytime in the last 8 years; and which will create jobs), improving the ACA, an immigration bill, and education financing for students. We will then
see if the Rs in the Senate really want to improve our nation, or just make 65 new stabs at repealing Obamacare. Perhaps you do not have legitimate sources of information?
45
We get it. Trump's badness does not really change the badness of others. But there are extraordinary times when realignments and relativism become necessary to deal with crises. I fully agree that nothing will absolve Yoo, Boot, Cheney, W, Kristol, Noonan et alia of their sins against reason, decency and real American interests. That is a problem for another time. If they are willing to stand up against the single gravest assault on the Constitution and on American political culture --one they helped to create-- then I want them on the side of reason, decency and American interests. For all I know, their alignment might not only be occasioned by the extremity of the present danger, but might even reflect some actual awareness on their part of what they have wrought. But whether yes or no, this is all hands on deck. Afterwards, we will still know who was who in 2003.
576
@Pamela Agreed! We must put aside our differences and fight this attack on our democracy, our constitution, our national survival. Just like we did in WWII.
25
Read Paul Krugman. All our "scrambling to action" may just be too little too late. Methinks I hear the gurgling of our democracy circling down the drain.
10
Talk about choosing between the fire and the frying pan; this is more like Charybdis and Scylla. The fact that we've had two such people stalking the halls of power over the course of ten short years says more about those who elected them than it does about either one. If our next president turns out to be a combination of Washington, Lincoln and FDR we could still argue that our nation has been shortchanged by the Almighty.
347
@stu freeman
We really can't blamed this on any one but ourselves.
12
@stu freeman
We can be sure the thirty-percenters who stuck with W to the end are part of Trump's hard core base today.
27
@stu freeman; There is no Almighty. This is 2018. Time to put superstition behind us. Sun God, Thor, Poseidon, Jehovah... Really. Shall we grow up?
15
more than 600,000 people died in Iraq. It’s not even close, right?”
not yet
12
They're both psychos. One with a bit more gray matter, but both destructive and lacking empathy.
21
Mo Do's got nuthin but snark, but Hillary is gone. She might be able to focus on Michelle, this is a trial ballon.
15
@Don--I just wish she would tell me exactly who she is excoriating instead of writing mysterious assertions.
4
Am I the only one who read:
"Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party."
... and had no idea whom she's talking about? Which birther backers are celebrated Democratic voices?
53
@peinstein
Good point. and remember,it was Palin who introduced Trump at his initial campaign announcement.
She was the star there.
No, Trump inherited the Palin crowd and rode it in to power. He appealed to the same gullible dim bulbs she did, and we are stuck with the resulting horror show.
9
@peinstein I think she may be talking about Joe Scarborough, Nicole Wallace, Steve Schmidt, Jennifer Rubin, Max Boot, and David Jolly. But I have been wrong before. There are others out there but these are the ones seen most often on MSNBC.
5
@peinstein
Steve Schmidt who failed to vet Palin.
Michelle's party? I don't know who she's talking about.
2
I sometimes find Maureen Dowd's columns 'too clever by half', but not this one -- in my opinion it's just as Pulitzer prize-worthy as the Monica Lewinsky columns for which she won that award. Brava!
9
This piece really hit me hard. I have actually heard myself say "I miss Bush." What a stupid, stupid thing to say. People have, and will continue, to die and suffer under Trump, but the sane Republicans want him out even more than the Dems. So we have a better chance to accomplish that in 2020, or sooner. Two years to keep him from starting a war that kills Bush/Cheney numbers of people.
11
@Vicki I ain't one to say I told you so but I told plenty of people that W was far worse than Trump. The response I always get is, so far. I have also said it took two wars and an economic crisis to rid America of Republicans in 2008. I agree with James Carville that this last election was not a Blue Wave, if it had been Democrats would have taken control of the Senate. I still think that it will take a major crisis or two for Democrats to take the Presidency, the Senate, and keep the House in 2020. Americans are slow learners.
2
Who’s the Real American Psycho? Fortunately, we did make it through Obama!
2
@Nreb
What was it about Obama...the recovery? Healthcare where none was made available before?
No pre conditions in insurance? a saved automobile industry....?
possibly your job? concern for the planet?
Oh I get it...he didn't have a TV Reality show so he could fire people.....Still waiting for him to fire someone face to face......I think there is something more basic which turns you off Obama.....What could it be??
11
@Nreb
Not even in the same Universe.
2
Isn't our current war in Afghanistan really just a continuation of the war in Iraq? I don't remember any war in that larger general part of the world being declared over.
And as for our continued war in Afghanistan—what is our goal, our plan, our purpose? Why are we still fighting in that larger geopolitical area after 17 years?
The Vietnam War was the background of my adolescence and the news coverage of that war was horrific, but it also served as a catalyst to make sure we weren't sending our young people off to die in a war that wasn't ours to win or lose. It's hard for me to imagine that this war would still be being waged if we had daily images of what was happening over there.
10
Follow the money
2
@Mary Rose Kent After Bush and Co ignored the warnings of Clinton and Intelligence that bin Laden was the biggest threat America would face which led to 9/11 Afghanistan was probably justified. There was never an exit plan and there still isn't. There may not be one.
3
Don’t forget Mitch McConnell who has taken his obsession for Republican power to the most unpatriotic level. How else to interpret “ I will oppose anything Obama attempts” and the Garland- Kavanaugh Supreme Court theft. If you’re concerned about partisan politics and the obliteration of congressional discourse and compromise you don't have to look much further.
Trump is so crude-he’s an easy target. My concern are the more civil but equally or more dangerous.
35
@RAL
" My concern are the more civil but equally or more dangerous."
I'm worried by the "think tanks" funded by the ultra conservative rich.
I'm worried by the Federalist Society pushing the nomination of ultra conservative lawyers for judgeship in states' and federal government.
I'm worried by the crazy notions from the likes of the Heritage and Cato institutes.
7
Yep, damage that will never be repaired and a president who continues to poke into an open wound. My heart drops every time I read these summations of our country's guilt.
4
From the synopsis of Brian VanDeMark's book:
Road to Disaster - A New History of America's Descent into Vietnam
"The book will stand for the foreseeable future as the best study of the tragic mistakes that led to so much suffering."
History just repeating itself: The geo- and US politics leading up to the Vietnam and Iraq wars are strikingly similar - to little surprise.
5
"He ended up writing and directing “Vice,” a film that uses real-life imagery, witty cinematic asides and cultural touchstones to explore the irreparable damage Cheney did to the planet, and how his blunders and plunders led to many of our current crises."
It is those same "blunders and plunders" that, in particular, have led to the various refugee crises around the world. Those blunders and plunders were committed by America and the United Kingdom, yet they are the ones loudest in decrying the "invasions" of the refugees. It's just infuriating.
"Which of the right-wing Dementors was worse, Cheney or Trump?"
Yes.
Cheney already did his damage; Trump is all potential right now.
15
Amen.
We have such short memories. And even if we can remember it's easy for the anti-Trumpers to rationalize the damage done on so many levels by the Bush crowd.
After Obama was elected I was having a conversation with someone that was a vocal supporter of the Bush administration. When I pointed out all the damage they had done with the war, the budget, torture, lost lives, and attack on personal liberties, his response was that it was "ancient history."
How convenient and dangerous.
9
I've always wondered when the politicians who put us into the endless and pointless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the generals who committed war crimes or allowed them to be committed there, and the pundits who defended these criminal actions and colonial wars would get their just desserts. However, nothing has happened to them. And our soldiers continue to die for nothing......
11
The concluding paragraph is somewhat misleading. There is no choice between two devils. Both are devils and both can be rejected along with their cronies, apoligists, and co-conspirators. There is plenty of room in the dustbin of history for both manics and professionals.
18
While you are at it let's not let Obama completely off the hook. Bush/Cheney committed a war crime in Iraq and Obama chose to "look forward" and not look back in spite of the American people wanting some accountability for those responsible. Did not Obama receive the most votes ever in 2008 and did not over 2 million people stand in the cold at his swearing in with the belief the "fierce urgency of now" meant accountability for war crimes and financial crimes as well for that matter. Trump did not drop out of the sky; rather he is a product of what preceded him.
6
@lawrence garvinyes, I just know the red state democrats would have stood up for the president as he went after whit male republicans./s
The left did not stand by the President in 2010 and 2014. That’s why we are where we are.
Best thing is for EVERYONE to vote, and to vote for the party that has the environment ‘s, and the common man’s, woman’s and children’s interest at heart - the Democratic party.
12
The evil actions of Reagan, Cheney, W, Trump and all of their followers have affected the planet itself , which is rebelling. Climate change and all the catastrophes it brings, are a direct result of the "us" and "them" thinking, that is pervasive in the world today.
We are not in harmony with each other or with our planet.
There are consequences for creating evil. Creating suffering and death for personal gain is unquestionably the worst thing that a human being can attain!
10
I guess Maureen has been reading Driftglass' blog. She echoes many of the same themes that have been discussed in that and other left leaning blogs for years. About time someone more mainstream got on board. Thanks!
4
"...so I think Cheney is way worse. And also, if you look at the body count, more than 600,000 people died in Iraq. It’s not even close, right?”
But Trump may have (at least) two more years left. Give him time, give him time.
(And Maureen, while you're assigning blame for past misdeeds, how about assigning at least a bit of blame to yourself for your relentlessly negative and snarky pieces about "Barry.")
16
Local candidates last week sent out fliers talking accountability. They stress holding teachers accountable while Dick promises a liberators welcome in Iraq and gives us 4500 dead Americans. We are an awful country. Who’s his shooting buddy now? Alito?
1
Why are all of the thugs and thieves conservative? It is not even close. And why do their wives love them so?
11
A lot of women like ruthless pirates. Just look at the commercial success of bodice ripper romances. Happily, most women prefer the fiction to the reality
1
What! Michelle is responsible for trump?
6
When Cheney outed Valarie Plame, he committed high treason. That was a crime for which you or I could spend the rest of our lives in Leavenworth.
Don't forget to add that to his list of sins.
14
I have two names for you: Mitch McConnell—the autocratic and Constitution-trashing Senate Majority Leader; and Paul Ryan—the untruthful House Speaker, a false Cassandra warning of exploding deficits.
They predated Donald Trump to Washington and were merely marking time until a useful tool came along to validate their very clear un-American principles, needing only a fool as president to guide and to come when called.
The original (political) American Psycho was Richard Nixon, a role reprised by Ronald Reagan. Under both, the Republicans have openly masqueraded as the one of:
(a) unquestioned morality;
(b) unimpeachable patriotism;
(c) unassailable guardians and sentinels of American institutions;
(d) defenders of “law and order;”
(e) the divinely-inspired drivers of every good purpose under God’s heaven.
But put a slashing anarchist into the Oval Office and their mighty trumpet blasts go quiet. Why, one wonders, is that?
It's not Richard Cheney; Newt Gingrich; Tom DeLay; Dennis Hastert; Dick Armey; H.W; W. It all started with Nixon's Southern Strategy. Every subsequent Republican president (save the cipher, Gerald Ford), drank at that putrid well. What else did Reagan mean by "government is the problem" or Trump when he sneered about an "American carnage?" That government works well when it serves white people. Period.
Starve inner city kids (SNAP) but plant a big wet one on the lips for the one percent and corporations.
Now, If that's not psycho, what is?
19
@Red Sox, '04, '07, '13, '18
Great summary, well said. It's good to know that there are like minded individuals out there. Was talking to a friend from Boston last night whose Dad was an ironworker all his life, putting up Boston's skyline. He said his Dad never fell for Nixon or Reagan's bunk, and he always understood that the Republican hook to working Dems was a cynical fraud from beginning to end.
3
Maureen, trouble is it is not only the Republican crowd that supported the Iraq war. it's your employers, The New York Times, which was also a cheerleader for the war. Have you forgotten?
4
@Shamu i have. point me to that.
1
Perhaps the best Dowd column ever. No snide comedy or insider gossip. Not at all self referential. Evil is as evil does, and whether one is rolled under a VW or a Hummer, dead is dead.
6
It sounds like a movie worth watching. And another right-on column from Ms. Dowd.
Congratulations on writing a relevant, accurate column.
So on Veterans Day, you publish a NYT column indicating that W. and Cheney started two new wars, Afghanistan and Iraq, that have cost more than 600,000 lives (Iraq only). Trump has started no new wars, effectively saving lives, so we should therefore be grateful to him for that. (Also, since Trump doesn't look so bad in comparison to W.-Cheney, your denigration of HRC during the campaign now doesn't look so bad either, right?)
But as I recall, Obama started no new wars and was also not a destructive idiot (like Trump), running the country into the ground. So you should write a column praising Obama on Veterans Day even more than Trump. But I don't see that column. When will you be publishing that one?
14
Reading this you wouldn't know that Maureen was competing with Laura Ingraham for Trump's affections all the way up to the election. So in a sense she is a textbook example how someone rehabilitates themselves by wiping out their past. And just to be clear she is nowhere as horrible as Dick Chaney. But reading this you would think that she was a combination of Emma Goldman and Emma Gonzalez not some image spinning columnist driven by her fixation on wealth, power and celebrity.
13
If I had to choose between heartless or brainless, is that the question, Maureen?
Let's discuss anatomy rather than politics---as a scientist, I'm much more comfortable with that.
Our current Doofus-In-Chief is sort of like Frankenstein's monster--prior to Dr. F installing the brain. We can only wish that said brainless creature were inanimate. How much damage could he then do laying on a gurney in the belfry open to the elements with nothing but bats to swat at rather than the WH Press Corps?
Then there's Dick Cheney, whom even during the 2000 campaign reminded me of Dr. Strangelove. The only time I could ever have imagined him as truly happy was subbing for Slim Pickens riding an atomic bomb down to earth. Is it still called a "heart transplant" when there wasn't anything there to replace?
4
The real American psycho is the national media outlets which have agendas and narratives and frame alternate realities. Trouble is too many people, including liberals like myself, are realizing it. And because MSM isn't getting its way, it is becoming ever more shrill and calling more people racists if they don't vote Democrat.
We see through it all.
3
We can only hope that the frothing maniac with a meat cleaver swings wildly and somehow hits himself in the head.
4
@Mike Like the Radiohead video Paranoid Android.
1
About time. leave it to the artiststo tell the truth!
1
As bad as Trump has been, W (and to a degree the shamefully hoodwinked NYT) still has the blood of a million plus Iraqis and 10,000 US troops on his hands.
7
OK, I bite:
"War criminals-turned-liberal heroes are festooned with book and TV contracts, podcasts and op-ed perches."
Who the heck is Maureen talking about?
"Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party.æ
Ditto?
7
Cheney was a much more dangerous liar.
2
Who’s the Real American Psycho?
I’m pretty certain that Matthew Whitaker will be in line for a Medal of Freedom next year, if not sooner.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/us/politics/trump-presidential-medal-of-freedom.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage
2
Why pick and choose? All Republicans, all of them, are evil vicious fascists and corrupt oligarchs. The worst Democrat is far better than the best Republican. VOTE!
3
Post-war analyses have revealed the many Jewish/Israeli agents who lied to the credulous George W. Bush in a successful attempt to use the US military to extirpate one of Israel's most feared neighbors. The Israeli agents are currently trying to duplicate their earlier success by coercing the US to launch a way on Iran.
Debates will continue, but it is clear the Jews/Israelis repeatedly asked Bush and now Trump to use the US military against Israel's enemies.
Yet Dowd never writes word one about this topic. She has now almost completed her transition from reporter to preacher.
2
Thanks for confirming what I have Lon thought Bush-Cheney the most evil destructive administration in US history.
2
I know Dick Cheney:
http://www.laserradio.com/vpnote.pdf
He is from Casper and his mentor is Donald Rumsfeld of Chicago. The ideology they (literally) manifesto: the 1997 Project for a New American Century's doctrine of "Full Spectrum Domination"...of every nation on Earth!
Is dominating and controlling...or overthrowing... every nation on Earth that gets in America's way to richness and material glory a "Wyoming value" (as the GOP lackey's of Wyoming always tout they'll take to Washington if elected)?
You bet it is! Fascism was defined in 1895 by Mosca (in "The Ruling Class") as the end result of competing elites choosing a "winner" and the winner takes all: preserving that advantage at any cost. Wyoming is entrenched fascist, with a country club elite I've seen Dick Cheney work like a bunch of school children for decades. Now, his daughter Liz is poised to repeat Daddy's Vice Presidency ambitions with the fascist Trump in his second term. Liz's husband is the legal architect of the DHS paramilitary branch of government which can be activated with NDAA 2012 enforcement: article 1021 no-warrant military arrest of civilians; article 1022 no right to trial- ever.
I have left Wyoming, after exposing the current commander of the Wyoming Highway Patrol as a terrorist who screamed obscenities and threatened the wife of a Warren AFB officer with arrest if she did not comply with his unfounded/ illegal demands. She turned to me for help:
http://www.laserradio.com/subject.pdf
5
Great column, Dick Cheney and W are war criminals.
3
Welcome back Maureen.
Where have you been, we need you?!?!
1
When are American voters realize that they have elected a gangster as President who uses fear to get his way. Trump's mobster pals from Queens must be delighted that they have educated him so well in their gangster ways. Won't be long before he appoints some of them to his cabinet.
4
"Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party."
Hardly the most celebrated voices in Michelle's party - merely the frame of the Overton window. You know, as Republicans used to gleefully point out "Even the liberal New York Times .... "
1
I think the point here is that people have become so consumed with hating Donald Trump that they’ve lost all context. Donald Trump is a despicable idiot. But George Bush and Dick Cheney started an unnecessary war that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis while also twisting most of the U.S. public around their little fingers. (Including, btw, the New York Times....)
The Resistance is in danger of becoming a complicit mirror for Trump’s narcissism. He’s a bumbling fool. But Cheney was no fool, and a much greater danger for it.
3
2 sides of the same coin, clinton machine v trump tornado. we need a new piece of change (guess we didn’t deserve obama).....go beto!
2
Is the heart of this odd op-ed an attack on Nicole Wallace who now has a show in MSNBC but who was in the middle of W's administration? Is that what this is all about?
As others have said, why not look across the NY Times op-ed page and attack David Brooks, Tom Friedman, and Bret Stephens? Or going back further, you could criticize the late William Safire, the NY Times stalwart. Shouldn't they also have to pay a price in reputation for being wrong about the
the Bush-Cheney War?
2
@rshapley
Yes, they should all have to pay a price. I don't read Brooks or watch him on that bastion of conventional unwisdom, PBS. Most of the MSNBC hosts aren't worth watching, except Ari Melber and Chris Hayes. Tune in to Democracy Now!
2
When people complain aboit our current president (note the small p) I sometimes remind them that as much as he wants to have a war with someone, he hasn't yet started one. That brilliance was brought to us by Bush and Cheney. It has left 600,00 men, women and children killed -- just about as many as in our own Civil War.
I do worry that the more that 45 is cornered, the more he'll try to start a war somewhere, sometime, with whoever calls him a moron.
2
I still can't tell the difference between Reagan's welfare queens and Trump's Mexican rapists. It is a huge difference it seems to those who loved Reagan and despise Trump.
3
"Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party."
I gotta say you lost me this time, Mo. What, or who, are you talking about?
4
Maureen, Did you really find Cheney's demonic snarls soothing ? His whisper-like responses to Tim Russert's inquiries were pure evil.
2
And all the while, MO was obsessing over the Clintons...
14
In her list of villains leading up to the Iraq War Ms Dowd conveniently leaves out this paper and most of the editorial writers who championed and pushed for the war. And I may be wrong but I believe Ms Dowd was also for it
4
Perhaps M. Dowd's most brilliant column
12
@jonathan harr
It is not brilliant if she doesn’t understand the protest against the firing of the AG was not a protest in favor of Jeff Sessions. I don’t think she is a stupid person yet I am amazed at how clueless she can be or is it her enjoyment in just being snarky. Neither is brilliant.
1
Mo.... Many might argue (wimpy beginning, here) that one of your foremost responsibilities is to call them out contemporaneously..... rather than wallow in the cheap thrills of gossipy witticisms...
The time you wasted bashing the relatively benign Billary, while the truly nefarious were taking a sledge to the foundation, was a betrayal....
I hope you now get back to work. Your pulpit is to valuable to be devoted to 'clever'....
18
@EEE
Michelle Goldberg occupies that pulpit now, and a good thing, too.
3
I need help understanding the paragraph that ends: “... are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party.”
What is “Michelle’s party”? And who are the celebrated voices in her party?”
Lil help, please?
16
To stop evil, you must know evil and call it by name.
Good job, Maureen. And McKay.
1
Dowd's notes on the twits in Washington make a good case for the 2nd Amendment along with Madison's observations.
1
"MSNBC is awash in nostalgia for Ronald Reagan and W."
___________________________________
As an avid MSNBC viewer all I can say, Ms. Dowd, is that you are utterly and completely wrong.
22
@justamoment Ditto. And I MEAN ditto!
3
@justamoment
True. She obviously doesn’t watch MSNBC and is irresponsibly spreading a falsehood. Eight years of bashing “Barry”; I find this opinion piece amazing.
7
I hope the movie exposes Cheney's blatant manipulation of Judith Miller and the NY Times. Feeding them lies about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and then without proper vetting, the Times prints his lies in the paper. Then Cheney holds up the paper and says something like, 'see if the NY Times prints it, it must be true.' The NY Times was complacent in the Iraq war and I will never forgive them for that.
16
Right on, Maureen!
1
Let’s not blame this on “Michelle’s party.”
4
Have no idea what "Michelle's party" means.
3
Maureen, are you signalling in this column the beginning of what will once again become your full-throated support for Mr. Trump?
5
Bravo, Maureen Dowd! I see the Cheney years as the next plummet down the stairway to hell that began with the Supreme Court intervention in 2000, although others cite Newt as the original bad seed.
The only thing that I would say in defense of Cheney and the other borderline personalities in the Bush White House, is that each had a quality or talent or spark that indicated a functioning or competent human being. Search as I may I cannot find the same in brand Trump.
This movie is a timely reminder that as this president has reminded us with his frequent use of the adjective, there are myriad ways to be "horrible" and we've seen a lot of them.
4
Maureen Dowd is absolutely right when she says that “Only Trump could get the pussy-hat crowd to fill Times Square to protest Jeff Sessions’s firing.” The reason is obvious: Between the two the latter is the evil of lesser consequence.
Her warning that “villainizing Trump should not entail sanitizing other malefactors” is timely and profound, as we witnessing evil-doers of yesterday “washing away their sins in a basin of Trump hate.” I can’t help repeating after Ms. Dowd: Where were they “when the Bush administration was deceiving us with a cooked-up war in Iraq?”
I don't think they be able to read this column without bowing their heads in shame. But then, shame is something Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Donald Trump, et al are incapable of having.
Dowd quotes movie director Adam McKay as saying that the difference between Cheney and Trump, when it comes to the havoc they have wreaked on the world, is that the former is “a professional assassin,” and the latter, “a frothing maniac with a meat cleaver.”
McKay proffered his opinion while answering the question, “which of our two right-wing Dementors was worse, Cheney or Trump,” put to him by Dowd. She put the question after watching a private screening of “Vice,” the latest movie directed by McKay, which is said to portray the evils perpetrated by Dick Cheney.
Dowd says the movie will be officially released at Christmas. I can’t wait to see it, after which I will be able to say whether I agree with McKay or not.
4
I sometimes cringe when I think your enchanting vitriol is pettily applied, Miss Dowd, but when you slay a bull--nay, a monster--like Cheney, it feels so sweet. Thank you, thank you.
A significant number of americans worship both of these disgusting psychopaths and their respective juntas of destroyers. That is the greatest symptom of America's collective mental illness.
10
I can't claim to speak with authority for "the pussy-hat crowd" (whatever that may mean), but they probably weren't turning out for Jeff Session. More likely, they were there to protest the president's attempt to turn the U.S. Department of Justice into a branch of the Trump Organization.
There's plenty of hypocrisy to go around Washington within both government and media. Sensible people won't be taking the never-Trumpers at face value. And chances are, there's less nostalgia for Ronald Reagan than many in the media like to believe.
9
Finally. Been waiting for someone to point out the fact that the erosion of democratic norms, the emergence of corruption on a vast scale and the culturing of the most rabid strains of hyper partisan right-wingers began in earnest with the neocons and their malleable leader, W. Also worth remembering is that this all happened with the complicity of the large swaths of the media.
25
I haven't forgotten the Bush/Cheney war crimes in Iraq and the con job they did to buffalo the country into a war of choice against a sovereign country on the other side of the world. I haven't forgotten how Bush/Cheney cowed the Democrats (Pelosi/Clinton/Kerry/Daschle) in Congress into voting for the war, and I haven't forgotten Sen. Robert Byrd's opposition on the floor of the Senate: "Where is the backbone? (to oppose the war)"
30
@Barry, I remember Ohio Rep Dennis Kucunich standing tall in those days.
Mr. Kucinich had "the backbone" and did his very best to stop that foolish war, and for his effort no praise is too great.
I agree with what you say, and like so many others i too have not forgotten.
6
Brava Maureen.
I too find myself continually reminding people who have a new “appreciation “ of W et al that they did more to dismantle our democracy than anyone else. They took us to WAR on a series of knowing lies and destroyed much of our honor and many of our freedoms.
I get a lot of “well at least they were civilized, dignified”. That, of course, is even more insidious. It’s not Trump’s crassness that is the main problem (although it really does stink to have such a classless president, especially after Obama) it’s that he couldn’t be less qualified for the job and less intellectually curious coupled with his complete disregard for anyone other than his core base and any and all of our American institutions. This, coupled with his total corruption and penchant for choosing the LEAST qualified people for the job, is just unprecedented.
The problem is that Trump would naturally and gleefully recreate all of the horrible things done under Cheney, with all of the lying, torture, and graft but WITHOUT any of the checks on appearances, the maintaining of ANY of our institutions or alliances or an actual plan, however evil it may be.
I’m truly not sure which is worse but I definitely know which is scarier.
19
There are many ways Republicans destroy America and the world. There is Trump's "maniac with a meat cleaver" thing, or Cheney's "professional assassin" puppeteer act, but there is another way we have all forgotten, the "Aw Shucks You're All My Good Buddies" style of the now seemingly sainted Reagan administration.
We forget what Reagan and his boys did to us. They ramped up fossil fuel consumption while gutting EPA regulation. They deregulated savings & loans, costing many people their life savings. But the wosrt thing they did was to boldly and successfully attack organized labor, replacing the notion of the blue-collar career, with pensions and benefits that provided personal financial security, and replacing it with today's gig economy, complete with 401Ks that are at the mercy of the stock market. Reagan destroyed worker rights in America.
Whenever we elect Republicans, we are always, invariably in for a very bumpy ride, and we will lose some of the beneficial aspects of society that we had previously taken for gratnted.
50
@Dr. Planarian
That's why when a Democrat friend thinks she advises me well-"We must listen to both sides"- I told her, 'You can listen if you want, but as for me, I've heard all their lies I need to know; I'm done listening;now, I'm gonna take actions to thwart their greedy, self-serving plans."
3
Bra-va! Nicely done. Thank you!
3
@Shane, Maureen for Pulitzer! For this column!
2
I remember all too well being enraged throughout W’s tenure in office. So many things presaged the Trump presidency: his bullying of the NYT political reporting staff, his apparent disregard of American public opinion (on going into Iraq), his time obvious daddy issues. his attempts to get rid of social safety nets, his embarrassing actions abroad, his partisan Supreme Court picks...All set the table for Trump’s outrages, even though Trump denigrated the Bushes to help win the presidency. This criticism made Trump seem forthright, even though we know now Trump is not honest in any way. And it outraged me, too, that Bush et al suffered no consequences. But remember, Obama inherited an economy on the brink of collapse. To roil the country further might have imperiled his efforts to save us from another Great Depression. Instead of blaming the Democratic presidents who invariably arrive to clean up the GOP’s horror shows, blame the American people who keep swilling the GOP’s snake oil. And the Electoral College which provides low information voters with an outsized influence in choosing who sits in the Oval Office. It’s time that influence was cut back to one man: one vote size.
23
Cheney verses Trump, or vice versa, not sure it matters all that much — both offend in so may horrendous and perverse ways.
Trump is hardly done doing untold damage to America, Cheney lives lavishly mostly in the shadows having never been held accountable in any way whatsoever.
The same will likely be true for Trump.
Washington is anything but a hotbed of righteous accountability.
17
Trump is revolting and dangerous, but he has not yet beat the Bush/Cheney record for national damage — Iraq war, torture, Katrina, global recession. Not yet.
12
It's good to see the scales removed from your eyes when it comes to the true nature of the once Grand Old Party.
7
Cheney was the embodiment of the military industrial complex. Halliburton, Secretary of Defense, plus behind-the-scenes president. Trump is the embodiment of the Billionaire Class. You see America this is the republican party, why do you keep voting for it? It has done nothing for you.
17
Dowd is right. The lie behind the Iraq War was the original sin that gave birth to the refugee crisis, ISIS, and the perpetual War Against Terror. Trump just rode the waves.
7
Great column this morning, Maureen.
Cheney was to Bush what Mazarin was to Louis XIV, which is to say that each was a de facto ruler of his nation: Mazarin of France and Cheney the USA.
Mazarin brought peace to a war ravaged 17th century Europe and created principles of international law, some of which still matter to this day.
Cheney was the exact opposite. A thoroughly reprehensible human being bent on proving that a powerful country like his could throw its weight around any part of the globe he chose, and that there are no restrictions on American behavior by virtue of its immense power. Thus arose "neoconservatism."
In both cases, Mazarin and Cheney had weak leaders to work with. Neither Louis nor Bush had any overriding political or governing philosophy. Louis was no Napoleon and Bush was no FDR. Blank slates, both.
Now we have the MAGA man to deal with: Puerile, a classic narcissist, sociopathic liar, a proto-autocrat, uninterested in his role as an American president, a likely criminal who sees the power given to him and his appointees as the key to the federal cookie jar.
The great question which history will ask is how did Trump's excesses not trip the GOP congress into checking him.
We are fortunate that Trump is such a klutz at governing that he has not accomplished a single piece of legislation other than a tax cut—and that was done without a single opposition party vote; and executive orders are rarely long lived, as we now know.
10
Money. As I get older after a lifetime in politics, government, business and practicing law, it all seems to come down to one word: money. It is the altar before all worship, the lingua franca of power, the illusive narcotic of life without death, ever. And it is getting worse, corrupting every corner of American life. Thank you, Maureen, for lifting this corrupt corner of our political tent.
12
@JTS: I've spent time in more than 100 countries, and I can confirm everything you said. It's the same everywhere. Perhaps it always has been.
2
@JTS
And power!
2
Hearkens back to Les Moonves' excitement about the Trump campaign's boosting the profits of CBS. As long as elections are funded by corporate donors (read: "investors"), there will be attempts to profit from their outcome, war criminals like Mr. Cheney notwithstanding.
Unfortunately in enumerating our recent Republican ogres, you conveniently omit Dems. Michelle Obama unforgiving of Trump for the birther movement? To my mind the mendacious rhetoric of her husband, spouting real change while he oversaw bombings that outpaced those of the hated Bushies, is easily as difficult to forgive.
2
@Vincenzo. He spoke out against the war when many warned him that it ruin his political career. How dare you lump him with bush and the democrats who supported the war. All he did was to try to prosecute the wars as effectively as he could. If folks like you had gatehrersd sufficient support to unilaterally end the wars he might have done so. What bias do you have that prevents you from seeing the truth?
1
Maureen, one of your best in many a month. How quickly we forget the deceit, lies, incompetence, and the pathetic prognostication of total victory led by Cheney. Remember his infamous line, “we will be welcomed by the Iraqi people with open arms”. Hundreds of thousands of lost lives and billions $$ wasted later, not to mention helping ferment ISIS, turns out to be one of the worst decisions in history.
And as an avid observer and reader of politics and debate, it does indeed sicken me to see Iraq cheerleaders like Bill Kristol and others all over the airwaves, embraced for thier anti Trump discourse by the very networks who consistently made the case against the War and it’s absolute failure. Hypocrisy indeed!!
10
There’s no need to rank Cheney and Trump, they are both horrible in their own way and that doesn’t make either one of them better than the other.
6
False choice, Maureen. It is not either-or as to who is worse, Trump or Cheney. It is both.
And the whole Republican Party, it's big donors, and it's lying right-wing media are even worse than the sum of its worst parts.
Bye-bye Miss American pie...
12
I have been saying, for years, exactly what you have laid out. Very well put, Ms. Dowd. Having served in the Vietnam war as a weapons crew chief on B-52s in Thailand, we were illegally bombing Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Nixon and Kissinger were war criminals and set the stage for the coming of Cheney and W as none were ever held to account for the rape and pillage of our institutions. It disgusts me to this day. I doubt I'll ever get past it. But, thanks for a fine piece of journalism.
9
We know the damage Cheney and his neocon camarilla has done, and we still suffer the consequences. It’s premature to claim Trump might be a lesser wrecking ball. We have not seen the full damage of his demolition tour. When the dust has settled we will realize the extend of his destructive policies. I predict they will make Cheney look “great again”.
2
The Iraq war was probably the worst foreign policy decision in US history, followed by the Afghan regime change. Thank you for including the 600k figure, and the concept of the US losing its moral authority. In a rational world, voters would have kept the GOP out of power for at least a generation in response - that's what any competent corporate board would do for such malfeasance and stupidity. Voters' short memories, or general unawareness, is what foils democracy being the "best of all systems, except for all the others" to thanks to McKay and others that help people remember that they'd rather forget.
6
You're opinion piece reminded me on how quickly donald replaced Vice-Pres. Bush and President Cheney on my alter of anger toward the architects of blasphemous lies that led the nation in a unnecessary tragic war and the blasphemy continues with a narcissistic architect at the helm.
4
Thanks for reminding us.
No thanks for continuing the dynamic of pigeonholing people into two camps. The statement “Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party,” is what is truly wrong with this Country. We paint people and parties into extremism.
I don’t see any Democrat embracing Cheney, other than to show that we had “bad” and this is worse.
I am really at the end of the rope with spinners constantly recognizing only two sides. This is as much a reason for Hillary Clinton losing as any. Wouldn’t it be nice to see a third party, or even person out a stop to this.
5
Okay, Cheney was worse than Trump. But rather than bemoan the known, we need to address the mess. Citizens United anyone?
10
Why is Maureen Down so quick to assume that the ever malleable left has so forgotten the sins and sinners of the Bush era?
She's not in my house hearing me voice my rage and disgust when Bill Kristol bleats out his faux distain at Trump's behavior, and she surely isn't present when I remind friends that no, Bush doesn't look any better in the rear view mirror than he did ten years ago.
Maybe the crowd she runs with are more forgiving. I haven't forgiven and haven't forgotten. I remember every day what those people did.
I can't stop CNN and MSNBC from giving the Bush era trolls a mechanism for redemption, but just because I sometimes watch those shows doesn't mean I'm buying it.
14
Let us not forget about Kissinger.
11
And don't let St. Ronnie off the hook either!
Most of the economic problems we face today go back to his debunked laissez-faire supply-sidism.
He put a sunny face on the racial politics of George Wallace.
He oversaw the most-indicted administration in American history.
He began the practice of politiczing Supreme Court appointments with Scalia and Bork.
He conducted illegal wars without Congressional approval.
12
Even if Cheney seems worse - for now (portrayed as a 'professional assassin), Trump (frothing maniac with a meat cleaver) is not done yet. He can still destroy the world (or at least parts of it) in many ways - yet to unfold.
5
"...showing that democracy can be sabotaged even more diabolically by a trusted insider, respected by most of the press, than by a clownish outsider, disdained by most of the press."
"Disdained by most of the press," but you weren't one of them Ms. Dowd. Remember those breathy columns that giggled and swooned about lunching with "the Donald"? Talk about living your own "Hallmark fable."
You are as complicit as anyone in promoting Trump. You gave him sanitized column inch after sanitized column inch as he turned your head. You seem to have a short memory. We will never forget the part you played in delivering this mendacious madman as viable candidate.
11
Cheney is evil because he deliberately and knowingly chose to do evil things. Trump is not evil, nor is he whatever the opposite of evil is . Cheney is not a sociopath; Trump is. What happened under Cheney was designed, intended, and willful; what happens under Trump is either by accident or by pathological hypocrisy and silence by Republicans and his base, never asking themselves, "IF this were the other side, would I hold the same position?", which 99.9% of the time the answer would be no. Trump is a bull in a china shop who by luck misses a few pieces of china and has a cult-like party and base to give "alternative facts" as to why the other china broke, usually Obama's fault...obama should have put locks on the door, or something like that. Trump can't be evil because he doesn't actually believe in anything.
3
Thank you, Ms Dowd. You always keep us on track.
2
Re. Trump Vs. Cheney and body count. 600,000 dead Iraqis is horrible and there is a special place in the underworld for Mr. Cheney for that. But let time tell what Damage The Donald is wreaking by not bringing the positive forces America could exert on the the global warming crisis. I write this looking out at a red sky from the Paradise Camp Fire with winds coming from the east, not off the ocean, and no rain in sight in mid-November.
6
We needed both this and the commentaries. Yeah, Cheney was a professional - a profesional killer. And he was really good at it. The scariest of the lot, along with a host of bad actors, that go a long way back: Yoo, Bolton, Elliot Abrams, etc. And all those financial white collar criminals that gave us 2008. Makes me feel almost, almost tolerant towards our current bufoon-in-chief. He's better at it than was 'W'. Lest we forget.
3
Dick Cheney is the prime example of what lying and false accusations can produce, in his case, the Iraq War. We are evidencing another despot lying at every turn without conscience.
Hopefully, a responsible Congress, can prevent this lunatic from a repeat performance of the Cheney years.
1
@allen roberts
May I suggest that you visit the website for Justice Democrats? Then, ifyouplease, make a donation towards the 2020 election cycle, as I did a couple of hours ago? They presented an impressive slate of candidates, and elected a diverse, highly qualified group. Hallelujah!
My other suggestion is that you
google who Fox's advertisers are and join or create boycotts of its advertisers, who are complicit in spewing egregious,. deleterious propaganda?
"...the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party."
Apologies, I have no idea to whom Ms. Dowd is referring. Can someone help?
8
@Steve me either. That stopped me in my tracks. Even re-reading the whole opinion piece did me no good.
3
Can't imagine anyone less qualified to attack
Trump she helped put him where he is
you own this Ms. Dowd
the greatest service you can render is SILENCE
word
14
The professional assassin works for someone and can be called off. The frothing maniac with a meat cleaver works for himself. I will take the professional assassin over the Trump as frothing maniac any day of the week.
2
Typical nonsense: "We make the president the devil spawn..." Trump did that all by himself. Anyone who blames the media is part of the problem. But then MoDo was never a reliable guide to reality in America.
8
"Michelle Obama has written in her memoir that she will never forgive Trump for pushing the birther movement. Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party."
Shouldn't that be "... in Sarah's party"?
10
Weak men and women are wooed by draft dodgin' strongmen's lies and nationalistic propaganda. The White House blowhard in office now is a complete embarrassment. Competitors of the United States are certainly delighted by the chaos created by the dishonorable egomaniac. Unfortunately these awful characters reflect poorly upon all Americans. It's okay to feel ashamed, in fact, it's cathartic.
6
You are kidding me right ?
Here you go again Dowd, giving excuses for trump.
Yes Cheney was a criminal yet walking around as a free man.
Their days are done .
One thing about W, racism was not in his soul.
Have you read Bob Woodward`s book, " Fear" ? I urge you to read that and be afraid.
Trump is the most dangerous man together with his corrupt family, looting us to poverty level.
Racist, liar, insults anyone dares to questions his motives.Calls himself a nationalist when 40 percent of this Country are non-whites.
But, what you do here ?
Critiquing Michelle Obama`s book .
Good try , but we don`t buy your analogy !
10
John Bolton and Gina Haspel, Eliot Cohen, Max and John Yoo are not Democrats nor are they heroes os the Democratic Party.
8
"The very same people who eroded America’s moral authority in the 2000s are, staggeringly, being treated as the new guardians of America’s moral authority?"
How about the people who flirted with Trump while bashing Hillary and "Barry?" Sorry, but one projecting columnist leads that list!
www.newyorkgritty.net
12
Dowd thinks she’s the ironic voice of our inner selves when she’s really just another annoying voice in the Greek chorus of a failing society.
4
I am waiting for Maureen to give us an equally insightful expose of two of the creepiest demons orchestrating the current nightmare: Robert and Rebekkah Mercer.
4
Thank you, Ms. Dowd!
One of Maureen's best.
Dear Maureen Dowd: Could you please explain the following: "Michelle Obama has written in her memoir that she will never forgive Trump for pushing the birther movement. Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party."
In your latest rambling, political half-apology for the Monstrous Mr. Trump, whatever do you mean by these "celebrated voices" as spawn of Sarah Palin but now in the good graces of Michelle Obama??? That's a new low in forked-tongue political speak if you ask me.
Why don't you REALLY express the courage of your convictions and say it like it lays on this horrendously toxic political landscape where The Great Baboon in the Blight House is like the ill wind that blows no one any good. Except of course The Trump Empire. Until the Feds close in that is. Justice will eventually prevail even if Ms Dowd hedges her bets...
10
Maureen, you once again goes to Hollywood to riff on the morality of the United States. Before we had Cheney we had Johnson who sent everyone with a pulse to Vietnam. Sure, he was a civil rights hero, but so was JFK and RFK, and look where that got them. Arlington.
Never mind that the Iraqis kill themselves, as do most of those Middle Eastern states. WW I fixed nothing. It was the warm up act for the Big One.
And here we are killing ourselves with a weekly massacre. I've been reading Bernie Gunther/Philip Kerr novels and looked up how many times they tried to off Hitler. Wiki lists so many attempts that you wished they had outsourced the job to the Mafia. The German were inept assassins, but great killers.
Cheney was Rasputin. But Maureen you're right that everyone can make money with their opinions and Green Room appearances.
There are two sides to the fence, and we Americans find all of them.
1
Ain’t love a beautiful thing?
600k dead on president Cheney’s watch, all in an effort to impress his wife.
And his puppet on a string Dubya, following his master’s every bidding, in an effort to impress and one up his genuine war hero daddy after cowardly dodging the Vietnam draft.
And speaking of folks with blood on their hands in the Cheney/Bush era being redeemed in the media and elsewhere, torture enabler and war criminal John Yoo is regularly given op ed space in the Times,
a fact not mentioned by Ms. Dowd.
5
Maureen, why did you drag Michelle Obama into this? You should have gotten to and stuck with the point. Would have been a good article but appears to be a rant, as is. Try a do over. Focus on the evil in our government in general, the Republican Party in particular and on its destructive and dysfunctional players. Focus, Maureen, focus. Someone needs to. If the world is to survive.
7
Doud makes an excellent point - the Bush Reagan country club Republicans who look down their noses and are shocked by the anti-democratic, racist Illiterate idiot they’ve spawned need to take ownership. So Bush Republicans who are making money by criticizing Trump are hypocritical to varying degrees. But how are these people part of Michelle Obama’s party (Is Michelle Obama the leader of the Democratic party?) and how does Doud justify the implication that Michelle Obama is somehow a hypocrit? Is it because she’s nice to W when she sits next to him at public events? Maybe I’m just not getting something.
I like Doud’s contrarian attitude to a point. While most opinion pieces are descriptions of the view from one side of the net, Doud sits way above the court and with that distance she has a unique perspective which is great for the reader. But the writing is so far removed from ground that it seems to me sometimes that there are emotions unattended to that they seem to like unsupervised kids cause some mischief. Is Doud feeling a little bit sorry for Trump who in addition to being vile is a man of extremely limited intellect and understanding? Are they blaming Trump for the catastrophe without acknowledging their part in the mess? Is that why she’s calling out the hypocrits at this moment? And where is the aggression against Michelle Obama coming from? It seems random? Why Michelle instead of President Obama?
3
So brilliant and on target. Many journalists at the Times should ponder the ideas expressed here. Especially this sentence: "War criminals-turned-liberal heroes are festooned with book and TV contracts, podcasts and op-ed perches." Next time someone wants to praise warmonger McCain he/she should re-read this before rushing to a keyboard.
5
Your basic premise is off base. Examples: you say “ Pygmalions of Palin who backed Trump on birtherism are among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s (Obama) party”. Who are they? They are Republicans not Democrats. You say “MSNBC is awash in nostalgic for Reagan and W.” You must be thinking of Fox. I don’t see that on MSNBC, except with irony. Further, you postulate that 2000’s Republicans active in W’s regime are treated as the new guardians of America’s moral authority. Not by any Democrat or Independant I’ve talked to. You were probably thinking of Bret Stephens.
9
Purely in terms of dead-body count, Cheney is indeed "worse" than Trump, but that is perhaps too forgiving of Trump, the extent of whose damage to American institutions has yet to be measured. Maureen Dowd's claim that Democrats were as guilty as Republicans for the Iraq debacle, Palin, ISIS, etc. is nonsense. Yes, many Democrats voted for the invasion, but they were deceived by the Bush Administration's falsehoods about WMDs. The now sainted John McCain was responsible for Palin. The seeds of ISIS were planted by the mishandled occupation of Iraq. And, though Cohen, Yoo and Boot may now deplore Trump, they were staunch neo-conservatives, never members of the "party of Michelle Obama." Lest we forget, the excoriation of Cheney and Bush II for Iraq (and Halliburton, etc.) was widespread during their administration, prompting dozens of damning books - notably Jane Mayer's "The Dark Side." The premise of this column is way off-base.
5
On the topic of menaces, there should be mention of Mitch McConnell, who has gleefully manipulated our government into his own image. Ugly.
12
PSR using their most conservative approach estimate the number of people killed in Iraq at a minimum 1,000,000 and most likely over 2,000,000 and that only covers an 11 year period following our invasion in 2003.
It appears that combat missions continue to this day:
On March 22, 2017, CNN reported that Trump had this to say about Iraq:
“ ‘We're doing very well in Iraq,’ Trump said at a reception for all US senators and their spouses in the White House East Room, adding he'd just ended a long phone call with Defense Secretary James Mattis before appearing at the event.
“Trump added that ‘our soldiers are fighting like never before’ in Iraq, and praised what he characterized as a positive trajectory in the country.
“Trump's remarks Tuesday came as US military officials acknowledged the US was likely behind an airstrike that killed scores of Iraqi civilians in Mosul on March 17. The incident has sparked fresh concern about civilian deaths as a result of the US-led air campaign against ISIS.”
2
nailed it.
3
Maureen, another title for your essay could have been, "Aren't Republicans Appalling?"
4
Nailed it!
1
They are both, Messrs. Trump and Cheney, utterly disgusting and both should be in jail for life, now.
6
@Wendell Murray And all their ill gotten gains returned to the people. Crime should not pay
1
Yes, Dick Cheney and George W. caused a lot destruction outside of America. Trump is causing a lot of destruction inside America. He is eroding democracy, undermining free press, disregarding the rule of law, spreading lies, and peddling conspiracy theories.
Dick, W., and Donald have one thing in common though. They are all Republicans.
The Democrats may not be that good. But the Republicans are surely worse.
6
@Thomas, there is really no inside outside..
1
Give Trump a little more time. He's of the ilk which would see every American dead before giving up an ounce of his ego and admitting he might be wrong.
Hitler didn't begin by invading countries and murdering millions. He began slowly, with manipulative malice. He waited for world leaders to give him an inch, whereupon he took a mile or more. A common trait talked about was Hitler's "charm". Even the pre-Anschluss Austrian, Schuschnigg, complemented Hitler's charm after signing away Austria.
Give Trump a little more time. Make the usual excuses in the meantime, though: Trump is just being Trump.
If we cannot see the signs with all the historical evidence before us, we will be seen as equal fools as is Chamberlain.
2
@James Devlin Your observations are frighteningly adept. I have always thought that Trump's supporters would be saying "how could we have known"? Much like Hitler's after the fall of Germany. Apparently, we never learn from history.
1
@marcwex And I maintain that very few in 1932 thought AH would become Hitler. Read some news articles, European and American, from those days. Some things really don't change, esp., as you say, learning from history.
1
Nixon, Reagan, Cheney, Trump, Palin . . . why are all the crooks grifters, greedy self dealers and just some downright stupid people mostly on the Republican side?
I wish I could explain it. I see the effects clearly. The rest of the world laugh's at our folly.
But there just doesn't seem to be an end to it.
4
Trump is an unstable narcissist, but the real dangerous people were/are the Trump enablers and those who said there was no difference between Trump and Clinton.
6
I dont understand this paragraph below. Are you sure you meant Michelle’s party?
Michelle Obama has written in her memoir that she will never forgive Trump for pushing the birther movement. Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party.
3
And, Maureen, your HRC violate echo haunts us?
2
Huh. I remember the summer and fall of 2016. All of your columns bashed Hillary (and frequently Bill Clinton and Barack Obama). Now the one you went easy on is a "frothing maniac with a meat cleaver"? Too little, too late. It was obvious who Trump was back then, and Hillary's emails were a nothingburger (and were never hacked). How about a mea culpa?
11
to republicans that's trump's worst sin...... ripping away their fig leaf.
4
BRAVA, MAUREEN
You have said it all in a way only you can!!!
Mimi
2
I hated the Iraq war & remember that Bush used to infuriate me. Yet my impression is that he acted within an American consensus. Today when I see Bush I see a man, imperfect but genuine.
Trump as man is out of sight entirely except for his monstrous egotism. We see in him a series of poses along with his blunders & lies.
Trump is diseased outright. Bush was, as I say, American.
Several points to be made. First, assumption that if Gore had won election, in place when 9/11 occurred, he would have reacted differently in face of threat to our survival posed by the zealots. Bush admin. found compelling geo political reasons for attacking Iraq, and resolution to go to war was BIPARTISAN, supported by both parties. Only Sen. Sanders abstained, and Obama had not yet taken his place in the Senate.Second,re "noyade a l'eau(waterboarding)" and use of the "genene" to extract info. on future attacks from suspects, muscled interrogatoires" were used successfully by Massu's 10th Paratroop Division in police action to put an end to FLN terrorism in Algiers 1956-1959 and Massu's defense was, "Des deux maux il faut choisir le moindre!"Who can gain say that argument. Third, why is Dowd punching down on CHENEY, enfeebled by a grave heart condition?Unfair, lacking in compassion. Recall lines from Pollack's "Three Days of th Condor" in which Redford, having discovered a plot within the agency to attack oil fields threatens to go to the Times, and Cliff Robsrtson, his superior asks, "How do you know they'' print it? How do you know?"Dowd cannot be certain that if Gore had won in 2000, his admin. would not have reacted as Bush "bis" did, and ordered a similar "Operation Shock and Awe" against Hussein's Iraq! After all, Hussein's regime was socialist and secularist.
1
The GOP lost its soul when it decided to maintain power it needed southern racists and evangelicals. Cheney and Trump are the bacteria that grow on an infected wound. Which one kills the soul? Pick your poison.
3
“…also, if you look at the body count, more than 600,000 people died in Iraq. It’s not even close…
Apparently, your editors agree – this on your front page…
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/world/middleeast/jamal-khashoggi-murder-turkey-recordings.html
No mention of Cheney anywhere on same said page…
Would wager the Khashoggi story will be front-page at least every other day for at least the next 30 days – and that Cheney won’t be mentioned, even once…
The cruel irony – if someone had shared a recording of the 9/11 attack being planned, and can think of at least two groups that probably had one in hand – might’ve had a different ending…
PS
Do you remember those ads in airline-seatback magazines blaring:
“You don’t get paid what you deserve – you get paid what you negotiate…
If they still had these, the update might read:
“The truth isn’t what happened – it’s what can be negotiated”
Ask any historian – on or off the record…
Yes and is there anything more sickening than when the Obamas and Bushes laugh and joke together like best friends when together for state funerals and other events.
The history G W and Cheney set in motion deserves him to be left standing in the corner on his own, Not giggling and passing candies to former first ladies.
7
@evans head, yup it’s as though they are all laughing at us idiots!
1
"where were these patriots when the Bush administration was deceiving us with a cooked-up war in Iraq?"
What about what Nixon and Kissinger did in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos?
What about The Gibber invasion of Grenada and his support for the Contras and Augusto Pinochet?
What about Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright starving half a million Iraqi children to death?
And if you going to mention the neo-cons holy warriors, why not name those who still have jobs @ NYT: Freidman, Brooks, Douthat, and lately Bret Stephens.
Lest we forget Mr. WMD himself, Michael Gordon.
5
It's not a horse race. Both of these psychos with their hate-fertilized zygotes germinated in the fecund hothouse manure of conservative supremacy, of family values chimera, warmed and watered by Foxian fascism. Enshrine them on a tableau, or a frieze of infamy, they're the Founding Fathers of a faltering, failed American that is only now finally gasping to fill its lungs with liberty and liberalism again.
4
Cheney or Trump? These are my options????
3
Is McKay's last question really a choice, Maureen? They're both Real American Psychos, aren't they?
3
The GOP—now the Party of Trump—has long been home to many psychos, if “psychos” means “those viciously devoid of all sense of the common good”.
4
Choose: Darth Cheney OR Twittler. No thanks, I'll just drink wine, and think about the good old days, of Obama.
Seriously.
3
"Michelle Obama has written in her memoir that she will never forgive Trump for pushing the birther movement. Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party." ??
Really, could someone explain how these sentences make sense? Who in Ms. Obama's party backed birther filth?
4
What drugs was MoDo on when she wrote, "Michelle Obama has written in her memoir that she will never forgive Trump for pushing the birther movement. Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party."
What in the world is she blathering about. She never explains how Boot, Cohen and Yoo are "celebrated voices in Michelle's party," since it is a ridiculous notion.
Another comment calls Dowd glib, but that is too generous a description of her writing. Score settling and poisonous vituperation are her only sources for column ideas.
6
I have had little interest in reading Ms. Dowd’s columns since the 2000 election cycle. I distinctly recall a column at that time in which she, in her usual cutesy-cynical, take no prisoners style, propagated the falsehood that Al Gore had problems with the truth based on what was, in reality, a talk-show joke about him inventing the internet. Heaven knows that she lost no opportunity to write something negative about Hillary Clinton in the current election cycle, as she displayed what seems to have been irrepressible antipathy for Ms. Clinton.
Now we are supposed to appreciate her cutesy-cynical comments about the horrors of the outcomes of these two election cycles. I’m sorry, Ms. Dowd, but in my view, you don’t have the moral standing to make those evaluations
6
"But where were these patriots when the Bush administration was deceiving us with a cooked-up war in Iraq?"
Yea, and you helped them cook up our current mess, girl. You aren't getting off easy, honey. :/
5
Sociopaths Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, Bolton, Rice et al WAR CRIMINALS: 500,000+ murdered in Iraq FOR MONEY (and the death toll still increases EVERY day)...
And bankrupting America at the same time.
Why aren't these lying thugs in prison?
5
Speaking of goat devils, back in the day, the NYT published a photo of W and Cheney. Outside, likely in the Whitehouse gardens. W smiles with his doofus charm in foreground. Back in the bushes behind him, Cheney lurks--grotesque and glowering. Made my hair stand on end, and I've never forgotten it. Evil does exist.
3
In the Broadway hit, Ferrell’s W. .........confided that he had once discovered Cheney locked in an embrace with a giant goat devil in a room full of pentagrams."
That line alone would have been worth the price of admission.
I had always believed that Cheney was irrefutable proof of the actual existence of vampires, but I'll settle for McKay's assertion as probably a bit more realistic than my own.
"Here’s the question,” he said. “Would you rather have a professional assassin after you or a frothing maniac with a meat cleaver? I’d rather have a maniac with a meat cleaver after me, so I think Cheney is way worse. And also, if you look at the body count, more than 600,000 people died in Iraq. It’s not even close, right?”"
Hopefully, Trump isn't a professional assassin and a frothing maniac. But would you make that bet?
And no, 600,000 people haven't died, yet.
2
Pantheon of American Monsters will provide the grist for satire for many years to come.
There are some blessed signs in the Midterms that the Golden Age of the American White Guy might be coming to an end. This horror that continues to devour the planet might very well give way to a more enlightened future, but is it too late?
4
Thank you Ms Dowd for talking sense here. I think that the whole Trump fiasco will probably blow over, but that the damage done by Cheney, Rumsfeld and W. Bush may be nearly irreparable.
What fools! To kick over the hornets nest in the middle east! The damage will last for generations. And to embrace the most evil practices of secret government ... it would take ten more Obamas to set things aright.
3
You forgot the person that you feared. Hillary! She wanted to expand healthcare ! Dangerous!
11
Good piece Maureen. Our memories are so short. We used to hold our anger longer. Enemies would remain in the forefront of our brains - until we found justice. But times have changed. I'll blame it on the ridiculous overload of fresh entertainment and the deluge of junk from social media. How many thoughts can a poor little mind maintain?
If you are a "boomer", you will remember a time when you could name the following:
1. All the films in the theaters - and you realistically expected to view most of them.
2. All the songs that were on the radio - and who sang them.
3. All your neighbor's names and quite a bit about them.
It could be that stuff. Or it could be what's in the drinking water.
But here we are. Trump fills our frontal lobes so completely that we forget the horrors so well described here. His tweets and the facebook blowbacks push aside the pictures of kittens. There's no time left for new recipes for crab cakes or avocado smoothies, let alone reminders of the American wars on the world.
When was the last time someone said to you that the war in Afghanistan is an utter failure and that we are approaching the Russian record for stupidity. Well, we didn't listen to the French in Vietnam - why would we think the Russian debacle would give us some clues?
But wait! Trump competes! Don't be misled. His denial of climate change and embrace of fossil fuel emissions may lead to many more deaths than two stupid wars! Trump wins!
3
Difficult to argue with most of this column, except for this gratuitous sideswipe:
"Michelle Obama has written in her memoir that she will never forgive Trump for pushing the birther movement. Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party."
"In Michelle's party"? Come on. Just because some benighted souls have started to pipe up in indignation and make observations we Democrats were well-able to make years ago may make them celebrated, but they are a very long way from being "voices in" the Democratic party. More like they are clinging to us for moral absolution, but we are not in that business.
I do wish Maureen Dowd could muster the self-control to leave out the nasty turn of phrase when it misses its mark and hits something else instead.
17
@Bill
@Bill
I always pick up on conservative pundits (live or in print) that try and use coin of phrases or turning of words, where they think they are being witty. The majority leader in the Senate is a master of it. Just because they say it does not make it true. In fact, when they do utter these phrases, it is almost always the reverse.
There is being witty, and there is propaganda...
3
What?! Where was Maureen Dowd back in 2002 through 2008? She was no champion of moral virtue back during the years of W. Her columns were more likely than not to be directed against the supposed failings of Clintons (her favorite hobbyhorse). And after 2008, were scornful of a president she refused to call anything but “Barry.”
Marueen Dowd has for decades championed the leaders of the Republican Party, even as they tore at the values of our nation, while criticizing and deriding the men who tried to uphold our values, however, imperfectly they were able to do so. Who is fooled by her attempts to criticize others for her own failings?
14
That is an interesting question. It's almost like "would you rather be lynched or shot or drowned or poisoned". Obviously, so far Bush and Cheney have been far more lethal in terms of ending people's worlds. Killing them, in other words. Trump is a buffoon, but don't forget the courts. I wish I could.
2
The Machiavellian Dick Cheney , who obtained five deferments to avoid serving in Vietnam, is the apotheosis of craven hypocrisy, and a war criminal.His legacy is the rise of Isis, the disintegration of Syria, and the millions of refugees.
9
I'll never get over MD's ruthless, gratuitous attacks on Mrs. Clinton.
We are in our current government crisis partly because of people like Ms. Dowd.
11
As long as he breathes evil has a spokesperson. There is no calculating the damage done to our economic structure and ...oh, people. Loathsome, covered with shame and blood, he gives mass murderers a bad name.
2
Don't anyone let Trump read this... that last paragraph could bring about Armageddon.
2
When did you become so astute, Ms. Dowd? Impressive. You've summed up most of MSNBC very well -- it's hard to get people to understand why Nicole Wallace having her own show is so offensive. She was a hack for GWB and that invisible war that is still going on. All the Republican huffing about Trump would be funny if it weren't so dangerous.
2
I'm sorry, but getting the American populace to judge Cheney by the number of Iraqi dead is going to be a hard sell. A just one of course, but a very very hard sell. Just stick to the American fatalities and casualties, and you'll do about as much damage as you can with the people who still think some good came out of it.
1
"Michelle Obama has written in her memoir that she will never forgive Trump for pushing the birther movement. Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party."
What on earth does this mean? Michelle's party is, I assume, the Democratic party. Which backers of Palin, Trump, or the birther filth are celebrated voices in the Democratic party?
10
@tsl I think it's a veiled reference to Steve Schmidt who pushed Palin on McCain and loudly left the GOP over Trump and the spineless GOP in Congress, pledging henceforth to vote only for Democrats. This jumped out at me when I read it. But for some reason Dowd didn't have the nerve to use his name.
2
Ms. Dowd, I enjoy your columns, but be honest. Not all the sell-side proponents of the Iraq "Cakewalk" were evil Republicans or neo-cons. Thomas Friedman must be included in among the persuaders in that valley of shame. He tried to convince us that the road from Beirut to Jerusalem led through catastrophe.
6
Hanslon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
It applies to both W-Cheney and Trump.
3
“Vice” sounds like a good film. But the true villains here are the Bushes. So W was “naive” and “insecure?” That didn’t stop him from seeking the presidency nor his family from backing him. Cheney simply helped the “boy” achieve the war he wanted.
Earlier H. W. had ignored W’s campaign innuendo about McCain’s “illegitimate black child.” What else could he do? His own campaign featured the demonic tricks of Lee Atwater and Roger Ailes (Murdoch’s minion) — as Ms. Dowd’s “Riling up the Crazies” so well described.
You can’t pose as goody-two-shoes Republicans above the fray once you’ve used shady tactics to get elected. Or lied to cover up illegal national or international policies. We would certainly profit from a documentary film on the post-1980 Republican Party that showcased its steady loss of principles.
As for NeverTrumpers, former fairly ethical, moderate Republicans (there is no Conservative Party) like Bret Stephens, Steve Schmidt and Nicole Wallace bother me less than the Bushes, John Bolton and Newt Gingrich. And do you remember when Lindsey Graham and Dean Heller were NT’s? Good grief.
6
Maureen- You forgot the American Psycho - Cheney- held onto his KBR/Halliburton stock right up to March of 2007. Cheney is the precursor to Trump. Also, his company billed the U.S. Military, $15 a plate of food. And I know this information the U.S. Army Cooks who oversaw the foreign national cooks in Balad, Iraq.
6
Cheney vs Trump dead? When the Mueller indictments roll up Trump's insidious children and he is impeached, Trump will attempt to distract us by nuking Iran or N. Korea. You do the math: countless dead.
4
Chief among the conveniently forgetful is my embarrassing countryman, David Frum. Famous for coining “Axis of Evil” as Bush’s speechwriter, he’s now remaking himself as a prominent Trump critic with his latest catchphrase, “No guardrails!”
Matthew had it right. Mote-beam-eye- hypocrite!
2
Maureen Dowd nails it here— particularly about the lionization of folks like Max Boot. These folks were morally bankrupt when they had influence and are now suddenly fussed about ethics and morality when their influence decreases? Come on everyone, these people are not allies or even useful idiots. Let's all remember our history.
3
Cheney was (is) a terrible person and the heart transplant was wasted on him. HIs daughter just got re-elected as the at large representative from Wyoming to the US Congress and she is a definite chip off the old block! And totally in Trumps corner.
9
Thank you, Ms. Dowd, for confirming that Trump Derangement Syndrome is real!
Symptoms include:
1. Opposing anything and everything Trump does, even if you didn't oppose it when Obama was doing it—Trump banned Muslims! (roar); Obama bombed Muslims (crickets);
2. Blaming Russia, Susan Sarandon, Facebook, YouTube, the voters, the Easter Bunny, everyone except Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, the DNC, Obama, and the Mainstream Media, for giving us Trump;
3. Hating Julian Assange for revealing the truth; and
4. Refusing to admit Bernie would have won.
If you have any of the symptoms, please get help before it's too late! Or before 2020.
4
@G.Janeiro - then there is your disease. Truth Aversion Perversion.
2
Ugh. Bernie supporters; as childish as Trump supporters.
2
The past, as in Vice" is merely prologue.
The present and the future is what we have to be concerned with. A perspiring pence of mendacity (Mike and Don) is what we have to be afraid of. Perhaps,very afraid?
Ms. Dowd please take note.
2
Why choose? Cheney Trump Cheney Trump? Crazy is crazy, right?
2
"Would you rather have a professional assassin after you or a frothing maniac with a meat cleaver? "
I would rather have a pro-inclusive-democracy President than an assassin or a maniac in or near the Oval Office.
I'd also like to have an electorate where a massive majority could tell the difference.
Too much to ask? Seems so.
So how about we just leave the pointless "Top 10 Worst American Politicians Ranked" style articles to click bait news feeds?
4
The problem with Trump is that he judges people by his own low and despicable standards.
3
"...if you look at the body count, more than 600,000 people died in Iraq. It’s not even close, right?”
Not YET.
2
Great read Maureen. Thank you.
1
Ms Dowd, as long as you are taking anti-Trump pundits to task for past mistakes, please take a few moments to look in the mirror, if you have the stomach for it.
5
Thanks for pointing this out. The entire Midea Circus seems to have given themselves a lobotomy for the Iraq War and the financial meltdown of the Bush/Cheney years.
3
Indivisible,the women`s movement and Black lives Matter swept in 100 women and the most diverse representatives to DC ever. That`s the story. Cheney is symbolic of the past - warmongering white men. He is dying.
Trump is just beginning and needs to be stopped.
Indivisible 2 is coming to your neighborhood. Join it in 2019.
2
@Jim
Please see my comments 'way above re Justice Democrats; also; boycotting Fox advertisers.
1
Yes, Cheney has a big lead in the body count, but the frothing tortoise with the meat cleaver still has at least 2 years to catch him up!
1
This is the DC version of Wizard of Oz. Cheney had no heart (or at least a very fallible one); W had no brains; and Dump has neither.
5
@old goat
LOL - thanks, I needed that. (another old goat).
2
Not sure you can blame Steve Schmidt or Nicole Wallace for birtherism, if that was your point when you referenced Michelle Obama. Kind of tired of Maureen's flippant what-about-ism, at this point. It can be true that both Cheney and Trump are evil.
3
Ms. Dowd, you seem to have neglected mentioning yourself in this article. I, however, recall the constant soft soap you gave trump, prior to his election, and your intense dislike of anything Clinton, excusing trump right up to his election.
Many of us never bought the “cakewalk war” or Sarah Palin, or think that John Bolton and Gina Haspel have suddenly been washed clean.
And no one was defending Jeff Sessions. Ever.
5
I can hardly wait for this one to open. Will catch the Gary Hart movie on Saturday. The hits just keep on coming. And yes it is disturbing to have the former nefarious creatures, benign like Boot or malignant like Dick C, being treated like hero's now. That Granny, oops I mean Sessions was kicked in the face and thrown under the bus made my day. I say crawl back to Dixie, get your white hood and Confederate flag, and play Southern Man all you want now. At least it isn't on my dime. The new creep, he will get his too. The gods play with both side. They are just doing the set up for Trump and Co..
2
She's nibbling on those cannabis brownies again, folks. As if the thousands to millions of military deaths lay at the the feet of one party or man. We are ALL complicit.
Today is the anniversary of "The War To End All Wars." It isn't over till it's over and it's a long way from a lasting peace. We do not practice what we preach, and neither do our Presdents, irrespective of their party.
4
Dick Cheney dodged the Vietnam War era military draft because he infamously had "other priorities" aka he was and still is a cowardly dishonorable and unpatriotic parasite by nature and nurture.
Donnie Trump dodged the Vietnam War era military draft because he infamously had bone spurs and needed to chase women, play golf and collect and count and spend his Daddy's money. In other words Trump was and still is a corrupt cowardly dishonorable and unpatriotic parasite by nature and nurture.
Neither man has ever been in a real street nor playground fight. Both men faux macho bloviating bullying buffoonery profane pose is limited to talking and tweeting. They are both punks who would end up on the ground, emergency room or morgue. I bet that I can outrun or kick both of their buttocks with ease.
6
@Blackmamba
Those two are representative of the corruption of our political and judicial system, fully agree.
Their enablers are legion though, we have to keep pushing back against their injustice and it does take a fighting spirit to do so.
I wonder if sanctions would work, learn the political leanings of corporate leaders and don't buy their products.
2
@EC Speke
We are too separate and unequal and greedy for boycotts to work.
Cheney and Trump are symptoms. They are not causes. Both men are dwarfed by deadly depraved Duterte, Netanyahu, Vlad, MBS and Erdogan.
4
How about “none of the above.”
I don’t moon for W or Cheney. Or Reagan or even Bob Dole. I do miss Obama!!
And I don’t understand this: “Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party.” Which Dems is she referring to?
2
A wicked political work of art by Maureen. More, please.
. . . And the band plays on. I have never seen such a display of gutless wonderment in my life. This is apparently the human norm - democracy is the exception. Hitler was no fluke. A German student once told me (adult ed) that something similar could happen in America. I held my tongue - never forgot.
2
Well well well Ms. Dowd
Thank you. For pointing out precisely the media’s role in the defeat of Clinton.
Is there a NYT analyst somewhere who calculates the exact ROI per breathless pronouncement on the horrors of private email servers?
I would guess that the ROI on news about budget deficits, income inequality, or mass shooting/Puerto Rican/Yemeni deaths must be less than the ROI on grabbing a microphone from a reporter.
1
Despite being a yuuge Maureen Dowd fan, her adopting a “whataboutism” tone endemic in Trumpism is unsettling.
i.e. Trump is bad, but what about Bush/Cheney being super-bad.
Or is this pretense to promote the Cheney movie?
Just asking for a friend.
2
Saint John McCain is looking down on the right-of-center liberal NY Times reader and smiling.
Hey girl, our county's on fire! - No time for a parlor game of "Who wore it worse?"
Evil comes in all shades so it really doesn't matter which one is this season's, or last decades retro.
What does matter is whether we make it out alive before the walls come crashing down, now that the wheels have completely come off.
Luckily, I believe a deus ex machina is about to fall out of the sky, and save the republic.
I've got the popcorn poppin, the box of Chardonnay and gonna chill with Netflix (and some legal weed) while the adults in the room get ready to clean up the mess the Grand Old Partiers are making.
It's basically the same movie-just retold with a new cast. Last time it was Darth Vadar; this time it's the scary clown from It. Last time, Princess Leia summoned Obama Wan Kanobi to save us; this time the "Loser's Club" (of course!) is going to bring some sort of justice, end the wars, give us a few years of peace, a moment of sanity and reasonable discourse, rebuild our destroyed economy, repair our international relationships and finally pass universal healthcare - until the sequel, and then the whole cycle starts all over again.
I know I'm being glib (I'm sincerely saddened for all the lives lost, family's that are destroyed, and detriment to the environment) but humor is the last strategy for coping with the insanity (and fear) that comes with paying attention.
Oh, and I voted! And you Beto believe I voted for legal weed!!! Popcorn's ready!
1
I hope trump never reads Maureen’s column. He might want to break cheney’s record of 600,000.
1
And don't forget that Cheney and Rumsfield were also Vietnam supporters who thought we should never have left Vietnam. So, the same bad pennies keep showing up, with their bad ideas that get many innocent people killed. Somehow, they always make out like bandits. Oh yeah, his daughter is being elevated in the Senate. She is as evil and nutty as her dad.
3
Cheney'a major act of criminality was his systematic lying about WMD in Iraq. 3,000 Americans paid for this one with their lives.
10
Don’t forget the millions who died in the Middle East and are still under mortal danger
3
I found this article to be very therapeutic. To have to witness all the George W Bush and Iraq war enablers "washing away their sins in a basin of Trump hate" -- and worse -- to see the liberal media and DNC operatives helping them do it, is nauseating. This column was one of Maureen Dowd's best, but her specialty has always been in pointing out the most vicious hypocrisies in our political class.
I'm looking forward to the movie -- Adam McKay is in my opinion the smartest and most insightful filmmaker in the business.
6
I don't expect a medal for my being able to see through the Bush/Cheney propaganda back in late 2002 and early 2003. These two and their communication arms conflated Iraq and 9/11 oh so cleverly. They never said Iraq was responsible for 9/11 but every paragraph of their propaganda that contained "9/11" also contained either "Saddam" and/or "WMD" and "Iraq."
4
"Michelle Obama has written in her memoir that she will never forgive Trump for pushing the birther movement. Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party."
They are?
Great piece otherwise.
7
Cheney was the incarnation of evil, no doubt about it. Dowd talking about a movie that says so does not obliterate her support of the Iraq war and her being charmed by Trump, on account of her ignorant and uneducated brothers.
3
Excuse me, Ms Dowd, but who are those leading Democrats who supported the birther hoax? Name names, if you can. If you are referring to Hillary Clinton, it is a mendacious canard and you know it. So are you still in the hate-Hillary mode which had you kissing Trump's ring for several months? Or is this some kind of unsupported and unwarranted even-handedness?
As for Republicans, as I told a young friend some time ago, every Republican administration since Richard Nixon has been replete with criminals, or busily pardoned those employed by its Republican predecessor (GHW Bush). That's 50 years of termites eating away at our common home. Cheney was among the very worst, but the rot has been spreading for a very long time.
9
Brilliant as always, Ms. Dowd. Thanks for reminding us that the Bush White House had its own dishonest rogues gallery that trampled on the Constitutuon, led by the immoral and criminal Cheneyavielli.
1
And a waste of a perfectly good (transplanted) heart that really should have been used elsewhere.
3
Good read, good column, but you couldn't resist the cheap shot against Michelle Obama implying some sort of link between herself and the lionization of Max Boot by some progressives who have concluded that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" at least for the moment.If you want a friend in DC, get a dog. - and certainly not a columnist. Mrs. Obama deserved better from you.
4
I called my senator's office in the dark and gloom of the war/Christmas season 2003. By this time all the carnage from daddy's war was mopped up. The most resounding victory without an opponent ever. Wherever you are Garrison Keillor, God bless you for your words. Spoken without fear, accurate but hopeless. Chuck answered the phone(my first and last senator). He was afraid. The missing limb still twitching uncontrollably. Hillary was also afraid. Her ambition exactly the same as Cheeny.
Little wonder now is there? My question, how do we all find home and car seat accoutrements that hide that blood. It was about ninety-ten then, for some odd reason it's now fifty-fifty. Better late than never, right Maureen?
Stay comfy.
The real Donald Trump? His grandpa kept the deposit your grandpa put down on a house and then was killed in Belgium.
1
I fear Ms. Dowd has had a little too much weed and has, poor dear, gotten lost in the weeds.
Trump is but the bloom on the Republican plant that has been thriving for decades. It has taken a whole lot of manure to reach this level of flowering, not to mention stench.
5
I think the answer to your question as to why some Republicans, now on the anti-Trump train, are given a pass is that people look at it as "it's all relative:" The Trump administration SEEMS so much worse because so many people are swimming around in the swamp that Trump created. I'll admit I relish listening to people like former McCain/Palin campaign director Steve Schmidt. You can't get more anti-Trump than Mr. Schmidt. Your focus here is on Dick Cheney who, as far as I know, is not one of the anti-Trump Republicans. Few, if any, Republicans or Democrats have ever have caused as much damage to our country as Dick Cheney.
3
For once I agree entirely with Maureen Dowd.
1
Why is this op-ed cast into an "either-or" drama? It should be a "both-and"--both Cheney and Trump can meet the criteria for being the "Real American Psycho."
2
Very well written. Does violence ever solve problems? Really?
1
Trump did not have to deal with 9/11.
2
Let us not even try to imagine his response
3
This from yesterday's Guardian is right on point. Thought you'd appreciate it, Mo.
'Long after Trump is gone, we will have these delusional soldiers of the Confederacy and their weapons, and ending the war means ending their allegiance to the narrow “us” and the entitlement to attack. As Michelle Alexander reminded us recently: “The whole of American history can be described as a struggle between those who truly embraced the revolutionary idea of freedom, equality and justice for all, and those who resisted.” She argues that we are not the resistance; we are the river that they are trying to dam; they are the resistance, the minority, the people trying to stop the flow of history.'
4
Pray tell, Ms. Dowd, who are the Pygmalions of Palin who backed Trump one the birther filth, and are now in Michelle Obama's party?
As to MSNBC being awash in nostalgia for St. Ronnie and Dubya, you must have watching an 'alternative' channel.
When is comes to nostalgia, I consider Nixon being a choir boy compared to the know-nothing, country-destroying fruit cake in the Oval Office.
3
And I have to choose because, why?
5
I'm even thinking of the good old days with Nixon...It seems republicans were really about ideology for the most part, relatively speaking.
Cheney and Trump are symptoms of a disease. We may want to treat the symptoms but those symptoms will just come back if the cause of the disease is not discovered and healed. The disease is the NeoCon and Libertarian stance that Wealth is more important than democracy. (Based on their actions, not the direct statements of their rhetoric). The two ideologies conflict with each other nominally in some ways but their ultimate end game is the same...the Power of Wealth should make political power into just window dressing.
We should bear in mind that Trump is an anomaly. The Koch machine and NeoCons despise him and absolutely did not want him in power. He's essentially a rich, mean spirited and narcissistic Chauncey Gardener. He has turned out to be their incredibly useful idiot, managing the destruction of government they wanted without having to sully their hands.
The disease is the Power of Wealth. The only non-violent cure is the emergence of full and real representative democracy. There are other cures. Various reigns of terror have illuminated that approach. Democracy is much happier and more accommodating. Political power is the only counter to the power or wealth. Trump and Cheney are Reps. Without conscience; sociopaths to be sure. But they are not the disease. The Disease places men (and women) like them in power. Find a cure.
6
“Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party.”
Sorry. This statement is not even remotely correct. Do you have some specific examples of birthers who are now Democratic leaders, or is turning a phrase a more important objective than truth?
8
A shout out to Condi Rice, another of the, "Don't let the smoking gun become a mushroom cloud" chorus, leading up to the debacle of Iraq. Only in America can a proven liar leave government behind for a rewarding life in academia.
4
The fact that a cheesy, reality show con artist has garnered so much power speaks more about the level of cowardice in our representatives. He's a money-laundering real estate loser who, without his inheritance, would be holding open houses on Sunday, wearing a gold jacket. Where is your spine America??
3
Very Dear Ms Dowd:
Now a days, you can not close the body count . New arriving participants besides the TWO mentioned could easily distract the counting. (i wish to be wrong in this projection) .Regards.
1
How do you like your norms broken? Over Twitter or in a torture memo? By a tinpot demagogue stomping on checks and balances he can’t even fathom or a shadowy authoritarian expertly and quietly dismantling checks and balances he knows are sacred?
Dick Cheney had an MA in political science from UW Madison and had nearly completed his doctorate. He knew exactly what he was doing and that is why it is so invidious.
439
@Brian Casterline I think you mean "insidious".
8
@Charles E
I meant to say 'invidious' but upon reflection 'insidious' works a bit better.
Invidious adjective
(of an action or situation) likely to arouse or incur resentment or anger in others.
Insidious adjective
proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects.
29
@Brian Casterline
Grreat rejoinder!
12
Cheney is the quintessential war criminal who got away with it. His boss was a fool put in power by the "Supreme Court" in 2000 by a 5 to 4 decision that was one of the worst in U.S. history. 70% of Americans believed prior to the invasion of Iraq that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9-11. The remainder of us who actually read and think critically were called out by many on the right for being unpatriotic or not supporting our troops. Of course we supported our troops, we didn't want them getting killed or maimed for life because we were invading the wrong country after 9-11. Terrorism expert Richard Clarke said it best, invading Iraq after 9-11 is like invading Mexico after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Trump is the original Sasquatch, but Cheney was worse. He knew that everything he said about Iraq and Saddam Hussein and Weapons of Mass Destruction was an outright lie, but he did it anyway. The result was hundreds of thousands of innocent people murdered for nothing. I've read 13 books on Jr's Administration. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Bolton, Addington, and the rest of those neo-cons should all be in prison. W was just a fool whose legacy is a failed presidency. He will never understand the death, misery and suffering he inflicted upon Iraq or our troops that he needlessly sent on a preemptive war that should not have been waged. Bin Laden laughed at W, right up until President Obama sent in Seal Team 6.
16
Yes, it's a tragedy that evil comes in all forms - a smooth operator like Cheney (and McConnell - a traitor to this country if there ever was one and Paul Ryan, a spineless jellyfish) and an uncensored buffoon who might become the first American dictator.
But....I agree. So far, Cheney wins. The deaths of upwards of a million (way more than 600,000) people with millions of other lives seriously damaged or ruined far outweigh the bluster of "You're rude, sit down".
But, there is something about Trump's cruelty that gives me the shivers. Standing there at his presser, going down the list of 'who didn't embrace me, too bad they lost', lashing out at innocents because he feels threatened, all the constant lying, just is so very disturbing.
W and Cheney were let off the hook by Obama for the sake of 'moving on'. So we 'moved on' from torture and secret renditions and black sites and illegal war without looking back, without any truth and reconciliation, and here we are now. We have a president who would waterboard his enemies in a nanosecond if he could get away with it, who would raise his own personal army if he could, who acts like the Mobster Boss of the world and maybe he's in direct lineage from Cheney.
Cheney's smart. Trump is dumb. Both are dangerous to normal people all across this world. Trying to figure out which is worse....why don't you try to figure out why you supported Mr. Trump and W so much in the beginning and do a few columns about that? Hmmm?
7
There is no doubt - at least among most Democrats and probably a number of Republicans - that Cheney was a sneering, menacing force during the George W years. But for me, the "frothing maniac with a meat cleaver" is just as lethal as the "professional assassin." In fact they are one in the same, are they not? The calculation of the professional killer is no more murderous than the unhinged, maniac. And it is that word "maniac" which equalizes two demons of sorts.
Mr. McKay seems to be overlooking the insidious damage done to the human condition in just two short years, embraced and encouraged by Mr. Trump. Trump has unleashed hate and its subsequent heinous effects. This nation puts children in cages now when they are torn from their parents' arms. This nation now has a green light for violence against the Jew, the Muslim, the Black, the Brown, the gay. This nation now through gun violence gone amok kills too, too many innocent people during one too many massacres. Need I go on?
No, let us not play down the Trumpian play book which is just as evil as Mr. Cheney's. These men are both indefensible and soulless.
4
Too clever by half, Ms. Dowd. "Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party." Your alliteration fails to amuse me if it ever did, but these days I like my commentary straight.
Unfortunately, there has been room enough at the top for more than one evil person. The one we have now must be the focus because every day he's in there is a day our democracy, our country and world peace are endangered. And I don't think I'm being hyperbolic.
6
Less snarkiness and more analysis would be welcome. What did Bush’s invasion get us? How might the middle east be different today ? Your approach does not appeal to the mind.
Hey Maureen, the same people who managed Cheney, manage trump. Only the naive believe otherwise.
3
Cheney was just one of the psychos. The signatories of the PNAC - Progress for the New American Century are among the others. Notable are Jeb Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and John Bolton, key members of George W. Bush's hawkish cabal.
5
Did he think by being out I'm the rain he would melt? We should be so lucky. He doesn't know the meaning of respect. If it's not about him, why should he care. What does he know about war, after all he has bone spurs. Oh, he's a psycho alright among many other shortcomings. This one even makes Nixon look good.
4
I’m sure Jesus Christ himself would admire both of these honorable men. The real question, why women vote republican?
1
So correct. You have regained your voice.
2
Excellent article! Americans have notoriously short memories. Dick Cheney is the personification of evil. Trump is just a petty little "Robber Baron" in comparison. Both individuals, however, epitomize the G.O.P. and it's basic core values.
2
There is one common thread in your story, the Republican Party. Both of these men, Trump and Cheney stand on the shoulders of Republican support. So maybe Republicans like psychopaths whether they are professional or maniacal any flavor will do as long as it’s poisonous.
4
How about all of the above? There's room in our prison system for more than one White House criminal.
2
Somehow, that Cheney was worse doesn’t make me feel better.
600,000 dead in eight years versus two and possibly eight more years of frothing maniac with a meat clever, Trump can still catch up and surpass the devil that sat on W’s shoulder. Plenty of time left.
4
I think they are both (Cheney and Trump) frothing maniacs...what do they have in common? Hmm, they seem to be from the same political party. Wonder what that could mean?
2
Thank you Dowd. I appreciate you more every day. Finally, a prominent columnist pointing out what everyone with even a decent political memory should already know: that the Bush Administration was far more dangerous and did far more damage than this buffoon ever will.
Hats off to you, m’lady.
1
Dead on Maureen. Dick Cheney has always been the "evil one." There is no doubt that this calculating horrible man is responsible for much of what happened during asleep-at-the wheel W's administration, for which we are still dearly paying. Although every day with Donald Trump is a new kind of purgatory, you have aptly reminded us of his predecessor, the evil Dick Cheney, who could run circles around our present chump-in-chief. The fact that Cheney got away with it is even more galling. Rumsfeld and Cheney hijacked our country, and we are still reeling from the fallout.
2
Great exposure of our corrupted DINO, democracy in name only. Trump, Dubya and Cheney all elected by minority votes first term in any case.
The people should push back the best they can, elected officials go to Washington not to serve the people, but to serve themselves. Washington is a place for politicians to get rich, grease palms and have sex, not much more, maybe Jimmy Carter was our last real American hero, Obama was pretty good too but a bit more cynical. He's cashing in now.
Trump's contempt for his opponents and artless insults make his calls for respect of his position all the more laughable with his payola to multiple call girls and the scornful disrespect he's shown to all his opponents be they political, in the press or President Obama, a much better President in comparison.
In the end we the people are the losers, almost powerless despite our votes, the serpentine elites play the system and to these "winners" go the spoils of the US Treasury, they're no better than the kleptocrats overseas; they've turned America into a Trumpian insult of a country. What greedy miserable mean old white men get up to.
3
To the body count point--Republicans have raise operating off radar to art form--we don't know what the body count is under Trump.........
1
Republican lying and cheating, voter suppression, scapegoating, and incitement, used to 'divide and win', didn't start with Trump, nor with Cheney. You can go back to Nixon and his "dirty tricks" squad, or Reagan and the Big Lies of "trickle down" and "supply side economics". Continue through the unholy alliance between Gingrich and the born-again "Christians" who backed him (while he was having an affair) and his loudly attacking President Clinton for his abuses. Those evangelical self-proclaimed "Christians" were eager to look the other way, eager to sell out their souls for political power. Hypocrisy, lies, and amoral, vile behavior have a long historical grounding in Republican politics. GW Bush and Cheney with the outright lies, to go to war. Cheney, Rumsfeld, the dishonor roll of lies, deceit, and dishonorable behavior is endless. Trump is only the latest, most visible example of vile behavior. Perhaps Trump seems more psychotic, bigoted, evil, and insane because we now have a Twitter pipeline right him -- there's no mistaking how Trump thinks, what Trump cares about, and what is important to Trump. One thing is manifestly clear -- Trump cares nothing about anything at all benefiting the United States and its people. Trump stands out in the crowd of terrible Republican politicians mostly because he is the most selfish, self-centered, and deceitful of the past 50 years.
2
On Veteran's Day I note the former Sec of Defense secured five deferments to avoid service during Vietnam.
2
Such a good point. I find myself rubbing my eyes in disbelief when reading moralising pieces written by Neocons and former Bush/Cheney loyalists and apologists attacking Trump's flakiness. These imbeciles are directly responsible for the trajectory the country finds itself on. They told as many whopping lies as Trump does - except they were much more highly militarised and fixated on spreading fear. They were brutal in their destruction of democratic values. And like Trump will, Bush/Cheney won two terms. So, can we stop hearing the bleating bleeding-hearts refrain from the shallow liberals that what we are witnessing in Trump is unAmerican? It's so American it could only happen here - and it has form, and legs. It's nowhere near over.
3
Who or what are the Pygmalions of Palin who are now amongst the most celebrated voices of Mrs. Obama's party? Comments like this that are too clever by half are also frequently too inscrutable by half.
2
"We make the president the devil spawn and he makes us the enemy of the people..." At least it is finally (if inadvertently) admitted here. Yes, you Ms. Dowd, and others like you, "make" the president into the "devil." But the fact that you make him into the devil logically and reasonably means that you are, indeed, the enemy of the people.
1
Exactly. Never forget. I hope next time you'll add a bit on how the Republicans also enjoyed the NRA money and employed "dog whistles" for the racists. Maybe for some of them they have seen the light. Hopefully they won't be fooled again.
2
Trump is a void. The fools are rushing in—under the guise of filling the void. And the mass media are reaping the profits. I do think Ms. Dowd deserves enormous credit for that last observation. The media have hunkered down in self-defense and few are engaged in needed self-criticism.
Even coverage of our recent elections has largely ignored the corruption of our electoral process by profiteering by the media. Some of the worst, in my judgment, are book publishers. Books, by their nature, are supposedly constructed through thoughtful processes, outrageous intellectual corruption is supposedly at least tempered by editors and fear of future reviews. Yet publishers are seemingly lined up for contracts with those rushing in to fill the Trumpian void.
Ms. Dowd does indeed make one think about media corruption and directs us to a forthcoming movie with a revealing message. I don’t particularly like movies—which I often think are manipulative rather than persuasive. This one appears to be persuasive.
She raises the question of what media should be based on, if not solely profits and manipulation. Presently, I look down on what the the media (not usually The Times and this column is even evidence) and I find it based on the shell game we call the economy. Like turtles it’s just shame all the way down (an obscure reference, I know, but not necessary to explain).
4
I always enjoy Ms Dowd’s columns. They emit heat and fire that keeps me warm in this deranged world. We do forget nor forgive the criminals, shysters and madmen who came before Trump, who by rights belong in the cells.
2
Oh I have so often shared these thoughts! How many dead young souls are the result of Bush? Yet his big regret is Mr. West accused him of bigotry during Katrina? Trump is not even in the same ballpark. And let us not forget the collateral damage of Obama vacating Iraq to give birth to ISIS, innocent family members killed by unmanned drones in Pakistan ? Can you imagine what slain, raped souls in Iraq think of Michelle’s unforgivable sin by Trump?
1
Nice to see you have your bearings back. HopeVice goes eventually to Netflix’s.
Trump is no Cheney. He lacks the forethought and the discipline; however, whether a fire is set by an arsonist or a nasty, angry child, the house still will burn down. Without a doubt, the W-Cheney W.H. set the stage for Trump. Fortunately, he is neither smart enough or strategic enough to take truly full advantage of it.
Does that matter, really? He is ready to start a massacre of the border. Nixon sent the national guard to Kent State and four students, going about their business on their way to class, were murdered. Trump has sent thousands of military personnel to the border. The refuge seekers are still many miles away, but some will arrive eventually. Will some hot, irritable young soldier "think" he saw a gun and shoot at them, wounding or killing mothers with small children in tow?
Trump's atrocities are small now, but he hasn't had an opportunity. Give him one and see what happens. Like W., he is a bully and insecure. Like W., he is a rich family's son who has never liked restraint. Also like W., Trump has outsourced his presidency to others, mainly his V.P. W. and Trump are two small men, strutting on the world's stage, alienating our friends and comforting our enemies with their bluster and posturing, harming all that they touch.
Really, Republican party, is this what you have come to in your worship of greed? Is this really all you are and the best you can do? If so, go away. We do not need you or want you.
4
I´m surprised at you, Maureen Dowd. Despite your known dislike of Obama, you failed to mention how he and Michelle have palled around with him. I found that appalling. And I´m tired of people saying Trump makes W look good. He may turn out to be worse, of course, but so far he´s not.
Trump isn´t even guilty of undermining democracy - the good ole´Republicans have done that over the past 30 years without his help. Perhaps the maniac with the meat cleaver is useful in one respect: He makes us see that the country is in danger.
4
Last sentence, "It's not even close right?" Final answer? "So far",
1
Thank you, Maureen. Yes, I remember it well. I told my pediatric patients that W would go down in history as our worst President because of Cheney. NOW they get it and, having grown up as educated adults often call me in retirement with a mature sense of understanding and tell me that there's a new Sheriff in town for that "honor".
Yes, Cheney is/was darkly iconic, but at least he had a sense of the significance of the Presidency (as did Nixon). Trump has none; he is a totally destructive, dishonest, ignorant narcissistic sociopath, a morbidly-obese child with the keys to the kingdom (for a while).
2
Why isn't anyone, namely Obama and Dems, awash with nostalgia for FDR?
No, its Reagan and W. That says it all...
4
Agree. Those who were crying Wolfowitz are now extolling the virtues of those in the old Cheney Neo-Con camp. And. RIP McCain's ridiculously treasonous choice of Palin. So. Is Trump awful? Yes. Could it be worse? It was.
Thank you for the article and for the movie. It has disgusted me how quickly we forgot about how awful Bush and Cheney were, and how awful the neocon press at the WaPo and the NYT, who helped to lie us into war were.
People should have gone to prison. Cheney should have been turned over to The International War Crimes Tribunal.
5
It's hard to think of anyone worse than Trump, but perhaps Cheney was. Reading "These Truths" (Jill Lepore), Andrew Johnson was worse. Perhaps even Warren Harding. Lots of dolts/thieves/crooks were president. I suppose we'll survive this one.
1
"if you look at the body count, more than 600,000 people died in Iraq. It’s not even close, right?”
The frothing maniac isn't responsible for the deaths of 600,000 people. Not yet.
The clownish outsider's bromance with Kim of North Korea hasn't soured yet. It will, if the National Security Advisor, John Bolton, has any say in the matter, and 600,000 might not turn out to be all that a high number, in retrospect.
With the frothing maniac it may turn out that we ain't seen nuthin yet.
2
For me, the saddest epilogue to Mr. Cheney's self-enrichment at the public trough was the probable use of his high Q rating to get a donor heart which could have gone to a far less tainted recipient.
Yes, yes, I know the positions on the transplant list are awarded on the basis of medical necessity and not societal good, but I would have much preferred a more just gift of such a priceless gift to almost anyone else.
Mr. Cheney should have remained the cardiac cyborg he was with his LVAD until his death as fair recompense for the Iraqi and American dead he created and the destruction in his wake.
4
An astute commentary Ms. Dowd. Democrats are now embracing those on the right who were instrumental in birtherism, torture and other un-American activities under both Reagan and Bush. But you lose your credibility when you begin to link these historic miscreants of the Reagan and Bush/Cheney years so obtusely as now affiliated with "Michelle's Party." I am certain she has no affinity toward these new "redeemers" any more than the rest of us, even in the fight we now face, yet again, against incipient fascism (yes, the correct word) in America.
Marylouise Markle
State College, PA
1
As much as it pains me to admit it, Maureen Dowd has a point. As a lifetime Democrat and Hillary supporter, I too have been surprised by how well received the Never-Trump, Bush-Cheney Republicans and the Neocons have been received by the so-called "liberal" media and intelligentsia.
From Joe Scarborough, a Newt Gingrich acolyte, to Nicole Wallace, the head of the notorious Bush WHIG (White House Iraq Group) that fabricated the entire Weapons of Mass Productions fiasco, to Neocons such as Max Boot and William Kristol, they are suddenly being treated as media darlings. This is not to mention the NYT's own stable of Never-Trump GOP columnists.
This situation creates a peril for the Democrats in 2020. Because they have been ostracized from the GOP, their only access to political power under our rigid, two-party system is through the Democratic party.
Even though they are still philosophically Republicans, the Never-Trumpers are now demanding a say in Democratic politics, as a price for their continued opposition to Trump.
They are now the ones, especially here on the NYT op-ed page and on the cable network news, constantly lecturing the Democrats and demanding that they abandon their traditional liberalism and "move to the center."
It is impossible to see how the Democrats can nominate a candidate the will appeal both to Elizabeth Warren on the Democratic left and Joe Scarborough on the Never-Trump GOP right.
Maybe it is time for them to start their own centrist party.
4
Wait - wait! I like Morning Joe. He’s changed- I know he has! Say it ain’t so- Joe.
Ms. Dowd revisits the American Rasputin of the early 21st Century, Richard Cheney, with the scorn this disreputable figure has truly earned. The damage he and his puppet George "Dubya" Bush wrought will be with the United States and the world for decades. Has anyone taken note of the fact that neither of these two men and most of their cohorts never travel outside the U.S.? Could it be that on foreign soil they would be subject to arrest for war crimes? The deceived Colin Powell warned them that if they broke Iraq, they would own it.
Well, they not only broke Iraq, but the entire Middle East. Their feckless, deceitful decision to invade led directly to the crisis in both Syria and Yemen, the former which led to aa refugee crisis that nearly overwhelmed our European allies and led directly to the impending British disaster/folly called Brexit.
And please do not let Condoleeza Rice, the handmaiden of the Iraq disaster off the hook. Richard Clarke and other members of the outgoing Clinton administration tried to warn Rice of the impending Al-Qaeda threat. Rice, with her usual smugness and condescension, cavalierly ignored those warnings. For a woman with a Ph.d, she lacks a certain common sense that was damaging for her as the NSA and Secretary of State. How did that Russian reset go, Condi?
5
This just plays into the Trump agenda. It is an exercise in demonization of flawed hubristic fools, and all it does is does is to excuse Trump. It is to argue that Stalin wasn’t bad, really, despite the murder of the 20 million, because Lenin was a terrorist also.
2
600,000 dead in Iraq..yes, it's not even close but it's only been two years - Cheney had 8! Give the orange poltroon some time! He's probably a bit down after his party's loss of control of the House but he needs to look on it as an opportunity to really focus on ginning up a needless, brutal war of his own in the Middle East.
2
Always the cheerful one. Seeing demons and malfeasance everywhere. America is just doomed I guess. Why not write about Beto O’Rourke or someone trying for better.
1
Let's try this.
I'm an old guy (77, not quite a curmudgeon, and I don't lecture younger folks unless they ask). I went to college and found out I couldn't get by selling insurance:I was just awful at it - sales is a tough job! - but some more college turned me into a professional bean counter (hate me yet?).
The cool thing about bean counting is that if there's any embezzlement (stealing) going on around you, you know about it, and can either call the cops or take a hike. (Your choice. Hate me yet?)
I did pretty well as a bean counter and my wife did okay in the library system, so with Social Security and a pretty good pile of savings, we're retired and living in Florida. (She was born here and I was raised here, so we know how to avoid the tourist traps and still enjoy fishing and sailing small boats.)
Now I know you really hate me. But let's looks at that. Why? What'd I ever do to you? We're all about as lucky as we can get, being born in the USA. (Would you prefer Albania? Mongolia? Russia?) Underneath it all, we probably share the same values. It's no skin off my nose if I didn't see you in church last Sunday, 'cause I wasn't there either.
I like cats, you like dogs. Is that difference of opinion worth a black eye or a bloody nose? I have a gun! But it's an ancient .410, and frankly, I'd be afraid to shoot it.
Point is... well, do I have to explain? Florida, Oregon, Maine, Nevada: some quirks here and there, but we're all pretty much the same.
Hate me yet?
2
Maureen outing self-dealing, self-aggrandizing, obdurate Dick Cheney, a monstrous murderer of monumental proportions and master manipulator of sophomoric figurehead President George W. Bush, heretofore given a pass by the mainstream media, including the Times.
A timely remembrance of W.’s reckless homicidal invasion of Iraq, an egregious war crime by any objective standard, impervious in its horror to the labored, failed rationalizations of the politicians, pundits and corporate press trying to depict it otherwise. 4.424 American and 600,000 Iraqi deaths to oust Saddam Hussein, in large part because he tried to assassinate W.’s dad.
Incessantly lying Donald Trump in his values and character is worthy successor to Bush and Cheney and a fitting avatar of the modern day Republican Party.
1
What about the death of America as we know it? As a nonstop attacker of Obama and the Clintons, Maureen Dowd helped lay the groundwork for the Trump ascendancy, and she knows it.
And she all but openly endorsed him during his campaign. Then there is her guest pieces from her far right brother. And I don't recall Cheney inciting Americans to kill each other, as we just saw in Pittsburgh. And we're only 2 years into the Trump house of horrors. Enough with the diversions.
3
Regarding: " ...And also, if you look at the body count, more than 600,000 people died in Iraq. It’s not even close, right?... ”
The story is not finished yet....
My deep concern is that the reckless baffoon in the White House is no more than a "Sheriff of Nottingham", a servant to a greater threat hiding in the shadows ... and, so, directing the baffoon-sheriff's mission to systematically and surreptitiously stir up public unrest to civil disobedience and then to mass civil uprising leading to the his imposition of Martial Law in which he suspends habeas corpus and other democratic processes including the postponement of elections.
Thus, the orange president will not have to endure the strains of re-election nor the insult of unequivocal rejection by the voters with him accruing the benefits of a virtually never-ending authoritarian rule of the US. After all, he is the current commander-in-chief of the most powerful military force in the world. ---- the death toll could easily soar in to the seven and eight digit range with our "elected tyrant" using the USA's incredibly effective arsenal of mass destruction ....... ................... I do hope, to the benefit of our posterity, that, I am way, way, wrong! Perhaps, we as a united nation of people will claim our power back from the despots that have overtaken the order and control our world?
1
It’s a sad day for the country when we have to decide whether it is Trump, or Cheney, who is the lesser of two evils. It is a contest where regardless of who wins, America loses, and we all get the booby prize.
Interesting that both Cheney and Trump are so utterly devoid of Christian principle, yet both are so adored by the Christian right. We truly live in a Lewis Carroll world.
3
"MSNBC is awash in nostalgia for Ronald Reagan and W."
Maureen, what network are you watching? The network I watch, MSNBC, is doing no such thing.
1
I get what Dowd is saying - organized, smart evil people are more lethal than dumb, disorganized evil people. But I wager that the rotten seeds of racism, divisiveness, violence, and distrust of the media that Trump is sowing won't show its full destructive impact for many years.
I did not get who Dowd is talking about here:
"Yet the Pygmalions of Palin, who backed Trump on the birther filth, are now among the most celebrated voices in Michelle’s party."
Who is she talking about - or is this just gratuitous Obama bashing?
3
Hello? Middle school essay question
Cheney evil but competent.
Trump evil but incompetent,
Which is worse? Discuss?
1
Millions will die across the world because of Trump’s rollback of environmental regulations and withdrawal from the climate accords, so I think it's a close call as to the greater threat of maniac sociopath vs. manipulative sociopath. I guess I'd just rather change the electoral college so it's one person one equally weighted vote.
1
Dowd castigates liberals for drawing conservatives like Max Boot close and wants us to remember their past transgressions. I do, but I also remember Dowd's: her coy footsie with candidate Trump and her unrelenting mean girl maligning of Hillary Clinton. I'm grateful that people like Max Boot and Jennifer Rubin have been intellectually honest enough to acknowledge the national disaster that Trump and the GOP have become and to shower them unremittingly with scathing criticism. As for Dick Cheney, c'mon, we all still think he's the antichrist.
6
Is Maureen actually asking us to select a winner to her question? How about pick your poison: Trump an ignoramus with presidential power or Cheney a malicious schemer who was the de facto president from 2001-2009.
1
It is fair to remind lovers of justice and democracy of the evil that was done by folks now thanked for their criticism of Trump. But I would caution that we liberals do not embrace all the evildoers, and we are grateful for their voices not because we hate Trump.
We hate that norms we do cherish are being overtly trashed. We fear a world in which half the country idolizes a villain so fervently. Are so willing to chuck reality and truth in the trash.
We do not love John Bolton btw. We do not love “tear em from their parents” Sessions.
Dowd suggests that our outrage abt Sessions’ firing is tantamount to endorsing his cruelty and racism. But we are doomed if it has to be either Trump or Cheney. Progressives try to create a better reality that we can choose. Dowd would be more helpful if she joined that fight, rather than spend more ink
But in the end she doesn’t show that gratitude for any Cheney acolytes’ public denunciation of fascism amounts to abandoning our condemnation of “Cheyneyness” and to sabotaging our pursuit of a better and other way. She does not prove her implicit argument that applauding Bushites (and Wall Street Democrat’s “tough enough to send troops” and “end welfare as we knew it” and “throw labor to the globalization wolves) for condemning Trump’s evils itself dooms us the dystopian binary choice she warns us about. Yes, That is a risk.
Cheney was undoubtedly the worst of the worst, unfortunately he had a supporting cast of hundreds, including the New York Times and Thomas Friedman. Tony Blair and Sarkozy will be so forever despised in Britain and France for their roles that they decamped for the promised land of infinite riches to those who backed the continual war being fought for the Kagan, Boot, Elliot, Rumsfeld Wofowitz, Cheney cabal. If there is a defining moment that we will turn to in a hundred years and point to as the moment America began its decline to irrelevance it will be the evening we began the televised display of America’s war machine bombing into oblivion a third world country under a barrage of lies to the nation and backed by both parties let’s not forget: Clinton, Feinstein, Schumer were all in. Six trillion American Tax Dollars dollars and counting, millions of lives lost, Europe turning to the right as a direct result of being flooded with refugees from a war they didn’t want, a divided America that has seen its manufacturing given away and its infrastructure ignored to fund this war for Israel, The Royal Saudis and Big Oil. The best thing I can say about Trump is that he’s not Hillary who wanted to not only escalate the wars but had her war cabinet all picked out from the ranks of Kagan, Elliot and “The New American Century” crowd. Cheney deserves the eternal loathing of Americans and Europeans after he and his acolytes committed genocide for special interests in the Middle East.
4
The Press may have not done as thorough a job of reporting on the march to war.
1
Thank you Ms. Dowd.
Your great article is in sync with a wonderful new podcast from Rachel Maddow, 'Bagman' a documentary about Spiro Agnew.
It is eye-opening how Agnew's corruption, fascist attempts to divide the country with racist rhetoric, and his vicious attacks on the media and the institutions that investigated him is a blueprint for Trump's current self-made decline.
1
Brava Maureen. A superb distillation of the hypocrisy of our fickle outrage.
1
600,000 dead is a drop in the bucket compared with the billions condemned to death by the ecocidal carbon oligarchs (including Putin) who now control our government through Trump and his team!
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I'm not getting where this opinion is leading, are the Democrats to blame for the Republicans? Possibly, but would the country had been cleansed if we prosecuted Cheney or Bush and if so how? Where would that slippery slope leave America? Similar to trump and his minions yelling "lock her up" in regard to Hillary. We don't lock-up our opponents and strip our Journalists of their lively-hood for asking difficult questions. Nixon was smart enough to leave office and maybe the pardon ended the horror. Smarter individuals than I need to resolve punishments of our leaders.
What we do have is a completely amoral Republican Party, alone with their leader, trump. This is the most disgusting, embarrassing and mean organization to be "governing" America. They single -handed will destroy American Democracy and our Constitution.
2
Maureen Dowd is one of the reasons I subscribe. And today's column, brilliantly written and likely to appear in a collection of her essays at some point, portrays the Satan I have asserted for eons: Dick Cheney. He was president for eight years, not Dubya. He was the puppet-master pulling the strings and I was always taken with his serious heart problems that were mental as well as physical; the man was a sadist. Trying to impress his wife? Well, I thought she was a prime example of Dorothy Parker's observation: "Washington is full of successful men and the women they married when they were young!" Their daughters, Toilette and Doilette, make the Sisty Uglers from "Cinderella" seem fetching.
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Not usually a fan of Maureen, but this is an excellent essay,.
1
Somewhere in this angry and disjointed and confused rant is Ms. Dowd back to bashing Obama, via Michelle, Republicans finally sick of Trump, and....I don’t know who.
Forgotten in this mish-mash of almost Trumpian dichotomies, is the simple fact that the most prominent dark character in the Bush White House, Richard Cheney, the ultimate subject of the article, was an is an AVID supporter of Trump, recognizing in him a kindred demonic spirit.
Even Dubya, bless his heart, eventually figured it out and quietly cut Cheney out of decision making his last two years in office, even in the last hours refusing Cheney’s plea to pardon Scooter Libby.
Of course, Trump pardoned Libby, cementing Cheney’s adoration of him.
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"And also, if you look at the body count, more than 600,000 people died in Iraq. It’s not even close, right?”
Just give Mr. Trump some more time...
And why are these moral degenerates elected into office? Credit the cesspool that is politics and the corruption of Citizens United. Let’s s hope the up and comers (e.g., the Parkland kids) restore some integrity to government.
1
Ms. Dowd should also call out her colleagues at the NYT, including Mr. Friedman, for pushing the Bush administration's narrative on Iraq.
Ms. Dowd should moreover call out the administration of Barack Obama, which caused the migrant crisis by toppling the government of Libya by force and significantly weakening Syria by bombing. These were instances of pre-emptive war quite akin to the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq.
This said migrant crisis, caused by the Obama administration and led from the Secretary of State Ms. Clinton, ultimately fueled the rise of the white ethno-nationalism in Europe and here.
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Rupert Murdoch + Roger Ailes bear responsibility too large to fathom. Breitbart's way was paved & billionaires want it all their way.
Death of Stalin, Iannucci's brutal parody (with Steve Buscemi's Khrushchev as good guy) is brilliant and one can see where 'fake news' & enemies lists have lead (+ somehow get you to laugh on the way). Much resonance to our world of corruptions now.
I'm glad to read Max Boot, Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson for they use much tougher language than most Dems. I think they're sirens going off for us all to heed for they know these swamps intimately.
We need all who love this nation to fight however late they awaken.
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Thank you, Ms. Dowd, for this reminder.
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What seems scary is that those criminals that we blame for destroying this country, and others (i.e. Irak) are not martian Psychos nor Frankenstein monsters...but ordinary folks that, in the name of greed, dehumanized 'the other'...so that they could feel like patriots saving us from mayhem. Hypocrites all, and causing untold misery and deaths an da huge waste in resources; and to add insult to injury, they remain immune to justice's arm; and this includes not only the criminals W-Cheny-Rumsfeld-Condoleeza for invading Irak under false pretenses in 2003...but now (2016-18) with Trump and his complicit republican party, trampling on this democracy, a rampant abuse of power for self-enrichment, and worse, the loss of trust in our institutions and in each other, that shall last much beyond the current rein of despotism.
1
I appreciate the effort to remind us of the considerable failings of the W administration. But I follow several left-leaning blogs (DailyKos, TMP, C&L). I sure don't see anything in the way of nostalgia for W and Reagan. I know that now that they out of office Michelle Obama is personally showing warmth to W, but does that extend to his legacy? And the claim that the Pygmalions of Palin are most celebrated voices of the Democratic party reads almost like a Trumpian claim (all assertion, no backup). Yes, John McCain was rehabilitated for his recent votes and appreciated on his passing, but, please! The celebrated voices are more of the Harris, O'Rourke, Biden variety, as well all the citizen politicians and their supporters who stepped up and flipped the House.
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We've witnessed monsters hiding behind stoic protocol & diverting our attention while robbing the public treasury blind. This is to say nothing of the destruction of life & estate that under the guise of national security, allows them to operate with impunity.
As egregious as Trump's emoluments & uncivil tone, his predecessors in the Bush administration were far worse.The rash actions taken by that crew will impact the world for years to come.
Maureen tells it like it is.
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In real life politics, it's not either or. These disasters and these disastrous people build on each other and are funded by dark monies financed by even more despicable, extraordinarily wealthy individuals who treat these individuals as bought and paid for puppets. Follow the money.
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How has a fundamental American principal - the exercise of civil discourse about ideology - turned into a vicious daily exchange of name calling in a battle of Good vs. Evil? Trump is certainly an prominent and vulgar example of the decline in civility but the left - in particular certain over zealous NYT columnists - does their best to match him. The result is a feeding frenzy for extremists on both sides, a dearth of actual information, an insurgence of violent behavior, and a permanent barrier to progress. Come to think of it, that pretty much describes Congress. The real question for each member of the press, the government and the public is: Are you going to help turn down the vitriol in the name of progress or are you going to perpetuate it in the name of chaos?
1
@FNL -- show me somebody on the left who made anything like the "Access Hollywood" tape. Show me anyone in public on the left who produces the gibbering, lying narcissistic rants.
Stop the false equivalences, and don't give us the "I don't like his morals but I like his policies" dog-whistle.
@Lee Harrison Thank you for your response. I see you’ve opted for perpetuating chaos. That is your perogative and while I don’t agree, I respect it.
These are the incisive and insightful columns we need from the op-ed writers. First one in a long time that is a topic of real consequence.
3
Not even close - right.
But it's not either/or. It's both/and.
Another way to look at it is in degrees of disgusting. If Max Boot, John Yoo and other NeverTrumpers recognize how bad the orange menace is, that's a good thing.
I have room in my heart to despise all of them.
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If Churchill and FDR could form an alliance with Stalin for the duration of their war perhaps Ms. Dowd can endure joining a common cause with Max Boot and Eliot Cohen until Trump is driven from office.
Plenty of time after that for Ms. Dowd to excommunicate heretics from her one true church of all that is good and right.
4
Too much entertainment, too much rhetoric, Maureen, to make an effective point. Build a case against Cheney or the neocons, but systematically, not just by dropping names and making halfway allusions.
4
Glib, smooth tongued Dick Cheney. Every time I heard him speak I paid attention because I sensed that I was being conned by the best of them. I cannot wait to see this movie. I only hope the other neocons are portrayed as well. The slam dunk intelligence fellow, the Colin Powell who put it over the top at the United Nations, and all the others.
Cheney will tell you today he believes that WMD's existed. Just before Saddam went to the gallows, his American handler asked him why he didn't say he had no WMD's before the invasion. He said: that's what kept people fearing me.
Why did we go in? Calvin Trillin told Charley Rose a great story. After 911 someone had to pay. Iran, Iraq, North Korea, the axis of evil. Iraq was the choice.
6
When were we NOT at war?
We need to take a good look at the American soul.
6
@Robert FL, in this country, dying for your country is considered a bigger deal than living for your country. War mongers, blood thirsty lawmakers.
1
All spot on but the common denominator is the Grand Old Party. In both cases, no one in that party ever called out, or is calling out, an Administration run amok and debasing the republic.
To your point about the anti Trump former neocons like Max Boot, I'm glad you saw the light but where were you when we needed you? Kavanaugh now thinks they should not have been chasing Clinton as they did. Somewhat expedient in my mind. As my friend Chuck used to say, "where you stand depends on where you sit."
day
ns
1
dear maureen, you are so right. there were plenty of people before trump, that took part in the demise of America. they are all silent now. letting trump take the fall. I am not a trump supporter but they all, Bush, Cheney, etc. have blood on their hands. one of the reasons I did not vote for john McCain, was sharah Palin. how could he pick her? it is wall street that runs government. we are pawns in the system. it is theirs.
3
Cheney attacked the world and was just corrupt. Trump is attacking the foundations of America and has no interest in world order. He has no interesst in order of any kind if it doesn't benfit him. Cheney did lots of bad things but the Senate voted for them and carries the burden of the 600,000 dead. When you no longer have a press pass or a paper to write in, who will listen to you? When the Supreme court and Courts in general are "lesser Members" of our government, how will we protest, and to whom? Cheney was part of the old world order. Trump is part of a return to the 1870s where empires ruled and rulers were abslolute and there for life. Think again before being equivalent
2
This column is a useful reminder that Trump is a symptom, not the cause, of the depravity in our politics. Republicans have been sowing these seeds for years – how many went on record denouncing birtherism or the lying that lead us to war? Or the tax cut/trickle down economic nonsense that caused the crash? Treating him as an aberration, as some Republicans seem to want to, is fundamentally dishonest. The more troubling question is why/how he retains the support of 40%+ of American voters?
6
The most important point here is that the "insidious destruction of democracy" is working. It is far past time that the American experiment in "democracy" be given its final death blows and a deep burial.
Democracy is a sham and a scam.
President Trump is the right man in the right place at the right time to lead America in the pursuit of one-man rule over one country.
1
Ms Dowd of course wants to not look into a mirror. Her having something, whatever it is, against the Clinton's did not help to get Hillary elected and in the process leaves us with Trump, instead she bemoans about liberal outlets bringing in W and Cheney's toadies to offer their opinions, that at least should tell you how bad the current administration is.
We all knew what Cheney was about, I have told my wife for years that Cheney is on of the most evil men I have ever seen, the Darth Vader of the US, without any redemption coming. My lasting memory of Cheney will be him, feet up in his office, watching 9/11 unfold and planning in that moment how he could make a fortune for himself and his cronies at Haliburton.
The part not spoken about is how Cheney got in there. He is picked to find a VP for W and then picked himself, in that moment I knew W would be a disaster, any somewhat bright individual would have said thanks and gone to someone else. You also have to remember the missteps of the Democrats, Al Gore made so many mistakes ( How do you lose NH and your home state? How do you not demand Bill Clinton assist you in the campaign in the last days?) and was so uninspiring. John Kerry? Another uninspiring candidate, I held my nose voting for him. Of course they led us into a war, of course they destroyed the economy, Republicans have a great habit for that, but please remember who was running and what the choices were.
2
Here is a solution. Mandatory military service. It is the only thing that will stop us from the grim reality of thinking about who does the dying. Too selfish to do what is good for us in the long run, often yielded what you write about. Americans just need to grow up. It is the lure of escaping responsibility while preserving your "rights" that is a false choice. The rest is commentary.
3
A few months ago I was sitting in a doctors waiting room, watching the Today Show, with co-host Jenna Bush Hager. One of her guests was her mom, Laura Bush. As I sat there watching them smiling and laughing and doing small talk, all I could think of was that for years I’ve considered George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to be war criminals. Images flashed back and forth in my mind between the innocent gaiety on the screen and the miserable “shock and awe” that killed thousands of ordinary Iraqi civilians and turned their neighborhoods into a nightmare....for years. Among our troops, 4400 were killed and 32,000 were wounded. Cheney thought that once the war started we would be “greeted as liberators”. When he finally left office, his approval rating was 13%. Cheney should be working tirelessly, and expending his fortune, to aide the thousands of grievously injured soldiers....seriously burned, multiple amputees, TBI, etc etc. Instead, he’s probably fly fishing near his home in Wyoming.
6
Cheney or Trump? It's not either/or . . . or even that. It's both and all those who worked for and under them. And when you consider what ALL OF THEM have done--if you can or dare--you have to ask, what is the meaning of "patriotism" or is it even a meaningful question?
2
Don't forget their ideas to run up deficits in order to have an excuse to permanently downsize the federal government and what it provides. Bush was pretty trusting of his dad's former associates working in his administration during his first term and not that diabolical, without being in the room to hear where the idea came from, I would speculate it likely came from Cheney.
3
How is it Dowd's fellow NYT columnists Bret Stephens and David Brooks never get mentioned in this catalog of malefactors? Both were enthusiastic proponents of the Iraq and Afghanistan fiascoes, defended "Enhanced interrogation" and covered for the Bush administration in various ways like the Scooter Libby matter.
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@John maybe because they're journalists (offering opinions) and not politicians (wielding actual power)?
2
@John I would like to recall the worst column that David Brooks ever wrote. He argued that those who opposed the war were motivated by anti-semitism. There has never been an apology from this doyen of civility.
3
@Bill Clarke
Boot is Journalist. Maybe you didn't know that?
1
Politics makes for strange bedfellows. When you are at the barricades, allies willing to help build the defense are welcome.
I have not forgotten , or forgiven, the Republican Party for their leaders’ incompetence leading to 9/11, their lies leading to the immoral invasion of Iraq, their misfeasance and active corruption in the handling of the Iraq Occupation, and their lack of oversight and regulation that led to the Great Recession.
That some of their architects and promoters are now horrified at Trump’s rampaging and pillaging makes me hopeful and grateful. People can change. And I am willing to allow for that while, at the same time, watching for their recidivism..
But we cannot exchange the overt and crude malevolence for the crafty and cruel. Accept help from any quarter but keep an eye on the rearward.
27
It is a crime that we have not prosecuted our war criminals.
When the subject came up President Obama lamely said that his administration was looking forward, not back.
Our history, the reality of our past deeds and misdeeds, exists and constitutes part of what we are in the present and what we will be in the future.
We cannot change the past but we can accept responsibility. By accepting responsibility we can reduce the likelihood that mistakes and crimes will be repeated.
Western civilization has developed methods and procedures for evaluating criminal behavior and for imposing penalties. It's called the rule of law. Until we bring the most egregious criminals to justice we are complicit in their crimes.
We are diminished by our toleration of criminality. We are made great by demanding and struggling for justice.
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@Steve M -- Worse, they keep doing it. The remain near power, and creep back in, and do it again.
17
@Steve M : Obama signed on pretty quick.....like before he took the oath of office perhaps? I'm sure the first visit the President Elect receives takes place in a small dark room with a few goodfellas named Darth, Manny, Bubba and Guido, amongst others. Perhaps Dick also. There, his future presidential record is born.
Nothing has changed in my lifetime, (NOTHING!) and I grew up during the Vietnam Period.
4
I'll always remember the lapdog US media coverage in the run up to the Iraq War. It was in stark contrast to how news was reported here in Canada and in the UK. At the time I wrote to CNBC to protest their lack of attention to matters such as the IAEA position and inspectors. Ironically, I discovered that the show which especially offended me for its cheerleader antics was run behind the scenes by a fellow Canadian. That's why Canadians need to be careful in pointing to US problems.
15
@Charles - and the same can be said about the run up to the 2016 election. The lapdog media practically handed the election to Trump who is an unwittingly master of media manipulation, like an unsophisticated version of Ronald Reagan, and the Fox/Rush/Beck de-educated audience lapped it up, and still does.
3
Never forget. Judith Miller.
1
I hate to bring up Hillary Clinton two years after the election, but in this context it is only fair to mention her support for the disastrous intervention in Libia as Secretary of State and push for greater intervention in Syria during the presidential campaign. One area Trump got right was a reluctance to get involved in yet another Middle East war.
10
@Woody
So why are we still in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and providing assistance covertly in Yemen?
Why did Trump hire Bellicose Bolton, one of Chief Neocons?
36
Let go of Clinton, she lost the election.
Trump won and he made no changes in a disastrous policy and is upping the anti and rhetoric against other countries like Iran and our allies.
3
I just finished reading Craig Unger's well-researched book "House of Bush, House of Saud," which, in the light of today's politics serves as essential background. The level of corruption, treasonous allegiance to a foreign power at the expense of US citizens, and lying, that underlay administrations of Bush, father and son, almost makes one grateful to Trump for at least being open about his motivations. The history of the past quarter century must not fade into oblivion. We have a lot of educating to do. Thank you for this editorial.
33
Thanks again, Ms Dowd!
Are not indissolubly linked both sides of the American way of life, the Cheney's and the McKay's?
The interpreter of the unique world power with no check, domestic or foreign, showing the unbridled capacity of violence and killing and the conscience of the other side of the American civilization made of peaceful progress and human rights defense.
Those two aspects are still there and at work, I fear.
3
At last a good chunk of the country is informed and awakened and can see the bitter truth about our policies and the power-hungry, money-hungry "leaders" who brought us here. I would estimate the awakened are about 30% of the country. Another 40% of the country is brainwashed into defending these psycho policies because of party loyalty and what they call patriotism. The remaining 30% of the country is clueless or just does not want to care. Where can we go from here? What is sorely needed is a great leader(s) who can inspire and facilitate a new way forward. Sadly, I strongly suspect such leaders will only emerge as electable after a huge economic, social, and/or political crisis. Even more sadly, I strongly suspect that is exactly where we are headed.
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@E Holland
I believe that your estimate of the awakened as being about 30% of the country is optimistic. It of course depends on the definition of awakened. I would exclude from that group people who aren't willing to keep a global idea of what the world needs.
3
Bless you, Mo. Bless you for paying attention, for remembering, and for reminding all of us. You're so right on.
24
Ever since grabbing Florida, the Mexican American War, the Spanish American War, the decimation of Native Americans, America’s moral authority has been in question. We can easily look back at any time in this nation’s past to find a lack of moral judgment. Yes, we were lied to by Bush’s people, and Reagan and Nixon, but dealing with the current threat to our national morality and continuing existence is crucial. Those who don’t learn from history are.... everyone; we need to deal with today’s demon.
23
Let's not forget that Liz Cheney, Wyoming's sole member of Congress, is following in her father's footsteps. She's a big fan of Trump and about the enter the ranks of GOP leadership.
33
Let's not forget the dynamic duo of Nixon/Kissinger, who, sentenced thousands of young men and women to their deaths in Vietnam so they could advance their political agenda.
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@ACJ
As despicable as Nixon/Kissinger were it seems unfairly partisan to not mention that Kennedy took the first steps getting us into Vietnam.
Johnson took the giant leap into the abyss.
@Steve M The people considering Kissinger a monster (myself included) don't hold him responsible for getting into Vietnam, but we do hold him responsible for extending it for years and into 2 different countries knowing full well that it could not be won, all to prevent LBJ from announcing a negotiated peace right before the 1968 election. The bombing of Cambodia alone should have sent him to the Hague for war crimes tribunals.
And then there's what he did to Chile.
2
I wish Maureen had drawn the contrast even more starkly:
while both forms of mass murder are indicative of moral insanity -
the shooters we see at home are motivated by hatred growing out of their twisted personal lives -
while the crime of war, with its destruction and killing and theft and lying on such a vast scale, is organized within our power structures, and led by men and women, motivated by an all-pervading lust for wealth and power - and enabled by the gigantic lies about "nationalism" and "defense" and "sacrifice to maintain our freedoms" which reach a fever pitch on this day, November 11 - and also in our spring and summer holidays in honor of war, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. We should give winter a holiday in honor of war as well - how about My Soldier Valentine's Day?
8
Actually, I think is worse by historical accident. Chaney didn't get to remake the judiciary in his own image, which creates long-lasting damage. And Chaney didn't use the domestic race card to get things done. The hate and insecurity that Trump has created/fostered will be with us for a very long time, maybe generations.
18
Thank you for this. Everything you've written here is true, and necessary. We must all remember, remember, remember and vote, vote, vote.
9
@Sara
More than that we must figure out a way to improve the system.
The GOP simply wants to rule, not govern. Chaney was the old school GOP model, Trump represents the new and improved version. But at their core they are simply the same thing, rich old white men who will say and do anything to further their self interests.
29
Maureen, that has been the issue with so many of us. If the American public can be duped into voting for a maniac like Trump, how are we to expect our countrymen to be suffisticated enough to reject the allure of a truly gifted political psychopath. Consider the damage Trump has already unleashed against what a more skilled politician with the same demagogic instincts would have wrought.
Although I am heartened by the election and the reaction of a huge portion of the electorate, I am still wary of the always Trumpers and their susceptibility to a future "whisperer".
8
And the pious Justice Roberts wrapping the constitution corporations.
8
Excellent piece. The damage inflicted by Trump is deep and will take decades to comprehend. The number of lives lost and disrupted due to Cheney's war is quantifiable. Compared to villainous acts of Cheney, Trump comes across as that of a joker, although with grievously cruel impact.
21