WHY DICK CHENEY?

    I saw Dick Cheney on TV last night (10/20). He was being interviewed on 60 Minutes by Dr. Sanjay Gupta. If you watch 60 Minutes, you're old enough to remember Mr. Cheney, the rest of the audience may need some help. Dick Cheney was a blight on our government for thirty years. The last eight of which he served as Vice-President to George W. Bush, a position akin to being wife to Michael Jackson: necessary, but not in the way that you think.

     The interview covered his longevity in life as well as politics. Indeed, his medical history is so unusual that he's co-written a book about it with his cardiologist. (A book whose public-ation - surprise - coincides with his appearance on 60 Minutes.) Dick Cheney has survived five heart attacks, a quadruple bypass, arterial stents, balloon angioplasty, a pacemaker, a left-ventricular assist device, two vascular procedures on his legs and a heart transplant. This man has more zippers than a motorcycle jacket. If you want to know the secret of Cheney's longevity or the significance of his survival, look somewhere else. What you get is Dr. Gupta fanning some weak flames about the Vice-President's fitness to govern while fighting severe heart disease. What he, in turn, gets is the familiar cobra stare and soft, unmodulated voice that Cheney uses to express disdain.

     What I don't understand is: why Dick Cheney? Why should this man, of all people, benefit from decades worth of advances in medicine? You don't have to know him to be outraged. He is such a malign presence that it's obvious from a short interview. Look at the way he uses the reporter's first name to belittle instead of bond. Then there's his eagerness to take credit for "enhanced interrogation techniques" - more commonly known as torture. Specifically, "waterboarding." He even refers to himself as "Darth Vader." Not mockingly, either. This is not a man who reflects. Nor does he engage in reassessment or regret. Lying to get us into war, war as an excuse for torture, torture as a form of national security, Dick Cheney dares you to make him feel guilty. You can't because he can't. He has no inner life.

     Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge Mr. Cheney - or anyone - their medical care. I leave that to the Tea Party. What bothers me is the vast amounts of expensive, high-quality medical resources that could have been better used. The boundless amounts of sheer luck that - ideally - should have been shared. The question remains: why Dick Cheney? There were nicer people with heart disease who deserved longer lives.