Dick Cheney’s Fingerprints
A modus operandi is a fancy Latin term for a ‘habitual method of procedure’ and Dick Cheney’s methods during his terms as Vice President have become so habitual as to become virtual fingerprints.
It’s inspiring to see a national vice-leader so committed to an idealism, no matter that the ideals are not borne out by actual facts. But it’s charming. Gutsy, as well.
I had a grandfather like that and he carried a burning faith in his own infallibility through the wreckage of his five daughters’ lives, the destruction of his small-town Iowa reputation and, finally, his doctors’ advice on matters of health. The last infallibility killed him, but not until the reasonably old age of 78. He was, to everyone but his daughters, charming. He charmed me, as a ten-year-old.
And so it is with Cheney, who probably charms his own grandchildren. Steadfastly predicting our invading forces in Iraq would be greeted with flowers in the streets and, as recently as last May, declaring the insurgency to be in i…