Ineffectual Black People: Dick Cheney Edition

Dick Hardens Toward Condi

Dick Cheney, who we used to respect for his competent toughness, has been out pushing his new book In My Time, and trashing Colin Powell and Condozleeza Rice along the way. Among other roles, they served as the 65th and 66th Secretaries of State under George Bush. The were often the voices of moderation in the (Bush) administration, pushing for broader, non-military engagement in places like Iraq. That set them at odds from people like Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld who were relatively sure that all the correct answers to world difficulties were inside their own noggins. Today both Powell and Rice would be considered "RINO's", or Republican In Name Only, by the activists in Republican and conservative circles.

It is no surprise that they have come under attack at the precise moment when conservatives are attempting to lay blame for everything wrong at the feet of Obama. Republicans are scrambling for the control of the American mental narrative at a point in time where they don't have the power to force their own policy initiatives. The process is in part a retroactive one, where you calibrate history according to your own best light. Dick Cheney is doing this, with Powell and Rice being collateral damage.

Cheney has unkind words for both, as well as for President Obama, and we can only wonder what the defining thread between all three individuals is that makes each worthy of being undermined. In a Fox News interview he suggests that Obama's Secretary of State, the once hated-by-conservatives Hillary Clinton, would be able to work with Republicans and should consider a run in 2012.  But much of the attention has focused on his characterizations of Powell and Rice.

Meanwhile, Cheney defended his account of the Bush administration from his new memoir, "In My Time." Cheney criticized several Bush administration officials in his book, including former secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice -- both of whom have taken umbrage at Cheney's account.  

Cheney, responding specifically to Powell's recent comment that Cheney just fired "cheap shots" at his former colleagues, said he takes nothing back. 

(Fox)

In addition to seeing everyone on the right playing by the same script in using every moment and event to question Obama's worthiness and leadership, we also see a willingness to degrade black authority and independence across the political spectrum. That is, a Condi or Colin is worthy of respect to the extent they are useful, and to the extent they are not coming into conflict with the nearest true authority. The  minute any independence of thought is exercised, then the smack down begins. Which is why the most respected black authorities whose achievements are well defined happen to be pretty much dead.

Obama is getting the hard slam because there are are components of what he is doing that would in a short time reshape the political landscape. What you can't have is the benefits of health care reform kicking in  at the same time that more Hispanics come into political arena, and at the same time that the economy is finally ready to revive, and at the same time the wars and adventures have come to an end. Obama's success in policy will bear fruit, so expediency dictates that you chop the tree down now, lest the Democratic Party does the harvesting down the road.