Wetteland Responds to Cheney, Vietnam Post
John Wetteland is formulating his complete response to the Vietnam post about him below, in which one of the comments was, “War is hell. It forces you to get a haircut and causes you [to] become sarcastic, apparently.” He wanted me to let you know that he was already sarcastic before he went over to Vietnam, and a haircut grows back. War is a little more complex than that.
I suggested to him that Cheney had spent some time with the writers coming up with some tough guy lines for the interview: “I was the man who pulled the trigger”, for example, which made the headline of the USA Today. That sounds a lot better than, “I was the fat clown who screwed this up.”
Wetteland suggested another possible tough guy thing Cheney might have said, “Anybody can shoot their enemy. It takes real guts to shoot your friend.”
As for the Oregonian’s fawning editorial about how the Cheney jokes were funny, but it’s time to move on? Once again, their editorial board has shown no grasp of reality. 1.) No one cares if the Oregonian thinks it’s time to move on. They set themselves up as the moral compass of their sphere of influence, and that’s just ridiculous. 2.) There will be Cheney-hunting jokes long after we are all dead. It is now a permanent part of American history. If you suddenly hear no mention of this again, you will know the Oregonian was right. It really did have the pulse of the people. Maybe the word went out across the land, “The Oregonian says it’s time to stop. Thank God they are there to guide us!” However if you hear a Cheney joke in the future – even in Republican speeches – you will know I was right. That fawning editorial made me embarrassed ever to have been in the newspaper business. Dick Cheney has been through a lot this week. He doesn’t need a case of sore nipples.
posted by Bill McDonald @ 9:54 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I think you misperceive the notion of an Editorial Board. Setting itself up as the region's moral authority is part of the job description.
Ideally, the Editorial Board blends diversity of background and viewpoint with the experience of age and a long understanding of the region's history. We don't, unfortunately, have that here.
Today's Oregonian editorial on the Cheney hunting accident was both right and wrong. They are correct in saying that there's really nothing there. This isn't an impeachable offense. It was a hunting accident, that's it.
BUT ... the Dead Eye Dick story, as noted elsewhere here, has resonated because it's a prime example of the way these guys have been playing by their own rules for years. It reflects the Bush Administration's complete moral vacancy in a way that anyone can understand.
So they're right: It's not a big story. And they're wrong, because they don't understand what a metaphor this story is.
I just think this particular group sounds a little ridiculous pontificating about going easy on Cheney.
Maybe they'll call the Iraq War an affair too if you get my drift.
Given that their job is to make these calls they should be more skillful at it. It's one thing to play to conservatives, but given Cheney's misuse of newspapers to help market the phony reasons for war, you'd think they'd be a little more reluctant to carry water for him on this, especially since it is such a great metpahor for our reckless foreign policy.
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