Buzzflash has an interesting interview with Dr. Justin A. Frank, the author of Bush on the Couch. Here is the part where Dr. Frank says Cheney would be preferable to Bush.
BuzzFlash: To a higher father, meaning God. Is part of his delusional state that he believes that, indeed, God is talking to him, and he is speaking for God, acting for God?
Justin A. Frank, M.D.: It’s hard to know. But I do think, from all the evidence, that is the case — that he does feel bolstered by his attachment to God. He is both able to use God to defeat his father, because he really can’t stand his father, and at the same time, use God to bolster his world view. He has this amazing sense of connection. Whether he hears voices or talks to God, I have no idea. But very few things about this person would surprise me in this way.
I wanted to go back to your statement earlier, though, about democracy. What do we do, and how do we think about the fact that we have a President who is functioning in what is supposed to be a democracy. That opens a whole can of worms which is beyond my ken as a psychoanalyst. But I would have to say that on December 12, 2000, he was appointed to serve as President, not elected. So, in that sense, democracy was never clearly an issue in this country, ever since that fateful day, December 12th, when the Supreme Court handed down their decision.
But I think the only way to deal with somebody who is this embattled and this delusional is to invoke the 25th Amendment. It’s so ironic that it was only used once, and that was when Gerald Ford became President and Nixon was forced out because he resigned.
BuzzFlash: But then we have Cheney.
Justin A. Frank, M.D.: The way the Republicans did it in ’73 was, they got rid of Agnew first, and they made sure that the person who would be the Vice President would be somebody who would be acceptable to both sides of the aisle. Maybe they should threaten to impeach Cheney first or something, and make Bush appoint somebody else. I’d rather have Cheney than Bush.
BuzzFlash: Why is that? Many people would disagree with you.
Justin A. Frank, M.D.: A lot of people would disagree with me. I really think that Bush is not competent to be President. He is unconsciously destructive. He is out of touch with his cruelty. He is unable to think clearly when presented with new information. He cannot do it. He cannot read. He cannot pay attention to the Baker-Hamilton Report. He never looked at that report. He looked at the opening title, about a new way forward or something, and that’s what he’s been using as his slogan now. He is not able to process information.
I think Cheney, as much as he is malevolent and destructive and greedy and self-interested as an oil executive and wants absolute power, he’s out front about it. I think that he would have to negotiate in a way that’s different because he can’t not think, whereas Bush doesn’t think.
BuzzFlash: It would certainly bring Cheney out of the shadows and make him accountable. Is that what you’re saying?
Justin A. Frank, M.D.: Yes.
I am going to have to think about this for a while. What do you think?
I do not know that Dr Frank is right on cheney. I think we have to get rid of both of these nitwits. However, he has coward dubya pegged just right. Cheney is just as bad if not worse than coward dubya. I think if we got rid of cheney, coward dubya will have to hunt hard for anew father figure.
Fuck no, Cheney is NOT better than Bush.
Cheney is the puppeteer. Cheney is running this show. Bush may be all what Dr. Frank says, but Cheney has balls of steel and he would finish where Bush would leave off. Talk about triumph of the will? Bad ticker or no, he would lurch us beyond the abyss.
What did Ford say about Cheney and Rummy? That they had gotten too power mad for their own good.
Frank had better start putting together a psycho study on Dick Cheney. I think he has the makings of a Heydrich.
But the picture of Bush she holds out is truly terrifyingly disconnected. What would have happened if the repubs hadn’t enabled this troup of clowns? I think Bush would have fallen apart quickly and would never have been reelected/elected/boosted into the office 2004. I think the scales would have fallen a lot sooner. Now we see that the incumbent repubs were saving themselves. But still, what if? The amazing thing about Bushco was the glue that held everybody together. It wasn’t Bush that has the ability to wield the glue gun, so how did it happen? Maybe the tenacity and utter meanness of the guys in the A team? Maybe everyone else was just as terrified as the dems?
Your comment gives me a new perspective into the Third Reich, Soviet Russia, etc. as well as BushCo. Members of the party machine have such a high investment (on any number of levels) in the Great Leader that they can’t support pulling the plug even if they realize he’s a raving loonie because they have too much to lose. It has less to do with “turning a blind eye” to crimes against humanity than with fear of losing one’s power, status, money. They may be fully aware of who and what their leader is, and consider themselves trapped, unable to do anything.
John McCain may be a perfect example of this closer to home.
Lack of a spine will do that to you.
two guys that sold their soul to the devil for what? What are they getting? Colin is trying to get it back a piece at a time, but it isn’t working. McCain figures he has been selling his piece-meal but now needs to go wholesale to get the prize of presnity. But he can’t get it (or at least I hope he can’t get it!)
Cheney would nuke Iran the first chance he got. Bad idea.
Impeach them both.
Well in the end I think it is better to have a President that is not that interested in being President besides from having the formal title of being the commander-in-chief than having a man that thinks he is all-powerful, so grandiose that he even might contemplate the total destruction of certain countries with or without the “grace” of God. His destructive potential is much greater because he would contemplate such deeds on a rational basis and might even convince others of the quality of his plan.
I have to say I am in agreement with Steven here.
I don’t think the idea that Cheney would be “better than Bush” is necessarily the relevant perspective. To me, if Bush the Imbecile was out of service and Cheney was officially the main man, Cheney himself would then be less able to do as much damage as he does now as VP, because Cheney’s main advantage now is that he’s not in the spotlight in the center ring of the circus. As VP he’s able to work behind the scenes almost exclusively, he’s never held directly accountable because he’s only the #2 guy, and, he has a chief executive (Bush) who will take all the blame for his (Cheney’s) machinations.
If Cheney were #1 he just wouldn’t be able to get away with as much.
This is an excellent point. Even the Republican party would be more likely to oppose a President Cheney: No status with the talibaptists, and Wall Street would expect him to know better than to run up the deficit so high. Precisely because he’s known NOT to be an idiot, removing his fig leaf Bush would prevent him from acting like one.
The question then becomes would he tell everyone to “go Cheney themselves,” and if so would there be support (not to mention time) for a second impeachment?
Lack of time for Cheney to establish enough new crimes on his own official record to convince a majority needed for impeachment to do so would probably allow him to run out the clock before the 2008 election.
The horror – the horror!
Cheney being accountable is a silly fantasy. I still dream of Fitzgerald putting him away.
I think John Dean’s right: impeach Gonzales, maybe Bybee as well; go for the low hanging fruit with hearings in Feb/March and bring all of the torture crap out into the open. At that point, regroup and figure out where to go next (having some targets already in sight).
[Holding hands up as scales] Lets see now…
nut who thinks God TALKS to him
~versus~
nut who thinks he IS God.
Hmmm….
In general it seems to me that the good doctor has an interesting point. We already have the country being run by our very own Wormtongue, so the policy wouldn’t really change. But we would be able to see it a little more clearly, and that would probably make more people resist it.
Like Brian Boru, I think there’s a lot to be said for John Dean’s method of attack. It would be much easier to convict lower-level officials at first, and then follow that.
It’ll be particularly interesting to see where Sen. “Go Fuck Yourself” Leahy, incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee, decides to go with his attempt to read the documents that justified the torture initiative. I read today that the administration has refused his request, so now he has to decide on subpoenas.
Anyway, you know what they say about keeping your enemies close. We could at least keep a better watch on Big Time if he were Prez. Plus, realistically, how long is he likely to last in the spotlight?
What do you think?
I think that when the selection of the most powerful man in the world is based on his ability to read and the fact that he (apparently) does not believe God is talking to him this indicates a degree of dysfunctionality, incompetence and cultural degeneration which isn’t the fault of one man or one political party. This is a shocking and unprecedented failure and a failure of all major institutions.