The Penguin Versus The Joker

The Batman villains who have been running the country for the last eight years didn't even make it 48 hours before turning on each other. Seems ol' Cheney is leading the way on the brigade of folks who tossed Bush under the wheelchair on Dubya's failure to pardon Scooter Libby.

George W. Bush was widely expected to grant a large number of pardons during his final days in office, but almost none were forthcoming. The non-pardon of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby for his role in revealing the identity of former CIA officer Valerie Plame may prove to be be the most controversial of these omissions -- at least if former Vice President Dick Cheney and his supporters have anything to say in the matter.

According to conservative columnist and Cheney biographer Stephen F. Hayes, writing in the Weekly Standard, "Bush's decision not to pardon Libby has angered many of the president's strongest defenders. One Libby sympathizer, a longtime defender of Bush, told friends she was 'disgusted' by the president. Another described Bush as 'dishonorable' and a third suggested that refusing to pardon Libby was akin to leaving a soldier on the battlefield."

Hayes quotes Cheney himself as saying, "Scooter Libby is one of the most capable and honorable men I've ever known. He's been an outstanding public servant throughout his career. He was the victim of a serious miscarriage of justice, and I strongly believe that he deserved a presidential pardon. Obviously, I disagree with President Bush's decision."

For this article to come out in the Weekly Standard this quickly after Bush having left office, quoting multiple Republican sources who think Bush has failed and those sources including Dick Cheney, goes to show you just how weak and disorganized the GOP is right now at the top.

The GOP has no real leadership right now. There's nobody to put the brakes on this kind of circular firing squad, and this article proves it. They are lost in the wilderness, everyone fending for themselves. In a sense that's bad for the country, nothing has changed with my insistence that America needs a healthy and productive loyal opposition that produces intelligent and much-needed dissent. Just because Obama and the Democrats are now in charge doesn't mean dissent is no longer needed. Federal power must always be checked.

But the dissent coming out of the GOP at this point is anything but intelligent and useful dissent, it's partisan backbiting and useless obstructionism.

Eventually the GOP will have to find a leader. But to find a leader, they have to find a direction, and right now everyone has their own compass and map and is trying to sabotage everyone else like a season's worth of Survivor. It's telling that without Bush/Cheney calling the shots, the GOP can no longer think for itself and adapt...but that's what happens when all you have to offer is jingoistic platitudes based on knee-jerk reactionary obstructionism over an eight year period.

The Know-Nothing party lacks the critical thinking skills to adapt. Who woulda thunk it?