Yet another column and Cheney bias

I've been buried with work and other things lately, but here's my take on this whole Cheney shooting thing.

Late in the week, media outlets were continuously stating that "questions persist" about the incident. Given the fact that they are the ones asking the persistent questions, this should be no surprise.

And a perfect example of this is Newsweek and Evan Thomas.

But the shooting incident once again drew attention to the unusual nature of Cheney's power. He remains by far the most powerful vice president in history, and one of the most secretive and mysterious public officials to ever hold such high office in America. He is caricatured as a Darth Vader, spooky, above the law; nefarious.

Yep. Caricatured by the media.

Has he been transformed, warped, perhaps corrupted—by stress, wealth, aging, illness, the real terrors of the world or possibly some inner goblins?

"Perhaps corrupted"??? - that sounds real fair and balanced, doesn't it? The story from Thomas is long, and full of more speculation and Beltway gossip than facts.

Guessing at the causes of his darkening persona is a favorite Washington pastime. A widely held theory is that Cheney, 65, was affected by heart surgery (he has had four heart attacks, angioplasty, a quadruple bypass and a pacemaker). It is true that heart patients sometimes undergo mood or even personality changes, but there is no solid evidence in Cheney's case.

No, but since Thomas writes for a major news organ, he tosses these charges around as if they were true. I'm still trying to figure out which organ he represents...probably the one that produces bile.

But please keep in mind the author's family history while looking for a motive to this bias...his grandpa was a very famous man...

"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."

-- Norman Thomas, Socialist Party Presidential Candidate in 1940, 1944 and 1948, co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).