Vice-President For Torture, Ctd

A reader writes:

Reading the second installment from Gellman last night through me into a tremendous depression. Cheney probably can't be effectively checked.  He has an intellectual midget as his president, who trusts him to deal with all those questions which are simply too difficult. Anyway, he'd rather be out riding his mountain bike. Cheney is undermining all the key institutions of the country, and he's made a mockery of the rule of law tradition. He has shown that there is only one branch of government that matters - the executive - that it has the power. And he has shown that secret government - secret postures even within the government - work; that it can be used to silence opposition and impose a firmly shaped political will. The legislative branch is spineless and ineffectual, and the judiciary can be filled with enough straw men to eliminate any serious threat. And when it raises up its head, well, just ignore it.

The public reaction here should be outrage, but that's not happening. Outrage, apparently, is reserved for Paris Hilton. My faith in our country and its system have been shaken. Dick Cheney did it.

In the end, the American people have done it to themselves.