Sensitive thugs, ya'll all need hugs

That Politco interview is pretty amazing. Cheney has cultivated an image as cold-hearted, single-minded, and unconcerned about the opinions of others. But what I see in that interview is the ramblings of a thin-skinned politician who's upset that he left office with the some of the worst approval numbers in history.

The interview, less than two weeks after the Bush administration ceded power to Obama, found the man who is arguably the most controversial -- and almost surely the most influential -- vice president in U.S. history in a self-vindicating mood. 

He expressed confidence that files will some day be publicly accessible offering specific evidence that waterboarding and other policies he promoted -- over sharp internal dissent from colleagues and harsh public criticism -- were directly responsible for averting new Sept. 11-style attacks. 

Not content to wait for a historical verdict, Cheney said he is set to plunge into his own memoirs, feeling liberated to describe behind-the-scenes roles over several decades in government now that the "statute of limitations has expired" on many of the most sensitive episodes.

A man who knows he's right about something this serious, who truly has faith that history will vindicate him, who really doesn't care what other think (remember that "So?" moment) doesn't need to take to the papers barely a few weeks out of office. His conscience is clear in knowing that he did all that he could do, not simply to protect American lives, but to protect the American way of life. I'm not talking about gas-guzzlers and credit cards, but liberty and happiness. That man doesn't try to rehab his image. He knows that this country is freer and safer now, than it was when he came in. That man is secure in himself.

But that man isn't Dick Cheney, and perhaps nothing has made me more thankful to live in a democracy than the past eight years. I have no doubt that if we lived somewhere else, Dick Cheney would go Mobutu. Thank God, he doesn't have that option here.