obituaries

Trickier Dick Departs

Submitted by editor on Sat, 03/28/2009 - 18:25.
in

cheneygun_thumb.jpgRichard Bruce "Dick" Cheney
January 30, 1941 - Late yesterday afternoon

Principle is OK up to a certain point, but principle doesn't do you any good if you lose,” Dick Cheney, first appointed to office by Richard Nixon, told journalist Tim Russert in 1976. And it could be argued that until his 8th and final heart attack late yesterday afternoon at his Wyoming ranch, Dick Cheney never did truly lose, despite bringing scandal, ethics investigations, and eventual doom to just about every administration he worked for. By demonstrating his loyalty to an aggressive and frequently extra-legal realpolitik intentionally divorced from the realm of ethics--and getting away with it--this avid chili lover, “stump” of a high school football player from Wyoming, who dropped out of Yale, was twice nabbed for drunk driving, and who shot rabbits, birds, a hunting partner, and other animals in his free time, became a grimacingly enduring icon of American business and politics.

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