Line of the Day

The Line of the Day for Saturday, 3 September 2011 comes from Paul Gigot’s excellent review of Dick Cheney’s memoir In My Time in The Wall Street Journal. It’s a positive but also a measured review, dispensing local criticisms that temper but do not discount the encompassing admiration. The demonization of Dick Cheney was something wondrous to behold. A mild, upright, patriotic, intelligent man — someone you would have looked up to as a kid had he lived in your neighborhood, someone who would have been a pillar of the community, a fair but demanding father and boss: that was Dick Cheney until 9/11 and the War on Terror. It was then that the demonization really took off, though I have to say I always found it inexplicable (or, rather, I found it preposterous: I could understand, but never agree with the hysteria). So I am grateful that Paul Gigot cut to the chase and got to the nub of the issue with his conclusion: “Americans are safer because Dick Cheney was willing to be hated by all the right people.” That’s it folks. The Maureen Dowds may love to hate him, but they are safe in their offices and homes because of the national security efforts he helped craft and, in the face of unremittingly hostile criticism, maintain.