I recommend Joan Didion's article on Big Dick Cheney in the current NYRB* as a subtle portrait of an amoral power-broker working behind the scenes. In her novels and non-fiction Didion specializes in such folk; Cheney and his ilk are no problem for her.
Can't comment much further. US politics is so disgusting a topic and our politicians so hapless or corrupt now that I try to avoid the subject as much as possible, lest I be driven mad.
I will say I'm glad to see that nauseating smarmy ass George Allen in the shitter. That motherfucker would be wearing a sheet publicly if he could, and has been a master at veiled racist signals of the sort that since Nixon have allowed Republicans to creep into red-state dominance. Now that Allen's had to reluctantly acknowledge his Jewish heritage to a Southern good-old-boy network of supporters who regard anything beyond the lilly-white as anathema, I'm amused to see conservative blow-hards like Dave Frum accuse the LEFT of anti-semitism in order to spin this to their advantage. When Allen was first asked publicly about his Jewish heritage, he reacted as though it was a devious insinuation and disparaging to his character; shortly thereafter he did an about-face and claimed ignorance of his origins, before finally coming to the conclusion that he was proud of his diverse background.
Just think--last year Sen. Allen was considered the likely 2008 Republican nominee. Now he's got to rehabilitate himself. Perhaps he can go sit on Trent Lott's porch with W. (whenever it gets rebuilt).
*I'm such a dork that upon the arrival of each issue of the NYRB I get all woozy with pleasurable anticipation.
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