\u201c\u2026(F)or the past six years, Dick Cheney, the occupant of what John Adams called \u2018the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived,\u2019 has been the most influential public official in the country, not necessarily excluding President Bush, and his influence has been entirely malign. He is pathologically (but purposefully) secretive; treacherous toward colleagues; coldly manipulative of the callow, lazy, and ignorant President he serves; contemptuous of public opinion; and dismissive not only of international law (a fairly standard attitude for conservatives of his stripe) but also of the very idea that the Constitution and laws of the United States, including laws signed by his nominal superior, can be construed to limit the power of the executive to take any action that can plausibly be classified as part of an endless, endlessly expandable \u2018war on terror.'\u201d<\/div>\n
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<\/a>In two devastating and frightening sentences, Hendrik Hertzberg\u2019s most recent contribution to the New Yorker\u2019s<\/em> \u201cTalk of the Town,\u201d reflects on a Washington Post <\/em>series by Barton Gellman and Jo Becker as well as the work of the New Yorker\u2019s<\/em> Jane Mayer, and summarizes what we are stuck with, its irony, and its horror.<\/p>\n