Sunday, April 24, 2005

The New York Times > Opinion > Maureen Dowd: Uncle Dick and Papa

This morning as we drove to our Incline Club run on the Intemann Trail we listened to NPR's "On the Media" and an interview with Maureen Dowd as she talked about this commentary on Cheney and the Pope. I laughed and laughed. She has them nailed.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Uncle Dick and Papa: "It was a move so smooth and bold, accomplished with such backstage bureaucratic finesse, that it was worthy of Dick Cheney himself.

The imminence grise who had long whispered in the ear of power and who had helped oversee the selection process ended up selecting himself. In Cheneyesque fashion, he searched far and wide for a pope by looking around the room and swiftly deciding he was the best man for the job.

Just like Mr. Cheney, once the quintessentially deferential staff man with the Secret Service code name 'Back Seat,' the self-effacing Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has clambered over the back seat to seize the wheel (or Commonweal). Mr. Cheney played the tough cop to W.'s boyish, genial pol, just as Cardinal Ratzinger played the tough cop to John Paul's gentle soul."

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