Grand Jury Indicts Cheney

Just writing that headline dropped my blood pressure a bit.

Turns out a county grand jury in south Texas has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney for alleged mistreatment of prisoners in federal custody. The basis of the indictment is Cheney's role as a member of the board of the Vanguard Group, which has a contract related to the alleged mistreatment.

Where to start? Acknowledging up front that this stunt by a crusading prosecutor is not likely to go anywhere, you have to give the guy, Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra, big style points. The guy has, well, cojones.

Cheney has what could be most charitably described as a well-developed worldview. If you want to get something done, and there are pieces of paper around that would appear to prohibit you from acting (you know, the U.S. Constitution, the Uniform Code of Military Justice) then find a way around them.

Now, this is something a talented corporate lawyer can do every day before lunch without loosening his tie (or her . . . whatever, you get the point). But Cheney is not the CEO of just another tanking wall street Ponzi scheme. He's a holder of the public trust, a sacred trust that calls for people to do things at a higher ethical and moral standard than they would if they were simply trying to run the competition out of business.

This is the guy who had energy lobbyists into the White House to write energy policy. The guy who pushed for military tribunals (if you're lucky) at Guantanamo Bay. The guy who said we risked a mushroom cloud over an American city if we didnt attack Iraq, and the guy who walked onto the Senate floor to tell a senior colleague to "Go F**k Yourself."

When he didnt like the outcome, he set about changing the rules. He was "tough enough" to do the things normal human beings in a democracy find despicable.

The really fun and pretty part of this indictment is it basically accuses Vanguard of the mistreatment, meaning the federal government outsourced prisoner abuse. Is there anything more Cheneyan?

So, I say good for the Texas D.A. for turning the tables on this guy. Justice for him would be us stretching the judicial system to its very limits to indict, try and convict him for the remainder of his chest-pained existence.

We don't indict sitting Vice Presidents? Now we do. We don't try former elected officials for their conduct while in office? Now we do. We don't force our way into the realm of executive privilege as defined by those officeholders? Now we do. We don't pull their secret service protection, their federal pension and their congressional floor privileges forever? Now we do.

That would be a fitting start anyway.