No man in the 200-year history of the United States has embodied the "banality of evil" as thoroughly as Dick Cheney, a dumpy, mid-level bureaucrat who ascended the political ladder through hardnosed calculation and cold-blooded vindictiveness. Cheney would be fine behind the counter of a fast-food restaurant snarling at the help and flaunting his authority, but as Vice President he's been a dead loss.
His appearance on Capitol Hill last week only confirms his moral vacuity and contempt for decency. Cheney addressed the Senate in a closed-door session and made an "impassioned" plea to continue the "cruel, degrading, and inhumane" treatment of prisoners detained in American concentration camps. His arguments follow the twisted logic of Harvard attorney Alan Dershowitz, who claims that state-sponsored atrocities like torture can be justified if they produce greater security. Cheney's appeal should be seriously considered. After all, this is the warped rationale that underscores the entire war on terror: the end justifies the means. We can see where this thinking inevitably leads by the appalling photos from Abu Ghraib and the reports of starving victims at Guantanamo Bay. These are the fetid sites where Cheney’s theories are put into practice.