Across the great divide, Part Two
The discussion of Angler, Bart Gellman's book about the Cheney vice presidency, continues at TPMCafe Book Club. Today, I responded to posts by Spencer Ackerman and Jacob Heilbrunn.
Ackerman proposed a "grand unified theory of "Cheneyism" under which the driving force is the desire to expand executive power. Ackerman used this theory to attempt to explain the war in Iraq.
I countered here.
Heilbrunn compared the vice president to Mr. Sammler in Saul Below's novel, arguing that Cheney should be understood as "a product of the late 1960s and early 1970s--someone who despises what he saw as the rise of the counterculture and set out to battle it."
My disagreement is expressed here.
I argue that Gellman's book undercuts the claims of both Ackerman and Heilbrunn (we'll find out if he agrees), and I must say that my opinion of Angler has become a little more favorable now that I'm seeing some of the paths Bart didn't take.
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