Responding to Tim Noah's review of Jacob Heilbrunn's new book about the rise of the neocons, Spencer Ackerman reminds us that Dick Cheney didn't suddenly morph into a radical with extremely nutty and dangerous foreign policy views in 2001; rather, his views have been quite consistent over time. For that matter, the same is true of Cheney's domestic policy views; he had one of the most conservative voting records in Congress. The only reason to be surprised by Cheney not being a moderate is if you confuse tone with substance. My favorite example would have to be Joe Klein's assertion that "[a]nybody who tries to take a really strong position on [Cheney] from the left or from the right seems kind of silly." Yes, clearly anybody who would object to someone who voted against Head Start and a resolution urging the freeing of Nelson Mandela must be some kind of Trotskyite ...
--Scott Lemieux
