PASSIONS

FROM September 26, 2006

Today's cultural breaths:

Joan Didion knows more about Dick Cheney than he probably does, having read 18 books on the matter for her NY Review of Books essay. Still, she cannot shed light into his motivation, which stumps me and everyone else too, maybe: what truly drives him? Is he, simply, a harbinger of evil? A chasm where hope goes to die? I'm not sure he believes anything uttered from his own mouth, barring its fundamental rightness. (Recall: his vice-presidential debate with Edwards in the 2004 election. Topic: Iraq. Playing omniscient patriarch -- the Dark Father, if you will -- he cited EL SALVADOR as an example of a successful mission / occupation abroad. His statement:

"Twenty years ago we had a similar situation in El Salvador," Cheney said. "We had a guerilla insurgency controlled roughly a third of the country, 75,000 people dead. And we held free elections. I was there as an observer on behalf of the Congress... And as the terrorists would come in and shoot up polling places as soon as they left, the voters would come back and get in line and would not be denied their right to vote. And today El Salvador is a [whole] of a lot better because we held free elections... And [that concept] will apply in Afghanistan. And it will apply as well in Iraq."

Did he believe that?

And yet, as we learn in Didion's piece, Cheney advised against invading Iraq during the Bush I reign because of its potential instability – Sunnis vs. Shiites, attacks on US soldiers, etc. He said it aloud. And everything that he predicted would happen, did.

SECONDLY:
The only song I love this morning is Soffy O's "Come With Me," where everything is illuminated in a swathe of piano. "If you could see the beauty of it. If you could see the beauty of it. If you could only see there's so much more. What is it that you fear? Could it be the stormy weather? Why don't you come with me, if only that you will know what it looks like."

FOURTHLY:
Go see my friend Miss Meghan, noted NYC shoe maven, at Bloomingdales Uptown from 5-7 pm tomorrow, please. She will be intro'ing the new Frye boot collection, serving champagne, being witty on a mike and administering your footwear horoscope.