Good cop, bad cop

In a CNN interview, the author of the WaPo series on Dick Cheney states, "It's clear that the president knows what Dick Cheney is doing and it's clear the president could stop it."

But why should he?

It's clear that a calculated decision was made to make Dick Cheney the bad cop -- a role to which he is eminently suited and which he obviously wanted -- and let George W. Bush be the good cop -- the affable guy walking the beat, reassuring the people sitting on their stoops in the summer night that everything would be OK because he was on the beat.

And as such, if we lived in the country we all thought we did, both would be held accountable. However, we live in the United States, where the opposition party doesn't oppose and everyone is terrified of an Administration with a 30% approval rating.