DEAD PARROT BULLETIN, 1/19/04

"HUNTING": THE SEQUEL

I may have done Dick Cheney an injustice by suggesting (DPB, 1/1) that delight in slaughter is his primary motive for participating in events like December's Pennsylvania pheasant shoot. According to a story deep in the Boston Globe on 1/18, Cheney is able to enjoy such occasions even when the quarry doesn't show up. In Pennsylvania the birds had been raised in pens and were given the sporting chance to fly only a few feet before encountering Dead-Eye Dick's buckshot. In southern Louisiana in early January, Cheney went after ducks in more natural conditions and few ducks obliged. Still, the Vice President had a good time because of the comraderie.

And what comraderie! One of Cheney's companions on the trip was his old friend Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia, of course, is one of the five Justices who put Cheney and Bush in office four years ago. But the judge and the VP probably did not waste their duck-blind colloquies on ancient history when there were current events to discuss, such as how the Court will resolve business that Cheney has pending before it.

The issue to be decided is whether Cheney's cronyism in deciding national energy policy must be made public. A lower court has at long last ruled that he must identify the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear industry lobbyists who gave his energy task force its marching orders back in 2001. Naturally Cheney appealed to the Supremes, who agreed, just three weeks before the hunting trip, that they would hear the case this coming April. In Louisiana, waiting for the ducks that didn't come, Tony and Dick had time for many a chuckle about their plans to keep the public in the dark. Cronies take care of cronies. Not coincidentally, the two were guests of one Wallace Carline, who runs an "oil services" company called Diamond Services Corporation.

The code of conduct for federal judges says that "A judge should not allow family, social or other relationships to influence judicial conduct or judgments...or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence the judge." Scalia does not feel that these strictures apply to him. He brushed off an inquiry about the propriety of the trip with the blasé assurance of someone beyond supervision or review: "I do not think my partiality could reasonably be questioned."

Though the shooting was said to be the worst in 35 years, Scalia did manage to bag a few ducks, too. They "tasted swell," he said.

JUST PUBLISHED

The twisted roots of George W. Bush's twisted tree are the subject of a new book by Kevin Phillips, American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush (Viking Press). Phillips, whose strongly Republican background makes his take on our national drift all the more interesting, is the author of Wealth and Democracy (reviewed in DP #14). That book traced the plutocrat strain in American history and blew holes in the administration's tax cut rationale. The new one should make informative reading for an election year. DPB will review it as soon as possible.