What a shitty fucking piece of writing.
The entire premise of “haha, we gotta kill Osama!” three MONTHS after 9/11 was already stale. Popular, I suppose, but definitely stale.
The entire top section is meant to tie in to the ending “Ocean’s” reference, which I’m struggling to be kind to since it seems so old and irrelevant now. But in 2001… ok. Was she filing a word/letter quota? Did you need that many old-ass idioms that even my mid-30s ass had to run through my mental collective “boomer shit” search directory to decipher. I’m not a Pulitzer Prize winner though, so, maybe I’m out of my league here.
The most egregious part though, by far, is referring to Dick “Darth Vader on his 14th fake heart by age 40” Cheney as having swagger. Rumsfeld was (RIP in piss) shit, but unfortunately many, I dunno, bored suburban moms(?) found him charming in a way. There’s videos of him walking out to the press and fairly successfully, at the time, doing what Kirby now can only mimic like a cheap ripoff or the classic “copy of a copy of a copy.” He was quick and had this fake confidence people liked. It aged like shit of course.
Cheney though? I don’t think he really tried to sell himself as anything other than what he was. Just a rich asshole with no compassion for anything. Quite literally one of the most genuinely terrifying, to me, people to ever hold power in my lifetime. Young people who didn’t experience him on TV all the time should go look some videos up.
And the last part is just funny because I know she didn’t intend it, but it’s kinda ambiguous if she means like the Bush admin guys did 9/11 or they’re the ones responsible for dealing with the fallout.
I’m glad with today’s science we have proven beyond doubt that Jeb and W did indeed rig the towers with explosives before 9/11. People like to blame the Saudis (Islamophobic much, guys?) or Israelis (seriously, antisemitism now???) or “ohhh it was some guys the CIA once helped prop up!” No. It was W and his somehow more dopey little bro. Science has proven it. Also, watch Loose Change. Ra is Jesus and Jesus is the son… sun? You aren’t ready for that undiluted shit.
Yeah they’re all pieces of shit
But Cheney’s vibes were and are irreconcilably fucked
Remember when libs just openly embraced his daughter, btw? “Oh she stood up to the orange man!” And she’s also effectively said her father did nothing wrong. Seems like a great person to elevate in national politics. Supportive daughter of man who spent his whole life devising the best way to do endless wars for his direct profit
The paper of record
Remember she won a Pulitzer for slut-shaming Monica Lewinksy, painting her as a bimbo, “predatory”, and Bill was the victim all along. Dowd is the face of internalized misogyny, in her columns she only takes on female politicians and victims of sexual harassment in politics.
Wasn’t she also one of the biggest Iraq War boosters? I remember her name floating around on the /r/Sino subreddit as one of the biggest warmongers at the NYT, which seems like a hell of a high bar to clear