Connect: In 1986, Dick Cheney voted to keep Nelson Mandela in jail. As far as Cheney was concerned, Mandela was not a political prisoner - he was a "terrorist". The previous year, "pro-gun" Cheney had voted against a domestic US ban on the sale of armour-piercing bullets dubbed "cop-killers". In 2000, Cheney retired as chief executive of energy outfit Halliburton with a deal worth $20 million.
"Mr Cheney's retirement package solidifies and expands his personal stake in the oil industry in general and Halliburton in particular, while he is on the campaign trail confronting energy policy issues that will affect Halliburton's performance," observed the New York Times in August, 2000. He is still drawing a $1 million a year paycheck from Halliburton.
He has, despite denials, consistently sought to connect the 9/11 attack on the US with Saddam Hussein. Advising George Bush on his speech to the UN about Iraq, Cheney said: "Go tell them 'you are not important'." In March 2003 he declared: "We believe Saddam Hussein has reconstituted nuclear weapons," adding that the US would "be greeted as liberators".
Sure, he's only vice-president, but Cheney is widely seen as the most powerful number two in US history. On Iraq, Bush was the decision-maker but, more than any other adviser, Cheney argued that an attack on that oil-rich country was an urgent necessity. Dick Cheney, now 63, is dangerous, described in John Dean's book, Worse than Watergate, as "effectively a co-president".
Cheney is certainly influential. He championed Donald Rumsfeld for US defence secretary. He insisted, despite fierce objections from the US secretary of state Colin Powell, on placing Paul Wolfowitz as number two at the Pentagon. He has played a key role in forcing through the appointments of other neo-conservative extremists such as John Bolton, Elliott Abrams and Lewis Libby.
It's difficult in mainstream politics to make George Bush seem liberal in any way but Dick Cheney has managed it. Consider that the most recent Gallup poll in the US shows that 62 per cent of Republicans still believe that Saddam Hussein was behind the attack of September 11th, 2001. More than anyone else - including George Bush - Dick Cheney is responsible for such ignorance.
On Tuesday he debated against John Edwards, the Democratic candidate for vice-president. "I have not suggested there is a connection between Iraq and 9/11," said Cheney. But the networks - at least those with a continuing interest in journalism - broadcast tapes of some of his many statements after the debate. Cheney, let's face it, was lying.
Edwards, though he's 51 yet remains more Bambi than the ageing Tony Blair, is suspiciously smiley and - Tom Jones-like - had a pair of panties thrown by screaming women land on his head, might have asked Dick to stop telling lies. Then again, maybe he knew he'd be wasting his breath. "The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight," continued Cheney.
Photographs of the pair together were published the next day. Clearly, they had met several times before. In most democratic countries, such blatant lying - even acknowledging that politicians are slippery fish - would be unacceptable. Yet in the America of George Bush and Dick Cheney, the "debate" (they're too PR-ised to be really cut-and-thrust affairs) was judged to be a draw.
Of course, vice-presidential debates are usually flat (Lloyd Bentsen's "Senator, you're no John Kennedy" put-down of Dan Quayle in 1988 being a memorable exception) and seldom play an important role in determining the outcome. Yet, when the most influential and belligerent number two in US history is involved - and indisputably telling lies - it really should matter.
Throughout the campaign, Republicans have sought to cast Democrats as effeminate: "girlie men", "sensitives", "metrosexuals". In 1992, during the New Hampshire primary, I heard Arnold Schwarzenegger - he was then a warm-up man for George Bush's father - use the term "girlie men" to describe Democrats. Teenagers loved it and whooped "Arn-ie, Arn-ie, Arn-ie".
On Tuesday night, Edwards unnerved Cheney by praising him and his wife, Lynne - another leading neo-con - for their "love" of their gay daughter. Cheney could only thank him. But Edwards then attacked Bush's support for a constitutional amendment that would prohibit gay marriage. We shouldn't be "using an issue to divide this country" he said.
But divided America remains. Like Dick Cheney, Fox News, the raving right-wing channel, has been telling lies too. Its website carried a story in which John Kerry allegedly told a rally in Florida: "I'm metrosexual - he's a cowboy." Women voters, the Democratic candidate allegedly added, "should like me! I do manicures." Fox has had to apologise and admit it made it up.
So Dick Cheney and Fox News tell lies upon lies - not simply political distortions of the truth - but downright lies. You might imagine that would be enough to do for George Bush. Apparently not - not even in Ireland. On Wednesday, this newspaper carried a piece by Susan Philips, a former Wicklow county councillor, lauding the "visionary" Bush. It's crazier it gets.