CALL ME SNAKE

We haven't heard much about the "axis of evil" lately--a term Bush used to employ often--perhaps because of the sense among many people that the "axis" runs right through the offices of the President and Vice President, among other despots in the world. Bush, to me, represents the "banality of evil"(though I've never read the classic work by Hannah Arendt), showing how a regular, good-old-boy former drinking buddy can consistently drag our country down to some of the lowest, most degrading, depths it's ever seen, while simultaneously waging war on multiple fronts: on the environment, on the economy, on the poor, on Iraq, and on common sense, to mention a few.

Cheney, on the other hand, represents (for want of a better term) the "audacity of evil." Our Vice President has become a mad dog, of late--unchained, foaming at the mouth, and running wild. He calls the country's recent experiments in torture a necessary walk on the "dark side." He calls people who claim the Administration distorted "intelligence" about the threat posed by Iraq "reprehensible," even though any semi-conscious observer knows that his remarks merely continue those transparent distortions. If the architects of the Iraq War were wrong on one count--the weapons, for example--perhaps we could give them the benefit of the doubt. But when they've resorted to one lie after the next to justify this disastrous war, their arrogance and deceit become glaringly obvious.

A few years ago, Bush pledged that the forces of good would prevail over the axis of evil. If only he could make good on that promise. But that, of course, is too much to ask for.

Doctors are taught to "do no harm." It's part of their basic training and part of their code. Why can't we demand the same from our politicians?