The Imperial Family

This painting by Edward Sorel is titled The Imperial Family and was featured in Vanity Fair's farewell slide show. It's not a very flattering portrait, is it?

But it is accurate nonetheless. Dick Cheney is the patriarch and George W. Bush is the little drooling spawn.

A lot has been said about Cheney in the last eight years, but his own words are the most incriminating. Last month, while the world was asleep or something, Dick Cheney took credit for torture. Torture is a war crime. The Vice President of the United States confessed to a war crime in prime time. Americans yawned and changed the channel.

Anybody who has been paying attention already knew about torture memos and other documents linking high level officials to the torture decision. Of course Dick Cheney was the planner of these crimes. I was not surprised.

But I was angered. At this point, the anger is just anger heaped on top of more anger. Will anybody anywhere ever have the balls to prosecute this man?

Surprisingly, in the rush to pardon nearly everybody, Bush has not issued a pre-emptive pardon for Cheney. Cheney is so arrogant that he recently told the Associated Press that "he sees no reason for President George W. Bush to pre-emptively pardon anyone who authorized or was involved in harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists."

Clearly, he is counting on the American people and the Obama administration letting him get away with these crimes.

Cheney's hubris is appalling. Let's stop calling him a "mastermind" or even "imperial." He is a scheming criminal bureaucrat with blood on his hands. To let him walk free is a crime in itself.