"The beasts ... flinging themselves against their cages."

For a long time, people have been suggesting that Dick Cheney was the real person in charge behind the figurehead George Bush. But what if that's wrong? What if, in fact, no one is in charge, and the VP is susceptible to being 'handled' and mishandled himself, by a cadre of partisan underlings who inhabit a bizarre moral and ethical alternate dimension?

This thought comes to mind while reading the words of Vice Presidential advisor and long-time Republican spin-mistress Mary Matalin, as reported by the New York Times. Granted, Ms. Matalin spins with each breath, and even in talking to friendly note-taker Elizabeth Bumiller, a reader must assume her self-aggrandizement engine is hard at work. Still, her words are, all at once, a suggestion that the VP is unfit for office, and a frightening glimpse into how those in charge of communicating for the administration view their world.

She first talked to Mr. Cheney by phone around 10 a.m. Sunday, some 16 hours after he shot Mr. Whittington. "It was not to go through the statement or what do we do, it was to tell me it happened," said Ms. Matalin, a former campaign manager for the first President Bush who was known for her bare-knuckled outbursts.

She added, "It was so about Harry — 'I hit him and I can't believe it and he's such a good guy.'

"And I said, O.K., this guy is going to be worthless about getting me what I need to help him here,' " she added, speaking of Mr. Cheney.

Here it is, 16 hours after the shooting, and the Vice President is "worthless" in conversation? He's either in shock or too impaired to focus on a simple conversation about press strategy? Really, Mary? Doesn't that raise questions about his fitness in a crisis? Is this a guy we want a heartbeat away from the Presidency? He's had a big dinner, he's slept all night, and he still can't properly manage his subordinates? That sounds like what they used to call "not executive material." Don't we expect more of our leaders?

To be fair to Mr. Cheney, perhaps Ms. Matalin exaggerates. Maybe she was just impatient, straining at her leash. She does enjoy being a fighting dog, going tooth and claw against her opponents.

She got a chance to indulge this weekend on Meet The Press, an appearance that Arianna Huffington ably reviews in her blog. Mary Matalin doesn't live in a world where it is even possible to find archaelogical evidence of things like "truth", or "responsibility", or "respect for the electorate". Instead, there is only those-who-must-be-defended and the hateful hordes of bestial attackers.

If you were wondering why the shooting story was handled so badly, and how the people who brief the Vice President and President view the job of communicating with the media, the final quote in the NYT article is telling.

On Friday, she retreated to the weekend farm she shares with her two daughters and her husband, the Democratic strategist James Carville. It had been, she said, a horrible week. She also took blame for the pounding Mr. McClellan took in the briefing room.

"I don't buy that we did it wrong," she said. "But I do understand that every day over there is like walking up a mountain with bricks in your backpack, and when something starts the beasts not just growling but flinging themselves against their cages, I feel bad about that, and it's not a good day for him."

That her inability to admit wrongdoing, like that of her bosses, is why there are so many bricks in that backpack is beyond her awareness. That the "something" that had the beasts so riled up was of her own making seems to have escaped notice. And the image of the White House press as "beasts", "flinging themselves against their cages", at once captures the impotence of the media, (or even Congress) in confronting the administration's intransigence, while communicating the bitter contempt the insiders hold for any who would question them. They are beasts, and deserve to be so treated, kept in cages, and fed only worthless scraps of information.

There we have the perspective of a close advisor to the highest level of the Republican Party. Is it any wonder we are in the mess we are in? We are not dealing with rational people, dedicated to serving our country. Our government is in the hands of rabid cultists. (For an excellent analysis of the cult-like, us-vs.-them quality of the administration and its supporters, read Glenn Greenwald's article here.)