This week’s rant of the week alleges that Cheney’s fundamental sin is too much honesty.

But an argument could also be made that is was idealism rather than cynicism that did caused the Bush administration drag the Republican collation down.

The blue collars males who have been a critical part of the Republican collation since Regan don’t mind torture (when done to “bad guys”) and they don’t mind blowing things up (especially when they belong to “bad guys). But they do mind spending billions of dollars and seeing their sons killed to make other nations a better place to live. This is especially when those other nations don’t seem to appreciate it.

In other words, if the Bush administration had stuck to torture and stayed away from nation building, he might have left office a popular man.