Michelangelo Signorile: The Gist:

It was pretty perverse to pick up The New York Times last week and read that the Vice President of the United States of America, a still free and open democracy (despite John Ashcroft’s best efforts), had surfaced in “a rare public appearance,” in which he defended his administration’s economic policies and spoke out against corporate misconduct.

A rare public appearance. This is a term that, I recall, was used often when the media would discuss the late film star Greta Garbo and the weird recluse Howard Hughes. But a vice president? With regard to world leaders–and let’s face it, Dick Cheney, who everyone agrees is one of the most powerful vice presidents we’ve had, is a world leader–”rare public appearance” has been applied in the past to, oh, say, the devious, mysterious autocrats who run the People’s Republic of China. More recently it’s been applied to none other than Saddam Hussein. The point is not that Cheney is a communist or a lunatic, but this: Leaders who are afraid of what lies out there in people’s minds live underground. NY Press