Oh God

Clearly Dick Cheney must have some secret strategic clout reserve.

— Jon Stewart

Right here and now, I’m getting my act straight on Cheney.  And this cover provides the clincher.

I mean, you call that being under a cloud?

Plainly, Cheney is not under anything that isn’t cheaply pasted over his head by a histrionic media.  At best, this illustration — given Cheney’s posture and expression — makes a cheap joke out of Cheney as “the innocent angel.”  (Notice the thematic connection to the story title, by the way: “Cheney’s Fall From Grace.”)  Playing it straight, the TIME cover proffers Cheney more as a kind of magic genie (who can confine any amount of trouble) or even some Olympian god who can command the force of lightening.

It’s that seer, Jon Stewart, however, who hits the latest Cheney nonsense squarely on the head.  Says Stewart (from this great clip via C&L):

It is clear there is nothing any of us can do to stop Dick Cheney’s clout.  All we we can try and do is neutralize its effects.

Once again, it’s the image that telegraphs the true story, in direct contradiction to the words.  What we see here is Cheney, operating largely in the clear, under nothing that could tangibly or believably be seen as a real cloud — puny as it might be.

(image: Brooks Craft. TIME cover.  March 19, 2007.)