Every once in a while, it’s worth remembering what it was the traditional media was covering 24-7 before we all moved on to the next screaming mob.  It was just a few months ago that the media was transfixed by Dick Cheney’s new-found nose for the spotlight.  Vice President Undisclosed Location suddenly decided it was time to start giving interviews once President Obama took office.  Just a few weeks into the Obama administration, Cheney was warning that Obama was going to put Americans at risk by abandoning Bush-Cheney policies on terrorism.  Cheney and his daughter Liz kept beating this drum for several months, insisting that Obama’s policies were making us less safe.  The media coverage came to a crescendo with the "dueling speeches" between Obama and Cheney, in which Cheney defended warrantless surveillance and torture. 

Since then, Cheney-mania has subsided, and the media has moved on to balanced coverage of health care reform, featuring the public option on one side and a member of Congress joking about lynching other members of Congress on the other side.  What explains Cheney’s silence?  Has Cheney has decided that it’s no longer imperative to warn Americans that Obama is selling us out to the terrorists? Does he think Obama smartened up and decided to embrace the Bush-Cheney approach after all?

I’ve always  enjoyed that Simpson’s episode where Lisa explains Occam’s Razor: the simplest explanation is usually best.  Applying that maxim, my working hypothesis is that Dick Cheney was afraid of being prosecuted, and decided to try to work the media refs by reminding everyone of what it was like to be terrified and willing to turn over nearly absolute power to the Bush-Cheney administration.  Once Cheney succeeded in changing the subject and the threat of prosecution passed, it was no longer necessary for him to keep scaring us about the Obama administration,

Maybe at some point Chuck Todd and the rest will finish their solemnly balanced discussion of whether President Obama really wants to euthanize Sarah Palin’s child and will find time to look into this.