THE NEOCONS NEVER GET USED TO BEING DOMINATED BY THE THEOCONS:

Bush's high road highlights contrasts with Cheney (Peter S. Canellos, April 14, 2009, Boston Globe)

Former vice president Dick Cheney, the alleged Svengali of the eight-year Bush administration, will be absent, tending to his own affairs - which have recently included blistering attacks on the Obama administration for abandoning the interrogations of terrorism suspects that many people considered torture.

Bush, by contrast, has taken the high road, refusing opportunities to criticize the new president even in the face of repeated jabs by members of the Obama administration, and Obama's own frequent declarations about the sorry state of affairs he "inherited" from Bush.

Bush's forbearance, compared with Cheney's pugnaciousness, could by itself influence perceptions of the Bush legacy, the burnishing of which is strongly in the minds of those gathering for today's brainstorming session in Dallas.

The former president's refusal to undermine Obama, coming after a very dignified transition, suggests a determination to put the welfare of the country ahead of politics or legacy-shaping. Cheney's refusal to do the same will only further perceptions of him as the ideologically driven hard-liner in the duo, whose zealousness lacks boundaries.