Have a Heart

Former Vice President, Dick Chaney, at 71, got a heart transplant over the weekend  (see: LA Times Story) ... to the consternation of many with Chaney Derangement Syndrome (CDS).  The Internet is full of  snipes deriding Chaney's medical good fortune with churlish comments which don't need any further airing.  I have been listening to talk radio this morning to many accusing Chaney's of line busting (and not).  Bottom line, it appears that, today, people of wealth and notoriety can only earn an advantage in the organ transplant lottery by paying to be listed on multiple transplant lists.

Many knowledgeable callers have said that each of these lists now have strict guidelines to keep movers and shakers from moving to the head of the line unfairly ... and after all Chaney has waited twenty months (with a mechanical heart-pump) for an organ transplant ... unlike Mickey Mantle and John Phillips who, years ago, did appear to have gotten favorable treatment (given the apparent expedited speed of their organ transplant operations.)

But no matter on what side of the CDS spectrum one resides, to me, it is a blessing that Dick Chaney should be with us for some more years.  He is a national resource in that he has been at the center of much of the history-making events over almost forty years and many of his (and President G.W. Bush's) policies are still in effect to push back against international terrorism.  So much of what he knows still is to be captured and writ large in determining how this country continues to navigate our way through the minefields that still await us.