Perino: We elect a dictator every four years. Until the next election, your opinion is worthless.

Cheney really is the most arrogant asshole, but Perino's argument appears to be that you elect a president every four years and until the next election, your opinion is simply worthless.

She tries to sell it as not yielding to opinion polls - somehow implying that the opinion of the public has no bearing in a democracy outside of the election cycle - but what she's really saying amounts to what Cheney is saying. "You don't like it?"

"So?"

HELEN THOMAS: The American people are being asked to die and pay for this. And you’re saying they have no say in this war?

PERINO: No, I didn’t say that Helen. But Helen, this president was elected…

THOMAS: But it amounts to it. You’re saying we have no input at all.

PERINO: You had input. The American people have input every four years, and that’s the way our system is set up.

They can only behave in this way because spineless Republicans (and some equally spineless Democrats) could always be relied upon to back this regime no matter what they did. Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, secret rendition, illegal surveillance, indeed; they continued to support them even after they admitted that they had tortured people. There was simply nothing that would make them turn on Bush and Co. It is that knowledge which not only allows, but actively fosters, the arrogance that is on display here.

Tags: Dana Perino, White House, Press Briefing, vice president, dick cheney, "so?" iraq war, public opinion, polls, osama bin laden