How the Rules Work in Texas

Check out this interesting story by Sidney Blumenthal on Salon about the Cheney shooting in the context of "Texas royalty." My immediate reaction to the shooting was to compare it to Chappaquiddick, but Blumenthal offers an even more apt comparison that I've seen nowhere else:

The curiosities surrounding the vice president's accident have created a contemporary version of "The Rules of the Game" with a Texas twist. In Jean Renoir's 1939 film, politicians and aristocrats mingle at a country house in France over a long weekend, during which a merciless hunt ends with a tragic shooting. Appearing on the eve of World War II, "The Rules of the Game" depicted a hypocritical, ruthless and decadent ruling class that made its own rules and led a society to the edge of catastrophe.

Of course, in Renoir's film--generally regarded as one of the classic movies of all time--no one pays any price for the crimes that lead to a man's death. The rules don't apply to the elite. Does this sound familiar?

Tags: Cheney, Sidney Blumenthal, Jean Renoir