Scumbag of the week

Given that this award is named after Dick Cheney, it's appropriate that this week's winner is our vice-president's ideological twin.

Benjamin Netanyahu, long one of the most despicable characters in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, made headlines recently. The former Israeli prime minister and current opposition leader talked about how fantastic the 9/11 terrorist attacks had been for his country.

"We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq," he said, noting that events had "swung American public opinion in our favor."

I'm really glad for the always opportunistic Netanyahu that not only has the mass murder of American civilians has given such a fantastic boost to his political career but that he's comfortable publically bragging about it.

Then again, this is a man who's made his career by exploiting for his own political benefit the murder of Israeli civilians, so I suppose this isn't such a great leap.