Smarter than the average bear?

The Prince of Darkness, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, has been making the rounds through eastern Europe. Starting in Georgia, he announced a $1 billion dollar U.S. aid plan for reconstruction in the wake of the war with Russia. Then, Lord Cheney's arrival in Ukraine was heralded by yet another acrimonious meltdown in President Victor Yushchenko's and Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko's dysfunctional marriage of inconvenience. Yuliya Caesar seems intent forging a westward looking policy while trying to balance against the ambitions of Czar Putin and the dim-witted, though incredibly dangerous, bear in her room. And while the dark lord insists on backing Ukraine's entry into NATO, it's bid to join the EU may have ground to a halt. So while Cheney can afford to continue shouting at the bear with harsh language, it's the Europeans who have to live with being stalked by it.