In response to the failure to pass a bailout for the Big 3 auto makers, VP Dick Cheney make the comment, "It's Herbert Hoover time." (Doesn't have quite the same ring as "It's Miller time!") The implication is that by not passing the aid, we will face a period of extended recession, much like the Great Depression, which many people believe was protracted by President Hoover's economic policy.

In other words, this is the worst form of double speak.

I don't know if Cheney is just historically ignorant or if there is some malicious intent to defraud the public, but either way this comment is extremely inaccurate. Because it was exactly this sort of economic bailout, among other stupid and self-destructive policies, fostered by Hoover that caused the Great Depression to be, well, so "great." Even FDR, who supplanted Hoover, criticized his predecessor's policies as ultimately being detrimental rather than helpful. (Of course, this position didn't stop FDR from instituting his own destructive policies that are now plaguing this country.)

During this period, the word "Hooverville" was used to describe the shanty towns where people who had lost there homes lived. While the name was coined by a political rival, it's broad acceptance and usage by the masses showed that many people realized Hoover's big-daddy government "bail 'em out" policies had failed them.

Now, Cheney is trying to say that by not bailing out big business, we are going to return to an era of Hoovervilles. He seems to have either totally missed the historical lesson – or hopes we're dumb enough to have missed it.

When the shanty towns start popping up again, I call dibs on the term "Cheneytowns."