'Time' Thinks Cheney Makes Killer Mag Cover

It's official: Time magazine hates Dick Cheney.

Last week, I noted here that two of Time's Top 10 Editorial Cartoons of 2007, including it's # 1 pick, took shots at the Vice-President. This morning, two Time editors turned up on the Today show to discuss more picks from Time's collection of 50 Top 10 lists. And speaking of taking shots . . . .

View video here.

Today weekend anchor Amy Robach's guest was Time's Arts & Entertainment Editor Belinda Luscombe [pictured below]. After discussing the Top Song of the year ["Rehab" by defiant druggy Amy Winehouse] and Top Gadget [iPhone], talk turned to the Top Magazine Cover.

AMY ROBACH: Magazine covers. This is an interesting choice. You all chose Dick Cheney from Texas Monthly. Why? Well I see why [bursts into laughter].

BELINDA LUSCOMBE: You have to know of course that we discounted all Time covers. We would have liked to have gone with one of ours but it seemed too boasty. So we went with Texas Monthly. It's great. It's a Dick Cheney, with a smoking gun, and saying -- it's an homage to an old National Lampoon cover which says, you know, if you don't buy this magazine we'll shoot this dog. And this one is if you don't buy this magazine Dick Cheney will shoot you.

ROBACH: And I think he's actually grimacing there, which is an added bonus.

LUSCOMBE: This is clearly not a real photo, but it's very well-done Photoshopping. It's very nicely done, very clever, and the fact that it's Texas --

ROBACH: I'm sure Dick Cheney might have another opinion on that one, but no, that's great.

It was actually a double-barreled assault on the Bush administration this morning. Before the Luscombe segment, Lester Holt interviewed Catherine Sharick, Executive Producer of Time.com. Time's choice for the Top Scandal of the Year? Alberto Gonzales's resignation in connection with the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.

How weak is that? Even Time's blurb on the "scandal" recognizes that "it remains unclear who ordered the firings or why," and that at worst, "critics contend some of the attorneys — six of whom had recently received outstanding job-performance ratings — were fired as retribution for prosecuting Republicans or for failing to prosecute Democrats."

Time's picks might be weak, but its animus toward the Bush administration couldn't be much stronger.