This week the Veep was “caught and brought” to YouTube by Grand Theft Country, a guerrilla advocacy operation. In an 82-second clip, the then ex-Secretary of Defense lists exactly why U.S. forces did not push into Baghdad after Operation Desert Storm. It is the most-linked-to video of the moment, according to Technorati, and has accrued over 200,000 views since its posting on Friday.

Back in 1994, Cheney gave a very articulate and calm explanation as to how occupying Iraq would result in a “quagmire.” This video surfaced on YouTube last Friday and is part of a trend, for better or for worse, of citizen journalists sifting through archival video and exposing governmental inconsistencies through the enfranchisement of the Internet. Maybe the Government Accountability Office needs a YouTube channel.

This genre of politicos’ videos is growing, as seen in the increasing regularity of political faces appearing in video aggregators like Technorati, Digg.com, and The Onion’s Videocracy. These videos span the political aisle and showcase inconsistencies and gaffs all over; from Sen. Clinton’s off-tune vocalizations to Sen. Allen’s off-color slurs, politicians are highly visible Internet video targets.

However, what does it mean that these videos, of a potentially weighty political import, are jockeying for highly ranked slots between safari attacks and UFO sightings? Or what of the fact that politically weighty individuals are reduced to minute-long video punchlines?

Giving attention to 13-year-old interviews is a power that comes easily to the Internet. But there has yet to emerge a productive or suitable forum that facilitates discussion of how this checks-and-balances power of watchdog Internet operations might become civic utilities. Fora.tv, the self-dubbed “thinking person’s YouTube,” offers an interesting model for “discourse, discussions and debates on the world’s most interesting political, social and cultural issues,” but there’s still a disconnect between the discussion and the policy-makers. Now that the blogosphere knows about this video of Cheney, will the press ask White House spokesperson Tony Snow about it?

As the Internet demolishes the barriers of entry for multimedia political discourse, it is also rapidly eroding the importance of true debate and rhetoric. Whenever a video like this most recent Cheney interview surfaces, there is usually little to no context given and little discussion of the larger issues it predicates. This video could be part of a larger, more meaningful discussion of the geo-politics of the two Bush administrations. Instead, it will likely be reduced to remain an 82-second self-contained meme of political indignation.