We’re not big fans of Dick Cheney. It’s not the whole obsession with secrecy, or the way he’s encouraged his aides to out CIA officers. It’s not the refusal to accept that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda are not the same thing, or his long-standing ties to government contracting juggernaut Halliburton. It’s that damn motorcade and security detail.

A few months back WTOP discovered that Cheney’s motorcade — yes, the one that regularly snarls traffic in the District during rush hour — costs D.C. taxpayers $2,000 each time he commutes between home and work (even though he could take public transit, as we have reported). Today the Examiner’s Harry Jaffe has a gripe of his own. It seems that Cheney and wife Lynn attended a book-signing by daughter Mary at the Palm Restaurant on Friday afternoon. While that’s not particularly objectionable, Jaffe did take issue with the security detail:

Leaving the party, I counted 10 MPD scout cars; five Harley Davidsons with D.C. police; a few Secret Service cars; and many tightlipped men in black suits.

The D.C. police were lounging in the early evening sun, taking in the breeze and the passing girls.

“Not bad work,” I said to one cop leaning on his car.

“We get paid every Friday,” he said.

Yeah, by me and other District residents, who have policing needs beyond watching the Veep’s back so he can help his daughter hawk her political memoir.

The city calculates the cost of an officer at $41 an hour, not counting overtime; a car costs $12 an hour. Protecting the vice president for two hours costs more than $3,000. In the grand scheme of things, this may not break the budget. But does it make sense for the residents of the District to pay for protecting the vice president’s visit to eat a few crab cakes at his daughter’s book party?

We would say not, especially for a trip into the heart of the District at rush hour on a Friday for a purpose that could hardly be considered official. For a man worth an estimated $94.6 million, he could at least go halfsies with us on security, couldn’t he?