Department of pots, kettles, accusations of being black

June 13, 2005

Vice President Dick Cheney, on Howard Dean’s provocative rhetoric:

“That’s not the kind of individual you want to have representing your political party…. I really think Howard Dean’s over the top.”

Dick Cheney’s own penchant for colorful rhetoric:

A brief argument between Vice President Cheney and a senior Democratic senator led Cheney to utter a big-time obscenity on the Senate floor this week.

On Tuesday, Cheney, serving in his role as president of the Senate, appeared in the chamber for a photo session. A chance meeting with Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, became an argument about Cheney’s ties to Halliburton Co., an international energy services corporation, and President Bush’s judicial nominees. The exchange ended when Cheney offered some crass advice.

“F— yourself,” said the man who is a heartbeat from the presidency.

If Dean’s “over the top,” what’s Cheney? And if Dean’s confrontational choice of words makes him a poor choice to represent a political party, what does that say about Cheney’s antagonism and his qualifications to be the vice president?

He should apologize publicly and be censured. Man, I wish he had never been on the ticket.

  • Besides historical suggestion that a Senator “cheney himself” the rest of the quote from the Cheney interview is also interesting: “I’ve never been able to understand his appeal. Maybe his mother loved him, but I’ve never met anybody who does. He’s never won anything, as best I can tellâ€?

    Cheney went on to tell several more Yo mama jokes.

    Classy.

  • I think the more this administration demeans him, the better job he’s doing. I’d hate to have a Chairman that the GOP liked. who cares what they think, for pete’s sake.

  • If you haven’t seen it yet, go to the Sundance Online Film Festival (you have to register to see the short films, but it’s just your name and e-mail) and check out the 4-minute “animation” titled “America’s Biggest Dick”. You know already who it’s about. (Warning! parental advisory! strong language! [but you knew that])

  • “He’s never won anything, as best I can tell”

    He was elected Governor of Vermont five times between 1992 and 2000. If course, that statement is merely “reality-based”, so it would have no meaning for a Republican.

  • What are you so worked up about? GOP hypocrites are a dime a dozen. Just look at all of the in- and out- of the closet homosexuals that bash homosexuals (expecially Cheney’s own daughter); they “respect” states’ rights until one of their own political goals is at stake (Schiavo, medical marijuana); etc., etc., etc.

    In a similar vein is Sensenbrenner’s letter last Wednesday to Howard Dean, leturing Dean on “respectful” political discourse; that lasted all of two days until Sensenbrenner said “fuck you” to the Dems on the House Judiciary Committee, to the witnesses, and to America and its Constitution.

    I agree with Yancy above that the GOP vitriol — and that includes the fuck from FNC being a bully without any credentials on display — is testimony to how afraid they are of Howard Dean. But, Yancy, I don’t agree that we can ignore it — opposition parties cannot afford to let ANY outrage go by without challenge. To do otherwise is to wither and die.

  • Cheney is one of the biggest CROOK’S around. He should be in jail for his Halliburton problems.
    Not a problem for this administration though because they are all crooked!

  • Hey, it’s about time the Democrats started listening to the Republicans. After all, no press is bad press, and Howard Dean is making normal run-of-the-mill fundraising speeches hit the headlines… This is amazing stuff here. Did anyone hear a peep- let alone A1 publications- about Democratic fundraisers back in 2001??? I didn’t think so…
    When you have a guy on the ropes, that’s when he brings out the big guns. And Cheney wouldn’t be bothered to talk about Dean unless he thinks he is a threat. Dean is saying the right things- just like he promised. Talking about a privileged class who never had to work a real job is EXACTLY the sort of statement that gets through to those Southerners with Confederate Decals on their pick-ups (remember the primaries???)… Listen to Limbaugh for a minute or two. It’s all bullshit, it’s all loud, and (most importantly), IT’S EXTREMELY EASY TO REMEMBER AND REPEAT TO FRIENDS LATER! Try explaining most of the Democratic Party’s positions to a buddy without needing a pillow… The Republicans learned a long time ago to keep their stuff simple, and easily repeated and understood over a beer (or six).
    Dean is just turning the tables. And, BTW, he isn’t having to lie to do it, just states some simple plain facts. Sorry if facts are disgusting sometimes.

  • Speaking of money-raising (from Saturday’s Crooks & Liars):

    Records show the DNC took in $13.8 million over the first three months of 2005, compared with $8.4 million during the same period in 2003, the last year without a federal election. Terry McAuliffe was party chairman then.

  • I meant to add (but a network connection interrupted) that Dean’s getting more MONEY, PRESS and ORGANIZATION than McAuliffe ever dreamed of. What more do we want? Biden and Edwards and Pelosi and Kerry – much as I like and respect them – ought to be asking how we got this way.

    I also think it’s high time the Democratic party start remembering who brought them to the dance and what the issues really are. Simply, it’s blue-collar and middle-class wage-earners — real people with real economic concerns — that matter. Everything else is inside-the-beltway skirmishes, head-of-the-pin dancing and celebrity butt-kissing.

  • Good points, Ed Stephan, regarding the “[e]verything else is inside-the-beltway skirmishes, head-of-the-pin dancing and celebrity butt-kissing.”

    There is one additional nuance by driving force, and that is that Biden and too many of the others owe their political souls to the corporate interests — his vote and those of too many others for the abominable Bankruptcy bill proves that — rather than to the ones that (as you said) “brung them to the dance.”

    This is a fight for the soul of the Party, and Howard speaks for a hell of a lot more of us than all of the inside-the-Beltway Dems.

  • Ed- I noticed all of those figures, too. But I have one big question. Why are so much of the MSM comparing the Democratic figures to the Republican ones, making it look like Dean is failing? I caught it on a number of outlets last week (Repubs out-raised Dems 2-1, etc). Couldn’t figure out why that comparison was relevant, since the Repubs have raised more money than the Dems since I have been alive. Now, if that figure was reversed, that might have been a story…
    That deliberately (fake) negative coverage smells like a rat to me. Someone in the beltway WANTS people to think Dean is failing, when the real story, like you noted, is that he is raising record funds (Not that we need to name names at this point)…

  • I believe this so strongly that I’ve got to repeat it:

    I also think it’s high time the Democratic party start remembering who brought them to the dance and what the issues really are. Simply, it’s blue-collar and middle-class wage-earners — real people with real economic concerns — that matter. Everything else is inside-the-beltway skirmishes, head-of-the-pin dancing and celebrity butt-kissing.

  • First of all: I have no love for Cheney. If Bush doesn’t want to be seen as a sell-out for to an oil company, he’d do well to have a vice-president who seems to represent more than just Halliburton, and not rewrite environmental science to suit their ends. Hell, I’m saying this, and I WORK for an oil company.

    However:
    Cheney used an expletive. While politics should be based on rational discouse, and telling someone to fuck themselves isn’t appropriate, people cuss all the time. I seem to remember a certain potential first lady telling reporters to “shove it.”

    Howard Dean made bigoted and inflammatory comments. To find out if a remark is bigoted, see if a racial group can be inserted and have the remark still fly. Oh, wait, you can’t say “japanese people have never done an honest day’s work in their lives” without being a bigot can you? What makes you able to say it about republicans without being a bigot? See the difference?

    Regardless of all this, DEAN’S COMMENTS ARE COSTING YOU VOTES. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. I am a moderate conservative and hate the way the Republican party is going. In fact, I hate it so much that I could be persuaded to vote Democratic. However much you like to hear republicans slandered, it is still slander. And it ruins any chance you have of picking up moderate conservative voters left behind by the religious-right gravy train. And I personally think you have a pretty good chance of doing this. So stick to your guns: People think Bush’s fiscal policy is ridiculous. Hit him for that. Talk about social security, stem cell research, gay marriage, Iraq reconstruction, ANYTHING. You’ll attract moderates who like to hear messages. But the first step to picking up moderate conservatives (which is very doable — i think Bush is really weak in this area) is to stop directly insulting them.

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