As the estimable David Kurtz put it, this is “too much Freud from a guy named Dick.”
Most striking were his virtually taunting remarks of two men he described as friends from his own days in the House: Democratic Reps. John Dingell (Mich.) and John P. Murtha (Pa.).
In a 40-minute interview with Politico, he scoffed at the idea of two men who spent years accruing power showing so much deference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the big spending and energy debates of the year.
Murtha “and the other senior leaders … march to the tune of Nancy Pelosi to an extent I had not seen, frankly, with any previous speaker,” Cheney said. “I’m trying to think how to say all of this in a gentlemanly fashion, but [in] the Congress I served in, that wouldn’t have happened.”
But his implication was clear: When asked if these men had lost their spines, he responded, “They are not carrying the big sticks I would have expected.”
My, my. A woman House Speaker is wielding power over men chairing committees, and Dick Cheney is mocking them for lacking “big sticks”? Seriously?
Some Dems were subtle in their defense of Reps. Dingell and Murtha…
Reid (D-Nev.) said “Dingell and Murtha still carry very big sticks. If they’ve lost any pizzazz, I haven’t seen it.”
…and some were more direct.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), who as Democratic Caucus Chair is the party’s fourth-ranking House leader, replied: “Some of us were surprised that the president didn’t have a bigger stick when he could have stood up to Dick Cheney.”
Ouch.
I’m tempted to ignore the substance of Cheney’s ridiculous comments, but I suppose as long as we’re here, I should note that his criticism doesn’t actually make any sense.
Pelosi runs the House efficiently, but the notion that powerful committee chairs like Dingell and Murtha have been rendered, shall we say, politically impotent is a real stretch. Both have shown a lot of influence in recent months, Murtha on Iraq policy, and Dingell on energy policy.
Cheney’s never seen “any previous speaker” keep a caucus in line like this? I suppose that’s an unexpected compliment from the hostile VP, but I think his memory is awfully short.
Was Cheney around, say, last year? Or the year before? Or perhaps 2005 and/or 2004? The House Republican leadership ran an efficient operation that tolerated no dissent or independent thought at all. If there were widespread defections from GOP committee chairs or back-benchers, they hid well.
Pelosi, in contrast, has Blue Dogs in the caucus, and a couple of dozen more progressive Dems who are afraid of their own shadow, and jump every time some right-winger yells, “Weak on terror!”
In Cheney’s worldview, a powerful House Speaker who struggles to maintain party loyalty is some kind of shrew, and committee chairman who follow the Speaker’s lead are eunuchs.
Cheney’s mind is just a dark, scary place, isn’t it?