June 25, 2004

A brief and salty exchange Dick Cheney, enraged by flashbulbs, tears away from his restraints and handlers. Rampaging, profiteering, and some tender personal advice on a very special "I Love Dick"
posted by pete_best 20 years ago
  • "Fuck yourself," said the man who is a heartbeat from the presidency. Leahy's spokesman, David Carle, yesterday confirmed the brief but fierce exchange. "The vice president seemed to be taking personally the criticism that Senator Leahy and others have leveled against Halliburton's sole-source contracts in Iraq," Carle said. Such a nice man. I'm sure this whole Haliburton thing is entirely above-board, and he and the President only want what's best for the U.S.
  • Also, I'm an elf-prince who can talk to the dead.
  • I think it's funny. But it's either laugh or cry.
  • i liked how the washpost included his entire "fuck yourself" comment but then censored the word "asshole" a few grafs later. heh.
  • You're an elf-prince? You better get over to Penny Arcade double quick since the deadline is soon.
  • I'm no Cheney fan, but I think this is overblown. Same thing when Kerry got flak for the Rolling Stone interview. Oh wait, that was for Kerry talking about the shark incident during his days as a Led Zeppelin roadie.
  • This is unbecoming of his office. He could stand some self-control...
  • As it happens, the exchange occurred on the same day the Senate passed legislation described as the "Defense of Decency Act" by 99 to 1. Wheee! I don't care about the profanity so much, but it is revealing, how the criticism seems to be getting to him. And he's a dickhole.
  • cursed em tags...
  • Wow...i agree with f8xmulder! Is this some bizarro parallel universe? (...Much love f8x)
  • What's he so upset about? He just dodged a bullet on his energy meetings. Maybe he needs a vacation. He should go duck hunting or something.
  • I'm not as contrarian as some might think ;-) I think surlyboi agreed with me yesterday...perhaps this is a new era of chaos ("dogs and cats living together...mass hysteria!")
  • Maybe Cheney was just paraphrasing that old favorite song, "If you can't be with the one you love..."
  • I said that word this morning. Somebody please notify the press immediately. Send up the SideDish beacon*. On a more serious note, This American Life tackled the issue of linguistic propriety a few weeks ago. RealAudio stream here. I usually want to strangle myself after about two minutes of listening to Ira Glass, but the scatalogical nature of the show persuaded me to keep listening and it is quite interesting, in no small part for the segment in which little kids talk about how they first learned about swearing and why they don't do it in front of their grandparents. All told, I agree both that statespersons should conduct themselves with a certain sophistication not suggested by this outburst, and that it is really of no importance at all. My objection is that it shows disrespect for his colleague in a boorish fashion. It is far more impressive to vanquish ones intellectual foes with wit than vulgarity. Plus that it damages children. *Would that be a spotlight with carrots and peas in profile, by the way?
  • I'm going to have to agree with everything you've said other than Ira Glass. IMHO, he and his show are one of the best things (okay, I guess they're two things) about radio nowadays. That show is wonderful.
  • middleclasstool: My objection to Ira is really just that I find his voice terribly grating. Something about that almost stuttering, uncomfortable delivery... It is a personal reaction and contextually I've got no particular beef with the man. In fact as I was browsing the archives to find that show a few others in the past few months tackle topics that seem rather interesting, so I may, in the future, build an immunity. It worked for Terry Gross...
  • Maybe he's just pissed that Fahrenheit 9/11 made him look like such a dick.
  • Fahrenheit 9/11 makes Ira Glass look like a dick? Man, you think you know a derailment, and then - this!
  • pete_best just cracked me the fuck up. Oh, sorry for the language. The scary bald man on TV taught it to me.
  • Cheney, Dick = Cheney: Dick
  • When people I hate say "fuck," it's game over. It's game over when people I hate say "fuck."
  • In his own words. If you want to hang the man, go to the source. Don't quote Mother Jones, CounterPunch, and the freakin' People's Weekly World Newspaper.
  • Seconded.
  • (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
  • goetter's link won't load for me. Damn.
  • It's Faux.
  • Cheney Defends Use of Four Letter Word heh. got here before homunculus
  • Oh man a GIS for "Cheney" is pretty dang funny. I believe this is the winner.
  • Absurdly typical: "I expressed myself rather forcefully, felt better after I had done it," no apologies, nothing but an "it's what I wanted to do, so I did it, and I'm not sorry" attitude. Pathetic.
  • *passes torch to pete_best*
  • *cries, totters down runway, waves*
  • Cheney's cathartic outbursts of profanity are what's good for the country, and, by extension, the planet. Discuss.
  • Monkeyfilter: cathartic outbursts of profanity.
  • Cheney's cathartic outbursts of profanity are what's good for the country, and, by extension, the planet. Discuss. Baloney. Because he can do it, and Bush can do it, but nobody else can.
  • Sorry. I forgot to put my tags on my stupid joke.
  • the man's a barely-contained seething pot of rage and hate. The outburst was gas escaping. Who the fuck kills 400 caged animals for sport?? What a fucking scumbag.
  • Holy crap, pete! That's disguisting. My husband and I were at a friend's house last night when the Cheney comment came up (the 2 most informed and intelligent people I've ever met didn't know about it). My husband, who should be a history professor but chose instead to be an electrician, said that historically the vice-presidency is the most worthless job in the government, but that Cheney is doing a great job of making that a myth. My knowledge doesn't quite lean in that direction, so all I could do was nod and make a mental note to ask these intelligent monkeys what they think. So, intelligent monkeys, what do you think?
  • Yes, and yes. Veeps have very little actual political power (really only that one little tie-breaking vote), but I think Cheney has exerted tremendous influence on Bush.
  • vice-presidency is the most worthless job in the government But didn't Al Gore invent the internet!?
  • Argh!!!! ehem. sort of.
  • Of course I was playing fool. Really!
  • Ah. Yes, playing fool. I see. ;o) The whole Gore/internet (or Internet) thing has been a matter of ridicule for a long time. I did research because I knew there was something... hinkey about it. Although.... no one will ever know who really created the Internet (or internet). Was it the US scientis? The government? Was it Europe? Was it the brilliant idea of a Ben Affleck sidekick? Except for one guy trying to get all the credit for something that wasn't completely his, I guess it doesn't matter too much at this point.
  • Um, and make that "US scientists".
  • I blame the US military. Although the WWW is the sole creation of a CERN physicist.
  • Dick Cheney gets booed at Yankees game.
    Cheney, who visited both clubhouses after batting practice, watched part of the game from the box of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and part from a first-row seat next to the Yankees dugout, where he sat between New York Gov. George Pataki and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Cheney was booed when he was shown on the right-field videoboard during the seventh-inning stretch.
  • Hey kids, Al Gore invented the Internet! [re: Dick getting booed...] That's classic, Sully. So is that what happens when the Bush/Cheney lackeys don't completely stage manage their public appearances...?
  • Sullivan - nice find! That makes me all warm & toasty inside. :o) Wedge - At last, the mystery is solved. Thanks! I feel a bit st00pid
  • *inserts political cartoon of cheney operating bush as a ventriloquist's dummy in front of 9/11 commission*
  • NEW DETAILS SURFACE in the exchange between Cheney and Leahy
  • Damn, pete. I was going to post that. I already did on Metapop. That is fucking hysterical.
  • Teresa Heinz Kerry tells reporter to "shove it" Too bad, I like her in general but she got called on something she said, denied it, and lost her cool. *tsk* *tsk*
  • Pete, that wasn't a hardball question. She could have said something like that: people who question the policies of the Bush administration shouldn't be called unpatriotic. Our founding fathers believed it is a citizen's duty to question government in order to maintain democracy.
  • right, and I although the clips were played over and over on headline news, I was in a noisy area and didn't hear the whole thing. I still think Cheny is a seething cauldron of evil and cruelty, but I figured fair was fair. Are you saying that it's apples & oranges?
  • How the hell did I miss that last night? Fantastic idea. You wait your age, buddy.
  • Oh my god- that picture is right up there with the puppies and what not. Yet another beauty find, brave homunculus. *Squeak!*