Cheney tells Senator to "fuck yourself"

[Skogen]

Cheney Dismisses Critic With Obscenity


By Helen Dewar and Dana Milbank


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.


"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.


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.


Cheney's office did not deny that the phrase was uttered. His spokesman,
Kevin S. Kellems, would say only that this language is not typical of the
vice presidential vocabulary. "Reserving the right to revise and extend my
remarks, that doesn't sound like language the vice president would use,"
Kellems said, "but there was a frank exchange of views."


Gleeful Democrats pointed out that the White House has not always been so
forgiving of obscenity. In December, Democratic presidential candidate John
F. Kerry was quoted using the same word in describing Bush's Iraq policy as
botched. The president's chief of staff reacted with indignation.


"That's beneath John Kerry," Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. said. "I'm
very disappointed that he would use that kind of language. I'm hoping that
he's apologizing at least to himself, because that's not the John Kerry that
I know."


This was not the first foray into French by Cheney and his boss. During the
2000 campaign, Bush pointed out a New York Times reporter to Cheney and
said, without knowing the microphone was picking it up, "major-league
[expletive]." Cheney's response -- "Big Time" -- has become his official
presidential nickname.


Then there was that famous Talk magazine interview of Bush by Tucker Carlson
in 1999, in which the future president repeatedly used the F-word.


Tuesday's exchange began when Leahy crossed the aisle at the photo session
and joked to Cheney about being on the Republican side, according to Carle.
Then Cheney, according to Carle, "lashed into" Leahy for remarks he made
Monday criticizing Iraq contracts won without competitive bidding by
Halliburton, Cheney's former employer.


Leahy, Carle said, retorted that Democrats "have not appreciated White House
collusion in smears" that Democrats were anti-Catholic for blocking judicial
nominees such as William H. Pryor Jr. Democrats demanded that Bush disavow
the allegations by conservative groups, but the White House did not.


The Democratic National Committee has declared this to be "Halliburton Week"
to portray administration ties to the controversial company. "Sounds like
it's making somebody a little testy," Kerry spokesman Chad Clanton said.


Republicans did their best to defend the vice president. Senate Judiciary
Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), while pointing out that he was
unaware of the incident, described Cheney as "very honest" and said: "I
don't blame anyone for standing up for his integrity."


There is no rule against obscene language by a vice president on the Senate
floor. The senators were present for a group picture and not in session, so
Rule 19 of the Senate rules -- which prohibits vulgar statements "unbecoming
a senator" -- does not apply, according to a Senate official. Even if the
Senate were in session, the vice president, though constitutionally the
president of the Senate, is an executive branch official and therefore free
to use whatever language he likes.

[Kylere]

Umm http://www.veeshanvault.org/forums/view ... hp?t=10135

[Skogen]

ah man, I thought that cheney AND Kerry told the same senator to fuck off!

oh well, dare to dream eh?

[Kylere]

Well you know, if they had it would have been a record of bipartisan work on the part of both of them heh