Swear Him in for a Second Term

For the record, Cheney told Senator Leahy "Go fuck yourself!"

Boy, talk about a bunch of themes encapsulated in one outburst. Cheney mobilizes his base: people who think cursing the opposition constitutes an argument.

I could almost forgive the Vice President for losing his cool, but he wasn't apologetic about it, which tells me he didn't lose his cool. He's expressing his mind.

1. The administration never admits mistakes, and certainly NEVER apologizes for them. It's proud of them.
2. When they call Patrick Leahy anti-Catholic, it's just normal politics. When he calls the Veep on it, it's crossing over the line. (The remark was uttered to Leahy after he expressed unhappiness with being called anti-catholic because he opposed a specific judicial nominee.)
3. Cheney felt good about it afterwards. Not ashamed he'd lost control in the house of democracy's greatest deliberative body.
4. When questioned about the civility of the Senate being violated, Cheney parses this legalistically -- like certain torture memos I could mention -- and excuses himself on the grounds the Senate wasn't technically in session.
5. He felt he wasn't responding to a specific incident so much as settling a score.
6. He believes that cussing a guy out is proper retribution for the slights of the past.
7. He's so gutless that even when defending himself for swearing, he won't come right out and admit it. He says he "probably" used the word fuck.

So America -- prepare to go fuck yourselves if you don't like what the Veep is dishing out.

What a fucking asshole.

Complete transcript of the interview is here:.

CAVUTO: All right. Sir, a couple of little issues I want settled, or maybe to get the real skinny on. One was this blowout you had the other day with Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont. What happened?

CHENEY: Well, I guess you could say we had a little floor debate in the United States Senate.

CAVUTO: I heard it was more than a debate.

CHENEY: Well, I expressed myself rather forcefully, felt better after I had done it.

CAVUTO: All right. Now, did you use the "F" word?

CHENEY: That's not the kind of language I usually use.

CAVUTO: All right, because the reports were that you did.

CHENEY: Yes, that's not the kind of language I ordinarily use. But...

CAVUTO: What did you tell him?

CHENEY: I expressed my dissatisfaction for Senator Leahy.

CAVUTO: Over his comments about you and Halliburton?

CHENEY: No. It was partly that. It was partly — also, it had to do with — he is the kind of individual who will make those kinds of charges and then come after you as though he's your best friend. And I expressed, in no uncertain terms, my views of the — of his conduct and walked away.

CAVUTO: Did you curse at him?

CHENEY: Probably.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: Do you have any regrets?

CHENEY: No. I said it, and I felt that...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: So let me understand, he comes up, he sees you, Mr. Vice — he's all nice, shakes your hand. And then what do you do, let into him?

CHENEY: Explain my unhappiness with the way he conducted himself. Ppart of the problem here is, that instead of having a substantive debate over important policy issues, he had challenged my integrity. And I didn't like that. But, most of all, I didn't like the fact that after he had done so then he wanted to act like, you know, everything's peaches and cream.

And I informed him of my view of his conduct in no uncertain terms. And as I say, I felt better afterwards.

CAVUTO: All right. Now, they say you broke decorum for normally a Senate or congressional session. Now, technically, I guess, it wasn't in session.

CHENEY: No, we weren't in session. What we were doing was waiting to take our pictures, our official Senate photo. And I go up and sit in the chair, as the president of the Senate (UNINTELLIGIBLE).