Karl Rove: Cheney 'squirmed' when offered VP spot

By GottaLaff

Oh goody. KKKarl wrote all about Dickless McHeartStent in his new book. I'm sure every word he's written is true and accurate.

Of the heartless, by the heartless:

The parts of the 516-page book that cover the selection of Cheney as Bush's running mate suggest that the longtime Republican insider was not comfortable when offered the position.

Neither were we.

"Bush surprised Cheney by asking him to think about becoming his running mate. Cheney said he'd consider it but wasn't certain it was a good idea for Bush or for him."

Oh yes, I'm sure that's just how it went down:

Bush: Whaddya say you run for president, DickHead?

Dickless: You mean vice president, don't you?

Bush: Hehheh, nope. But that'll be my new nickname for ya. Vice President DickHead. But we'll keep that to ourselves. We're like that, me and you. Sym-pat-ic-o. Kinda like conspirators, heheheh. Accessories under the fact.

"Some people have suggested that Cheney engineered his own selection. This is far-fetched. I saw the man squirm as Bush pressed him to accept," Rove writes.

Bush: Whoa, DickHead, yer gittin' all squirmy on me. What's up, a-mi-go?

Dickless: "Vice" president. Too many things wrong with that. F*** "vice".

Bush: Hold up there, chief. You'll be holdin' the reins. Yer the head honcho. Oo! Oo! I know what'll convince ya!

Dickless: For chrissake, George, STFU.

Bush: Nonono, yer gonna like this. Lissen up: I'll bomb Iraq. Ya got my word. To smithereens. And then we'll move on to Iran. Man, this is gonna be a blast! Hey, didja see what I did there? The little play on words? Blast? Bombs? Heheheheheheheh!

Dickless: Deal. ... And never, ever, call me amigo again... for your own good. Just thinking of you, junior. Need you to stay in one piece if I'm gonna be surreptitiously running the damn country.

Bush: What's shrubterishously mean?

Dickless: STFU.

"Cheney had a clear understanding of what John Nance Garner, FDR's first vice president, had said about the office - that it was 'not worth a bucket of warm piss.' Cheney was too much of a patriot to act on that knowledge."

Yeah, Cheney's too much of a patriot to avoid the "warm piss" reference. But not too much of a patriot to avoid telling Pat Leahy to f*** himself. What a stand up guy.

Obama Extends Cheney's Secret Service Protection

Why would anyone even bother to try? I mean, he's had like 6 heart attacks already, and with the Dark Side in his pocket...

There appears no end in sight for when Dick Cheney, a rare former vice president with Secret Service protection, will lose his security detail. Whispers has learned that the political battler's Secret Service protection has been extended, though there were no details on the length.

We don't know why President Obama OK'd the extension, which must be approved by the commander in chief because former veeps typically don't get any Secret Service security after leaving office. But indications are that the threats against Cheney, who's working on his biography at his homes in Virginia and Maryland, haven't lessened since his term expired.

I'm honestly surprised.

VP Biden in Sarajevo for Bosnia talks

For all the crap he gets from the right and the comics, Joe's just out there slogging thru the hard stuff, doing his job.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina, May 19 (UPI) -- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrived Tuesday in Sarajevo for talks with leaders of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the first stop on his three-country Balkan tour.

Biden's Air Force Two landed at Sarajevo airport before dawn and was welcomed by U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia Charles English, Bosnian Foreign Minister Sven Alkalaj and Sarajevo Mayor Alija Behmen, the sarajevo-x.com Web site said.

(snip)

Biden is to travel to Belgrade Wednesday for talks with Serbian leaders, and Thursday will visit Pristina for talks with leaders of Kosovo, where he will tour the U.S. Bondsteel military base for talks with U.S. and NATO officials.

Jack Kemp, one-time VP nominee, dies

Another dinosaur moderate gone.

WASHINGTON—Jack Kemp, the ex-quarterback, congressman, one-time vice-presidential nominee and self-described "bleeding-heart conservative" died Saturday. He was 73.

His spokeswoman Bona Park and longtime friend and former campaign adviser Edwin J. Feulner confirmed that Kemp died after a lengthy illness.

Kemp had announced in January 2009 that he had been diagnosed with cancer. He said he was undergoing tests but gave no other detail.

Kemp, a former quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, represented western New York for nine terms in Congress, leaving the House for an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1988.

Eight years later, after serving a term as President George H.W. Bush's housing secretary, he made it onto the national ticket as Bob Dole's running-mate.

Poll-itics: One in five think Cheney is worst VP in U.S. history

By GottaLaff

Worst. Person. In the Woooooorrrrld:

A new national poll suggests that one of out of five Americans think that Dick Cheney is the worst vice president in American history.

Twenty-three percent of those questioned in a CNN-Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday say that Cheney is the country's worst vice president, when compared to his predecessors. Another 41 percent feel that Cheney is a poor vice president, with 34 percent rating him a good number two.

Only 1 percent of those polled say that Cheney is the best vice president in U.S. history.

I didn't realize his family was big enough to add up to a whole 1 percent.

Vice Presidential Upgrade

I lol'd. Via Oliver.

Late Show - Top Ten Highlights of the Cheney/Biden Meeting

Tomorrow, The Cheneys Give The Bidens "The Tour"

After dark of course. I'm thinking certain "rooms" will be excluded.

Tomorrow at 5:15 p.m., Biden and his wife meet the Cheneys.

They'll have a private meeting and tour of the residence, according to an Obama spokesman, and release an official photo.

Biden has been rather hard on the unpopular veep in the past, as in:

"The vice president doesn't know what he's talking about. I can't be more blunt than that. He is yet to be right one single time on Iraq. Name me one single time he's been correct."

Biden Sees Mondale as Model

Sounds about right to me.

According to Bloomberg, it is former Vice President Walter Mondale, not Vice President Dick Cheney, "who is the likely model" for Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

"Mondale, who served under President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s, was consulted on almost every appointment and had access to the same documents as the president... During his tenure, Mondale said he served as an extension of the presidency, traveling to China and the Middle East on diplomatic missions and advising Carter on international and domestic issues."

VIDEO: Joe Scarborough reacts to IWRC* Palin's candidacy, the lost episode

By GottaLaff

I remember back when they first announced IWRC* Palin's candidacy and how Pat Buchanan blasted her on Countdown. In this video, we see Joe Scarborough piling on. Time to open our IWRC scrapbooks for a walk down memory lane (Gramm-pa McCain is excused from this exercise in recall):


H/t: Amy C.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

Bonus Quote of the Day, Biden Style

"I pay for my suits. I pay for all of my own clothing."

-- Sen. Joe Biden, in an interview with WSLS-TV, when asked if he bought his own clothing.

The RNC spent $150,000 on clothing for Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin,

VIDEO-- IWRC* Palin: The Vice President Is ‘In Charge Of The U.S. Senate’

By GottaLaff



Yep. IWRC*'s ready to step right in, what with her vast knowledge of how the government works and all:

Yesterday, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) sat for an interview with KUSA, an NBC affiliate in Colorado. In response to a question sent to the network by a third grader at a local elementary school about what the Vice President does, Palin erroneously argued that the Vice President is “in charge of the United States Senate". [...]

[She] herself asked this very question on national television in July. Apparently, she still hasn’t learned the correct answer.

Article I of the Constitution establishes an exceptionally limited role for the Vice President — giving the office holder a vote only when the Senate is “equally divided”:

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.

Moreover, the U.S. Senate website explains that the modern role of Vice Presidents has been to preside over the Senate “only on ceremonial occasions.” ThinkProgress contacted Senior Assistant Paliamentarian Peter Robinson, who also disputed Palin’s characterization of the Vice President’s role:

In modern practice the Vice President doesn’t really control the Senate. … If anyone has a responsibility to try to govern the Senate, it’s the responsibility of the two leaders.

Maybe she meant she'd only be in charge of the pro-American Senators.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

Dear Joe Scarborough

You are currently on the teevee ranting about how Sarah Palin is the future of the Republican Party, citing the highest rated day of the Republican Convention, the highest rated Vice Presidential Debates and the highest rated Saturday Night Live in years as proof to her popularity. I'll give you her night at the convention as more of a case of curiosity, but here's a secret that you really should know- We were turning in to watch her fall on her face, embarrass herself and hopefully shame herself so bad that she goes back to Alaska to never be heard from again, at least until she forms a "Man On Moose" think tank with Rick Santorum. Think "car crash" and you'll figure it out.

Sincerely, Paddy

FOX Freakout Over Unretouched Palin Photo On Newsweek Cover

Jeebus. "A clear slap in the face of Sarah Palin"? /bangs head on desk

Via Jed again.

WTF?

NO SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE F? Reuters needs to explain this shit. I don't like freaking Palin, but that's just wrong.

Joe Biden On Today- Palin’s attacks ‘malarkey’

Love it.

Sarah Palin: Palling Around With Secessionists

Apologies- computer problems. Via Jed.

Must Read- "Barracuda"

Go now. (h/t John Cole) But here are two bits that leaped out at me. About her time on the city council (I dare you not to shake your head)-

In 1996, Palin was also asserting herself more and more. For example, she'd demand to know why Stein, the mayor, had "raised the budget." Stein and Carney tried to explain that he'd done nothing of the kind--that, when a city grows, businesses collect more in tax revenue, but that new residents also increase demand for public services. Palin wasn't appeased. She'd say things like, "'Oh, okay. Well, that's the way you think about it,'" Stein recalls. "I was thinking--these are things she should know better. Why is she asking me these stupid questions?"

So then crazy gal decides to run for the Mayor's office using um, shall we say tactics that are more at home at Red State and the PUMA sites than a serious political contest.

Within a few months, Palin was officially challenging Stein and exploiting the cultural shift masterfully. She welcomed a national anti-abortion group in to carpet bomb Wasilla with pink postcards affirming her pro-life bona fides. She orchestrated an NRA endorsement and a mailing from the group falsely proclaiming Stein, a lifelong hunter, "anti-gun." (Stein complained to the local newspaper that Palin was telling voters he wanted to "melt down" all the firearms in the state.) And, in a move practically out of Karl Rove's playbook, she dwelled on how Stein's wife used her maiden name, going so far as to demand a marriage certificate as proof of their nuptials. Palin's campaign literature proclaimed her "deeply devoted to conservative family values"--all in the context of an ostensibly nonpartisan election. (Stein himself was a moderate Republican.)

Poll-itics: VP Debate Pushed Undecided Voters to Obama

By GottaLaff

Go Biden!

An Ipsos/McClatchy poll found that Gov. Sarah Palin's performance in last week's vice presidential debate actually hurt her running mate, Sen. John McCain, among undecided voters.

Before the debate, undecided voters were leaning 56% to 44% for McCain. The day after the debate, the numbers tilted 52% to 48% for Sen. Barack Obama.

Said pollster Clifford Young: "It's suggesting an overall tendency of undecideds toward Obama, so it is significant. We're catching an underlying trend that's going on."

The poll also found that Sen. Joe Biden won the debate, 54% to 46%.

That's a whole grab bag of good news!

SNL Vice Presidential Debate Parody