You're doing good work. Keep it up.
Posted on 07/18/2004 6:44:49 PM PDT by wagglebee
A month ago, after Vice President Dick Cheney caused a stir when he told Sen. Pat Leahy to "f--- yourself," White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett advised the Cheney team to "just make a joke of it," a senior White House official tells Newsweek.
But Cheney did not. Rather, the veep affirmed to Fox News that he had told off Leahy and "felt better afterwards."
Mary Matalin, the former White House aide who acts as an informal media and political adviser for the Cheneys tells Newsweek that she doubts Cheney had ever heard the White House official's advice. "I know what advice he was given because it came directly from me through [his daughter] Liz. And he already knew what he wanted to do," says Matalin.
It is significant that even Matalin communicated with Cheney "through Liz," the veep's 37-year-old daughter, who recently quit her job as a deputy assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs to work on the Bush- Cheney re-election campaign, report White House Correspondent Tamara Lipper and Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas in the July 26 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, July 19).
Vice President Dick Cheney's wife, Lynne, and daughters Liz and Mary, known around the Bush-Cheney headquarters as The Family, can be intense, insular and prickly as they protect their man, his reputation and his place on the GOP ticket.
Matalin readily acknowledges the central role played by the Cheney family.
"They family together, they work together," she says. "It's a seamless operation." Liz Cheney says: "Family members can be completely honest. We're very direct with each other." That is not always true of Cheney staffers, who sometimes feel intimidated by going up against The Family. Since taking office, Cheney is on his fourth press secretary, and all of them have appeared to be afraid of even trying to pass on tough or annoying questions from reporters.
But The Family has been feeling a little besieged lately and Cheney is lagging in some polls. His favorable rating in a New York Times/CBS poll last month stood at 21 percent, compared with 39 percent for President George W. Bush. But other opinion surveys show Cheney hanging on to a slight favorable/unfavorable edge (46 to 43 percent in the latest Newsweek Poll).
A senior Bush-Cheney campaign official shrugged off the polls as meaningless. And every White House and campaign official contacted by Newsweek rejected the suggestion that Cheney might be dropped from the ticket. Still, a Bush campaign official concedes, "We didn't care enough about his image."
Buzz that Cheney may be dropped from the ticket is a "silly parlor game," says Matalin.
"Why won't he be a, you know, Washington B.S. guy? Because he's not a Washington B.S. guy," she says. "He might be burned by you guys [the media], but they love him out there...He is a reassuring guy, not because he has grandchildren sitting on his lap, but because he just exudes depth and breadth and experience and competence."
In other words, either Newsweek or their mysterious White House "source" is intentionally lying to harm Cheney.
Big mistake. Collin Powell would give us a chance.
No way, McCain is the October surprise. You hear President Cheney in 2008? That's Hillary's pipe dream. McCain would mean 12 more years of GOP.
www.bushmcain2004.com
Matalin made clear that no one, with the exception of the president, tells Cheney what to do. A month ago Cheney caused a stir when he told Sen. Pat Leahy to "f--- yourself" after Leahy came over to jolly him up on the Senate floor. (Cheney was mad at Leahy for making political hay over Cheney's ties to his old company, Halliburton.) Afterward, a senior White House official told news-week that Communications Director Dan Bartlett advised the Cheney team to "just make a joke of it." But Cheney did not. Rather, the veep affirmed to Fox News that he had told off Leahy and "felt better afterwards." In her interview with NEWSWEEK, Matalin doubted that Cheney had ever heard the White House official's advice. "I know what advice he was given because it came directly from me through Liz. And he already knew what he wanted to do," said Matalin.
Welcome to Free Republic.
Silence, newbie. You know not of what you speak.
Thank you so much. You wouldn't believe how long I've waited to get on here. You really wouldn't. Now that I'm here I plan to participate in the dialogue and express myself freely. Thankyou for your welcome. See you later.
It would take about 35 seconds for the media to start bleating that a dumping of Cheney is an act of complete desperation and an admission by Bush that his first term had been a failure.
Newbie. Colin Powell doesn't want to be president, and he would alienate the base.
I'm sorry . Did I say something wrong? I was only expressing my opinion that Chaney seems a little flat politically right now and a new vp candidate might spice things up. Is that wrong?
What base?
Plus, he doesn't want to be President, and his wife would never consent to him being on Bush's ticket.
You're doing good work. Keep it up.
Didn't realize there was a waiting list to get on here. BTW, Walter Murphy really butchered the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth.
a chance at what ?
There will be plenty of time during the next year and way before '08 for Bush to shuffle his top people with a view to grooming a VP
McCain was the October 2000 surprise. Lots of reliable sources said so.
The October 2004 surprise is Powell, according to the same reliable sources.
Are these the same "reliable" sources who said Kerry was going with Gephardt?
He wants a chance at being zotted.
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