Cheney Mocked By Media Over Auschwitz Attire

Associated Press ^ | January 28, 2005 | seattlepi.newsource.com

[Bigturbowski]

OSWIECIM, Poland -- Vice President Dick Cheney's utilitarian hooded parka and boots stood out amid the solemn formality of a ceremony commemorating the liberation of Nazi death camps, raising eyebrows among the fashion-conscious.

Cheney replaced the zipped-to-the-neck green parka he sported in Thursday's blowing snow and freezing wind with a more traditional black coat - red tie and gray scarf showing underneath - for his tour of Auschwitz on Friday.

Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan described Cheney's look at the deeply moving 60th anniversary service as "the kind of attire one typically wears to operate a snow blower."

"Cheney stood out in a sea of black-coated world leaders because he was wearing an olive drab parka with a fur-trimmed hood," Givhan wrote in Friday's Post, also mocking Cheney's knit ski cap embroidered with the words "Staff 2001" and his brown, lace-up hiking boots. "The vice president looked like an awkward child amid the well-dressed adults," she said.

[EDINVA]

wonderful to "meet" a Brit "sister" on our side !!!!

I was in your lovely country last year and it may have been a fluke but didn't meet even one Brit who was not delightful .. nor did I meet any who were rabidly anti-American. Saw a few oddballs on the tube, but that was it.

[snugs]

Thank you for your positive words about us Brits.

[foreshadowed at waco]

Cheney is probably the only one listening, the rest are shivering.

ROTFLMAO!!!

[E Rocc]

He's a recent heart patient and pretty old. I suspect Lynne insisted he dress as warmly as possible. Especially if there's something we don't know about going on, like a cold or slight flu.

We don't need any more William Henry Harrisons.

-Eric

[Squire Eaton]

I ask again. What am I supposed to look like and what does a hick dress like?? Are you able to either define a hick or to describe what they really look like. Please site your authority with your answer/

Squire Eaton

[NorCalRepub]

I think you meant to ask this question not to me who posted in #169 which you linked to but to the guy in #170 who said something about hicks.......it wasn't me ....you may want to go back and reply to # 170......

[MIT-Elephant]

wasn't Auscwitz liberated by the Ruskies..... Yes. The Red Army chased the Nazis out of their Polish camps.

The Americans liberated Buchenwald and, I believe, the infamous POW camp Mauthausen.

[NorCalRepub]

yeah.......LOL>..we finally convinced the jerk on here who kept saying the US liberated the camps.....I think he got his military history from bubblegum cartoons

[snarkytart]

>>>How do you know the people sitting next to him are jackasses?<<<<


The real question is how come you do not know Chirac is a jackass??

[giotto]

Cheney did stick out like a sore thumb......

Really? Tell me what is the proper attire to wear to a death camp?

LOL! Touché!

[Lijahsbubbe]

If only he had the fashion sense of these two....

[Welsh Rabbit]

Since when do you have to be a "Fashion Plate" to visit Auschwitz?

I visited Dachau once. It didn't occur to me to dress in my most somber and fashionable funeral attire. I hope nobody was offended... /s

[finnman69]

Petty that they report this, but Cheney was inappropriately dressed.

[snugs]

**Leave it to the MSM to take the focus off of the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and put it on a man (not a young one) with a history of health problems. **

A very astute comment and in fact we have also got caught up in the same thing on the FR because of our indignation of yet further attacks by the MSM on the Vice President.

I was watching it on Sky News live (I watched it for over an hour and a half probably nearly 2 hours and not once did they show any shots up close of the dignitaries sitting; only when they were laying the candles. Maybe that had been advised to the US Delegation and naively they did not think the photographers would take pictures if the TV were not. I say this because nowhere have I seen footage of him or any of the other heads of state sitting up close (distance picture where you cannot even tell if they are male or female were shown) all I have seen on TV of them sitting has been a photo - but no footage.

No one would have been aware of the hat if the only photos that had been taken were of the laying of the candles as the Vice President removed the hat and gloves and lowered the hood on the parka out of respect; eyebrows may have been raised at the parka but IMHO what drew attention to that was the hat and then the boots were noticed. I believe Cheney and his office naively did not think the pictures of him sitting would be taken.

Let us concentrate rather on the words he has spoken and the beautiful comment in the visitors book that he wrote, forget what he wore, what he has said and done on the visit is the more important thing. Incidentally when he and his daughter visited the camp the following morning again spending another 90 minutes in freezing conditions he wore a long back coat this time he was moving about and not sitting in a cold and probably damp atmosphere.

The bottom line is this great statesman attended this commemoration despite having had 4 heart attacks, by pass op, stents and pace maker braved the biting cold to sit for 3 hours in snow conditions to pay his respects when the British Prime Minster choose an economic conference with his great pal Clinton and more disgustedly "BONO" and then hurried back to the UK to speak in the warmth and comfort of Westminster Hall Commemoration Service. He should have been in Poland and the fact he was not gives the world the message that Britain is not going to give significant support to Israel and GWB may have difficulties in getting any support from "his friend Tony Blair" on Israel. I fear anti Jewish feelings are once again on the march in Europe and the UK are not helping.

[jwalsh07]

22 Arab NAtions refused to attend the commenoration and all this bimbo can write about is Cheneys parka with a touch of condescension toward those who use a snow blower.

[janee]

Vice President Cheney looks like Mr. Wyoming! Very smart to be dressed as an American that knows something about extremely cold weather and a heart condition. He is charming in whatever attire. Mrs. C always looks sharp. Media is needing to get back for the ridiculous Senator Kerry's "gitups"!

[Marysecretary]

That's right. They all wear those ugly black coats and he was nice and warm. Who's smarter?

[Marysecretary]

That's right. He always stands out in a crowd, especially THIS one (smile)!