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Early Show Speculates on Rift Between "Darth Vader" Cheney and Bush(Harry Smith megabarf alert)
NewsBusters, Scott Whitlock's blog ^ | 02/20/06 | Scott Whitlock

Posted on 02/20/2006 4:16:14 PM PST by JustaCowgirl

Some people may have been wondering if the nine-day old Dick Cheney hunting story would be going away. Don’t count on it. On the February 20 edition of the Early Show, Evan Thomas, assistant managing editor at Newsweek, told Harry Smith that "People who don’t like [Cheney] think this is the dark, Darth Vader type." His analysis coincided with the new issue of Newsweek that features a cover story, written by Thomas, on "Cheney’s Secret World." The online edition features this sub-headline:

"He peppered a man in the face, but didn’t tell his boss. Inside Dick Cheney’s dark, secretive mind-set-and the forces that made it that way." (Italics added)

Thomas elaborated on his Dick-Cheney-is-a-Dark-Lord thesis in the Early Show interview. Airing at 7:18AM EST, he described the then Vice Presidential candidate of the 2000 debates as "amiable" and "reasonable." Now, Thomas added ominously, "There is this feeling that maybe Cheney has gotten more reclusive, a little gloomier, a little darker then he used to be."

Thomas spoke of a growing rift between Bush and the Vice President. His proof? According to the veteran journalist, "I do not want to overstate this, but they used to have a weekly lunch. They don’t anymore." Throughout the interview, Thomas peppered his comments with qualifiers and speculation. Here are but a few:

"And this is very speculative, one of the big guessing games in Washington is has the President changed in some way?"

"There are little, tiny signs that the President is less dependent..."

"There’s an endless guessing game in Washington about their relationship, and of course we don’t really know..." (Italics added)

Harry Smith, for his part, chose to speak for conservatives. He stated, "Fans would say that he can’t be bothered by the trivial needs of the press." Perhaps I don’t know the same Cheney "fans" that Thomas does, but wasn’t the conservative argument that the media was blowing the story out of proportion?

It seems as though the media’s plan to continue reporting on the story involves speculation and Star Wars references.

A partial transcript follows:

The Early Show 2/20/06 7:18AM EST

Harry Smith and Evan Thomas

Smith: "You know, this episode for a lot of people only serves to reinforce what Cheney lovers and Cheney loathers really believe already, which is what do you think?"

Thomas: "Well, you know, he does split the country. People who don't like him think this is the dark, Darth Vader-type guy. And people who do like him, and that's at least half the country, think the press is piling on and beating up on him unfairly."

Smith: "What does that ring to you? That absence of communication?"

Thomas: "Well, there's an endless guessing game in Washington about their relationship, and of course we don't really know because it is the mostly closely guarded of all, but there are little signs that it's, maybe, not quite as close as it once was. I do not want to overstate this, but they used to have a weekly lunch. They don't anymore, it's not every week. There are little, tiny signs that the President is less dependent on the Vice President then he used to be at the beginning of his Presidency."

Smith: "Yeah, because if we go back, and you indicate in your article, you go back all the way back to the beginning as they were campaigning, you know, people said they watched the debate with Cheney and Joe Lieberman, and people said they seemed like the grown ups compared to the kids (Thomas laughs) and people said maybe they should flip the tickets. Is there really a difference now? Is the President really is own guy and is Cheney some place farther back then the back seat?"

Thomas: "Uh, well, I mean there are a lot of, and this is very speculative, one of the big guessing games in Washington is has the President changed in some way? The amiable, reasonable Dick Cheney that we saw in those debates, in the first set of debates, now the view is that maybe he has changed a little bit. Brent Scowcroft, who was Bush 41's national security advisor, gave vent to this by saying, I don't know Dick Cheney anymore. Scowcroft and Cheney had gone way back and there is this feeling that maybe Cheney has gotten more reclusive, a little gloomier, a little darker, then he used to be."


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cheney; darthvader; demagogicparty; dickcheney; earlyshow; evanthomas; gimmeabreak; harrysmith; mediaidiots; memebuilding; newsweek; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; shooting
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To: Howlin

She never said that and he is totally taking her words out of context

translation ... he's lying .. AGAIN

here is the video

Mary Matalin: “You [The Press] Went on a Jihad” (VIDEO)
http://exposetheleft.com/2006/02/19/mtp-cheney/


21 posted on 02/20/2006 4:57:25 PM PST by Mo1 (Republicans protect Americans from Terrorists.. Democrats protect Terrorists from Americans)
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To: Bender2

LOL! Wonder if your NYTimes edition readership will soon eclipse the original?


22 posted on 02/20/2006 4:59:53 PM PST by 6SJ7
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To: Howlin
Tonight, Hardball was the biggest Cheney Bush bash. Chrissy couldn't hide his hate and only had guests on who will agree with him. There is no way Chrissy could have been more unfair.
(Maybe he is always like this I normally don't watch it.)
23 posted on 02/20/2006 5:02:52 PM PST by motherof 3
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To: PzLdr
Yes but Cheney doesn't want the MSM to know that secret

Always two there are. A master and apprentice 8>)

24 posted on 02/20/2006 5:08:14 PM PST by Horatio Gates (If your belt buckle reads Allahu Akbar, You might be a muslim red neck!!)
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To: 6SJ7
The Slimes readership is growing by leaps and bounds! I have more than a dozen actual readers. That beats the NYT by six...

BTW I have more New York Slimes Editions on my FR Homepage and my Archives Page


25 posted on 02/20/2006 5:09:16 PM PST by Bender2 (Redid my FR Homepage just for ya'll... Now, Vote Republican and vote often)
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To: JustaCowgirl

Poor little Evan Thomas, his buddy Imus took the day off so he had to take his diatribe to the low ratings CBS show.


26 posted on 02/20/2006 5:12:01 PM PST by TC Rider (The United States Constitution © 1791. All Rights Reserved.)
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To: Bender2

LOL!


27 posted on 02/20/2006 5:15:31 PM PST by JustaCowgirl (Jimmy Carter -- as ugly and loathsome as a Democrat funeral.)
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To: TC Rider
Look up 'dweeb' in the dictionary. You'll see this picture. Two of the most worthless dweebs ever. E...VV...ER.
28 posted on 02/20/2006 5:18:36 PM PST by JustaCowgirl (Jimmy Carter -- as ugly and loathsome as a Democrat funeral.)
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To: JustaCowgirl
He peppered a man in the face, but didn’t tell his boss.

Shoot, I once beat a guy senseless with a tire tool on purpose while I was at work and didn't tell my boss about it until the middle of the next morning. I guess we take things like that a little less seriously in East Texas.

29 posted on 02/20/2006 5:27:54 PM PST by KarinG1 (Some of us are trying to engage in philosophical discourse. Please don't allow us to interrupt you.)
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To: JustaCowgirl
Darth Cheney to Evan Thomas: "I find your lack of faith disturbing."
30 posted on 02/20/2006 5:37:50 PM PST by TheRobb7 (The American Spirit does not require a federal subsidy.)
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To: JustaCowgirl

Well, one thing's for sure, we have plenty of hot-shot reporters who can really go after Hillary on the Vince Foster "sucicide" thingy. NOT! Most will quit reporter work and hire on at a convience store first.


31 posted on 02/20/2006 5:44:26 PM PST by Waco
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To: csmusaret

I'm a big fan of rifled slugs, personally.


32 posted on 02/20/2006 5:45:32 PM PST by stm (It's possible to fix most things, but you can't fix stupid)
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To: Waco

See post #30 for an illustration of the reason why.


33 posted on 02/20/2006 5:45:48 PM PST by JustaCowgirl (Jimmy Carter -- as ugly and loathsome as a Democrat funeral.)
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To: Bender2; All

OMG that too funnyyy ROFL

I wonder how Baby look Dick Cheney and Ann Coulter DNA ALRIGHT MR VICE PRESIDENT didn't know you had in you LOL!


34 posted on 02/20/2006 6:58:03 PM PST by SevenofNine (I'd rather hunt with Dick Cheney than ride with Ted Kennedy)
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To: Horatio Gates

One to wild power. One to crave it.


35 posted on 02/20/2006 7:14:19 PM PST by PzLdr ("The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" - Darth Vader)
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To: Horatio Gates

One to wield power. One to crave it.


36 posted on 02/20/2006 7:14:35 PM PST by PzLdr ("The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" - Darth Vader)
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To: TheRobb7

"You don't understand the power of the dark side". Or, preferably, "Apology accepted, Mr. Thomas.".


37 posted on 02/20/2006 7:16:50 PM PST by PzLdr ("The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" - Darth Vader)
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To: JustaCowgirl


Evan Thomas - Grandson of six-time Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas


"The media, I think, want Kerry to win….That's going to be worth maybe 15 points." -- Evan Thomas, "Inside Politics," July 11, 2004


"But do you believe that most reporters want John Kerry to win?" Kurtz asked. "Yeah," replied Thomas. "Absolutely."



******


Evan Thomas was born in April 1951 in Huntington, New York and grew up in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. His father Evan Thomas II was an executive with the book publishing house Scribner's. His grandfather was Norman Thomas (1884-1968), disciple and successor to Eugene V. Debs, founder of America's Socialist Party. Norman Thomas was the Socialist Party presidential candidate in six elections from 1928 until 1948.

"I believe," wrote Norman Thomas, "that the hope for the future lies in a new social and economic order which demands the abolition of the capitalistic system." Oddly, Norman Thomas was an ordained Presbyterian minister who had been converted to the socialist faith while attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

Evan Thomas was schooled at the elite Phillips Andover Academy in Massachusetts, graduating in 1969. Other prominent journalists of the left were also shaped there, including Thomas' current Newsweek columnist comrade Jonathan Alter (Andover Academy Class of 1975). (Other Andover Academy graduates include President George H.W. Bush '42, President George W. Bush '64, and Florida Governor Jeb Bush '71.)

Evan Thomas graduated from Harvard College in 1973 and earned a Juris Doctorate at the University of Virginia Law School in 1977.

In 1977 Thomas was hired by Time Magazine, where for the next nine years he worked as a correspondent, writer and editor. In 1986 he and Time National Editor Walter Isaacson co-wrote The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made about Averell Harriman, Dean Acheson, George Kennan and others who shaped U.S. foreign policy after World War II.

In 1986 Thomas left Time to become head of the Washington bureau of rival news magazine Newsweek, a position he held until 1996. Since then he has done long investigative pieces for Newsweek. His coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal won a National Magazine Award in 1998.


38 posted on 02/20/2006 7:22:36 PM PST by kcvl
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To: SevenofNine
Re: I wonder how Baby look Dick Cheney and Ann Coulter DNA ALRIGHT MR VICE PRESIDENT didn't know you had in you

Seven, you're babbling again...

No NOT babbling but feel ANOTHER beer would nice be...

Zoidberg! Tighten up that doohicky above her eye, Seven's talking trash again!

Get her in a towel while I call my assistant.

Don't you just hate it... When you have to strip off all the clothes from a sexy semi-borg and then cover her with a towel? Seven, come to Bender!

I'm here to assist Dr. Zoidberg. Is the patient ready?

AM ready that I ARE...

Seven, when are you going to get wise to these guys?

39 posted on 02/20/2006 8:04:00 PM PST by Bender2 (Redid my FR Homepage just for ya'll... Now, Vote Republican and vote often)
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