But for her ultra-short memory:
Posted on 08/10/2002 5:50:04 PM PDT by Pokey78
WASHINGTON — One could hear the exhale of relief from the conservative multitudes — and the "Ruffles and Flourishes" playing in the gladdened hearts of Republican graybeards.
For Cheney, Mighty Cheney was advancing to the bat.
A question mark had been quivering over the White House. There had been a frenzy of speculation and an outpouring of analysis among the capital cognoscenti.
Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution was teetering on the brink of observing that the Bush presidency was "teetering on the brink." Ibid., Norman Ornstein.
So Republicans were thrilled to hear the vice president tell a worshipful crowd of white, wealthy people at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco last week that he would be willing to run with the president in 2004.
He called his White House tenure — incognito, undisclosed, classified and unavailable — "the high point of my professional life." The humility in his tone was unmistakable.
Republicans had been worrying about the health factor — not that Mr. Cheney's was getting worse but that Mr. Bush's was getting better.
The more buff the president grew, the more party solons fretted that he was frittering away time in the gym that could be better used formulating clear policies in a roiling time.
Last week, the president had his best checkup ever, with doctors swooning over his lissome lipoprotein, taut triglycerides, sleek homocysteine, A-plus C-reactive protein levels and thin body fat.
In a city where being a grind is better than being a glamourpuss, suspicion falls on those who are too modish or too toned. Are they spending more hours cross-training than studying the Law of the Sea Treaty?
So it is with the president. He looks too good.
Even Republicans have begun privately admitting what Democrats have been whispering: Mr. Cheney is running the country. He can't get off the ticket because Mr. Bush won't get off the treadmill.
While hobnobbing near Nob Hill, Mr. Cheney waved off inquiries about accounting irregularities at Halliburton during the time he was paid over $45 million as chief executive.
He referred the curious to the Halliburton Web site, where nearly all traces of his existence at the company have been inexplicably scrubbed. In a master stroke that easily threw the press off the scent, Mr. Cheney said that a transcript available at www.halliburton.com would satisfy all remaining questions.
But there is no transcript on the Web site, only a link to a conference-call recording that lets those with audio software listen to barely audible, tinny voices proclaiming that Dick Cheney did nothing wrong.
Republicans are most grateful to Mr. Cheney. With the time he saved by not explaining administration policy to the president and the country, and the time he saved refusing to answer reporters' nitpicking questions about his past business schemes, he has been able to fly around raising more than $12 million for Republican candidates.
On Tuesday, he'll interrupt his monthlong break in Wyoming to preside over the president's Waco economic forum, which is designed to present Mr. Bush as a leader who is engaged with the country's economic fears, rather than one who is on a monthlong vacation from them.
Like a buoyant Dr. Evil holding a napping Bush Mini-Me in a Snugli, Mr. Cheney seems to relish running the world alone. Consider how primary the secondary man is.
Without Mr. Cheney, America would not be planning to invade Iraq. Who else understands why the U.S. is starting a war without provocation for the first time in its history?
Without Mr. Cheney, and his reverence for oil and the House of Saud, wouldn't Foggy Bottom demand that the Saudis, like other allies, nurture democracy and women's rights and stop coddling terrorists?
Without Mr. Cheney, might there be a real economic policy, not just all-tax-cuts-all-the-time?
Without Mr. Cheney, who in the West Wing would have resisted tougher corporate responsibility laws?
Without Mr. Cheney, who would have had the secret contacts in the energy industry to help formulate federal energy policies?
Only one question remains: Will the vice keep the president?
But for her ultra-short memory:
Sheeesh. When is that bitch ever gonna catch a clue? Dubys is a president who doesn't spend his time thinking about how he's gonna be putting his finger up his nose or a Cuban cigar up an intern.
Exactly what I was thinking. Sorry, Mo, he ain't gonna dump Catherine Zeta-Jones for you no matter how many anti-GOP rants you write.
Dowd long ago crossed the line between sarcastic to vicious. It's silly to keep qualifying her in terms of Michael Douglas; this is not a petty swipe by a scorned woman. This is not even an argument about policy; this is a weekly personal attack.
Now wait just a cotton-pickin' second. Where are the Immutable Laws of Dowd? It just ain't a Saturday night, without 'em! ;-)
Pokey may slack off, but *some* of us know where duty lies.
;-)
Beg to differ. Dowd is published bi-weekly.
Why is it that some women age gracefully while others seem to prune up like raisins? For example, Peggy Noonan is like the good witch in the Wizard of Oz. Sweet, smiling and full of love. Wanting to help other.
Wheras Dowd, like the wicked witch of the west, is mean and vile. And intent on slaying anyone she hates. And she hates a lot of people. Conservative people. In this case President Bush who she seems to be looking at and like the wicked witch saying "I'll get you me pretty". Because the president looks "too good"?
Someone throw some water on Dowd. Maybe she will melt.
Ms Dowd makes stupid and stupider look damn smart.
I am tired beyond measure of the predictable screeds of this overrated cow.
Aside from the fact that this harpy really needs to get hammered by a well-endowed man, her piece ressurects the well traveled road of those who have never had an original thought in their entire life:
Even Republicans have begun privately admitting what Democrats have been whispering: Mr. Cheney is running the country. He can't get off the ticket because Mr. Bush won't get off the treadmill.
Now, no one of any consequence is really saying this and Dowd knows it, but she just can't stop going on about what a lightweight George "Junior" is. She's done this before, as have other writers on the Junior League Left. This is what happens to bad writers when they get "writer's block"; they steal ideas from others. Joe Conason and other Left wing propagandists were writing this kind of trash two years ago; but at least they had the virtue of being able to write complete paragraphs. Maureen, having no ideas beyond those she's trying to squeeze out of her brain for her next book, steals those ideas she can't come up with herself.
Dowd, almost always uses these one and two line epigrams that have become her answer to Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
She's a cheap, no talent intellectual prostitute whose specialty is lines like this gem:
Like a buoyant Dr. Evil holding a napping Bush Mini-Me in a Snugli, Mr. Cheney seems to relish running the world alone. Consider how primary the secondary man is.
Do any of you people realize how much the "Mini-Me" metaphor has been used by others against Bush? I mean, ever since he started running in 1999? Dowd trots this propaganda device (which got its start on Democrat web sites) as if its her invention.
Aside from the fact that this woman is pimping for the Democratic National Committee, she demonstrates once again that she's a shallow, pseudo-intellectual harpy whose specialty is common idea theft. What a stooge! What a maroon!
Let me be the first to say it: "Maureen, you ignorant slut!"
Be Seeing You,
Chris
Bloggers are beginning to frustrate the NYT and other liberal press institutions. The President does not need to fear the NYT in light of all other media outlets now available, and the press establishment (such as Dowd) is lashing out.
Boring, too.
There's a Bill/Hillary joke in there, somewhere.
He called his White House tenure — incognito, undisclosed, classified and unavailable — "the high point of my professional life." The humility in his tone was unmistakable.
Say anything else about Maureen Dowd, but she is a masterful and studied propagandist. She is a Goebellian evil with malevolent intention. She plots and schemes every malicious anti-truth that she spews. She is the true ugly face of the libeRAT mindset. Lie, cheat, slander, scare and steal...After all, evil's ends justify the means.
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