You know, I thought this was a bit of a lost opportunity for Edwards. Cheney, earlier in the debate, professed to being totally mystified as to why his “uniter-not-a-divider” administration had created the most politically polarized atmosphere in the country in at least 30 years. It occurred to me as I was watcni g that Edwards should have pointed out (i) it wasn’t true, and (ii) it spoke to the arrogance and irresponsibility of the Republicans in Congress that all semblance of real legislative process has been completely subverted, and bipartisanship treated with such contempt, that Cheney, as presiding officer of the Senate, might plausibly claim that he had never even met Edwards. As Lahey pointed out later, post-debate, when Cheney does attend Senate sessions, he comes in a limo, closets himself with the Republican leadership, and then leaves. Of course he never meets with the Democratic Senators - except, of course to tell them to go fuck themselves.
There’s a local blogger I like to read who’s a journalism professor. He had an interesting take on the exchange from the perspective of its effect as a rhetorical device.
Bob - that was my thought the minute Dick said it… that there was no way in heck there weren’t pictures of the two of them together floating around. Sure enough I saw the Prayer Breakfast picture on various web sites not ten minutes after the debate had ended.
You know, I thought this was a bit of a lost opportunity for Edwards. Cheney, earlier in the debate, professed to being totally mystified as to why his “uniter-not-a-divider” administration had created the most politically polarized atmosphere in the country in at least 30 years. It occurred to me as I was watcni g that Edwards should have pointed out (i) it wasn’t true, and (ii) it spoke to the arrogance and irresponsibility of the Republicans in Congress that all semblance of real legislative process has been completely subverted, and bipartisanship treated with such contempt, that Cheney, as presiding officer of the Senate, might plausibly claim that he had never even met Edwards. As Lahey pointed out later, post-debate, when Cheney does attend Senate sessions, he comes in a limo, closets himself with the Republican leadership, and then leaves. Of course he never meets with the Democratic Senators - except, of course to tell them to go fuck themselves.
And there’s more. This gets better and better. Cheney has presided over the Senate exactly TWICE in the past four years.
http://dave-the-pro.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/6/11163/2940
There’s a local blogger I like to read who’s a journalism professor. He had an interesting take on the exchange from the perspective of its effect as a rhetorical device.
http://rhetorica.net/archives/002682.html#002682
Bob - that was my thought the minute Dick said it… that there was no way in heck there weren’t pictures of the two of them together floating around. Sure enough I saw the Prayer Breakfast picture on various web sites not ten minutes after the debate had ended.