Dick Cheney attempted to dress down Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy on the floor of the Senate Tuesday by suggesting a new form of entertainment and self-actualization for the partisan hack:

On Tuesday, Cheney, serving in his role as president of the Senate, appeared in the chamber for a photo session. A chance meeting with Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, became an argument about Cheney's ties to Halliburton Co., an international energy services corporation, and President Bush's judicial nominees. The exchange ended when Cheney offered some crass advice.

"Fuck yourself," said the man who is a heartbeat from the presidency.

Forget, for the moment, the breathless reporting from the Washington Post. Forget the fact that just about everyone I know says this word from time to time. We are talking about one of our nation's leaders speaking to a representative from Vermont on the floor of what has been called the shrine of democracy. It's absurd, it's unimaginative, and it's completely inappropriate -- even more so than when John Kerry slipped the ol' effenheimer into a Rolling Stone interview to look hip. I didn't like it then, and I sure as hell don't like it now.

Mr. Cheney, you are the Vice President. We expect you to act with proper decorum during official business in our capitol. You owe Senator Leahy an apology.

UPDATE: People seem to be misinterpreting what I wrote, or I didn't make myself clear enough. I have no problem with Cheney getting ticked off at Leahy et al for their slanderous falsehoods. I have no problem with him dressing down the little weasel on the floor of the Senate. What I have a problem with is the foul, uneloquent, and unimaginative manner in which he conducted himself doing it.

Michelle Malkin says much the same thing, and her readers offer suggestions as to how Cheney could have cut Leahy into little pissant ribbons, as he deserved. Hugh Hewitt disagrees with me, and suggests a donation to the NRSC to help unseat Leahy, a cause I enthusiastically support. But he's still wrong to have used that language.

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Tracked on June 25, 2004 5:46 PM