Dick Takes Manhattan (Fineman BARF Alert)

Newsweek ^ | 16 May 2009 | Howard Fineman

[Erik Latranyi]

Dick Cheney hadn't planned to speak, but others at the dinner in Manhattan noticed him growing a grimmer shade of grim. He was listening to Nicholas Burns, a former State Department official in Cheney's own Bush administration, wax eloquent about the virtue of diplomacy: how a new joint effort with France, Britain, Germany and even Russia and China could prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and terrorizing the Persian Gulf region and the world. In other words, President Barack Obama's position. The host asked if the former vice president wished to respond. Yes indeedy, he did.

Cheney rose to his feet and began to speak in his fatefully avuncular I've-been-there-and-you-haven't tone. Diplomacy, he said, works only if the countries share the same objectives. Here, they don't. The Iranians are merely stalling for time to build the bomb. The Europeans are willing to accept a nuclear-armed Iran and want primarily to avoid military action of any kind, especially by us. There will be no progress unless the Iranians "believe the threat of military force is on the table." At that, he sat down again beside his daughter Elizabeth.

[Erik Latranyi]

Fineman shows that Bush Derangement Syndrome is alive and well (oh, and Obama-fever too!)

[ilgipper]

Cheney may be the biggest badass in our generation of public officials. No one can get him off message. He is right and he knows he is right.

[freemama]

I am so thankful that he is man enough to speak up and not do the ‘gentlemanly’ thing of keeping quiet as to not disrupt the current administration.

[A_perfect_lady]

I like Dick. (This is not something a perfect lady gets to say in public very often.)

[2nd Bn, 11th Mar]

“Cheney as the face of our party is nothing short of a disaster—a grumpy old man with a gun.”

Grumpy old men with guns apparently strike a chord of fear in the ranks of the girly-men.

[fleagle]

When the Dems/Libs have you on their girly-man radar, then you’re doing something very very right! Go Dick!!

[Melchior]

Nicholas Burns is the quintessential State Department 80 pound weakling. Accustomed to having sand kicked in his face, being taken to the woodshed and being humiliated by Cheney will not bother him in the least.

[nathanbedford]

I trust this article is not an example I read about of the new face Newsweek is going to present to the world to save itself from bankruptcy. Is this the new Newsweek? Looks a lot like the old Newsweek. It is snide without substance, bitchy without a cause.

Howard Fineman has really not learned how to dish. He should read more Maureen Dowd to get the hang of bitchy. This article has no bite. Howard, it is hardly a put down to call somebody "avuncular." You do not destroy anybody's image by pointing out that he is a loyal father to his daughter. Oh, and Howard, it is probably not a good idea to compare those you want to destroy with Winston Churchill.

That would seem to be especially true about a man who is warning the world about the need for security, or as you say, Howard, "His only goal, friends and family insist, is to defend policies he believes in." It makes Cheney look like, well, Winston Churchill in the 1930s and its makes Newsweek look like Neville Chamberlain.

[Jemian]

From the article:

"It's kind of hard to be seen as the guy defending torture right now," says Charlie Black, a longtime GOP operative. Another GOP strategist insisted on anonymity in order to be more blunt: "Cheney as the face of our party is nothing short of a disaster—a grumpy old man with a gun."

And there precisely is the problem with the GOP. They are soooo wrong.

The last paragraph of the article is worthless.

[Finalapproach29er]

Effete people like Burns think Cheney is an uncouth brute who is too obtuse to grasp the sophisticated world of the inbred diplomat who tarry with other inbreds who put on the pinstripe suits and feel important.

Cheney, in fact, does get it; the joke is actually on the diplomats who are being played.

[Jemian]

Furthermore, it should be remembered that it was RAT diplomacy and strategy which forced us to lose the one war we lost. URGH! I will never forgive Johnson and his henchmen.

[RichInOC]

Always a pleasure to give New York a healthy dose of Dick.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Dick, if you're reading this thread, you ARE the man!

We got your back, so keep on giving the Rats and RINOs hell!

[GladesGuru]

From the end of the article - “but he was the naive one, if he really ever believed that we could create a Hanging Garden of Democracy in Babylon...”.

Wrong! THere was a time when the Mid East had lots of CHristians and Jews. Then Mad Mo rode in out of the desert and slaughtered almost all of them.

Thatwas the First Holocaust (Germany being the second).

No mo “Mo’s” and the fatwa against Democracy disappears.

ISLAM DELENDA EST.

[Carley]

Cheney saved the country from Gore and he’s going to do his darndest to save us from the One.

Bless the man.

[Jemian]

I’m sorry to be ignorant. What is “delenda”?

[Bosco]

Ignorance is O.K. :)

Delenda is Latin verb "to destroy".

Islam delenda est - roughly translated - "Islam must be destroyed".

[Jemian]

Thank you. My online translators let me down on this one.

[Bosco]

GladesGuru was making a play on "Carthago delenda est" - Carthage must be destroyed.

[geezerwheezer]

Fineman continues to insist on keeping his head up his a$$ and not realize just how stupid he is. Spout your stuff somewhere else Fineman, and see if you continue to be marginalized by the rest of the world!