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Republican
cross-posted to jack and jill politics
From ThinkProgress, WaPo and West Virginia Blue
After Democratic and Republican politicians strongly criticized Cheney, his PR person finally issued an apology for his "inappropriate attempt at humor." In a speech at the National Press Club, here's what happened...
Cheney was responding to his distant relationship to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, a Democratic presidential candidate. "We'd always known about the Cheney family line on my father's side of the family, back to Massachusetts in the 1630s. My grandmother was named Tyler, but it turned out she was descended from a Richard Cheney ... who landed in Maryland in the 1650s," Cheney said. He then added, "So I had Cheneys on both sides of the family, and we don't even live in West Virginia." After the audience laughed, Cheney added, "You can say those things when you're not running for re-election."Ha ha ha ha ha. Oh please. Please stop. I'm dying over here. I'm laughing. So hard. First of all, that's a hack joke. West Virginia and incest? He might as well have talked about how women always go to the bathroom together in the club or how the best way to ensure a limitless budget in an endless war on terror is to illegally invade a Muslim country and murder hundreds of thousands of people. Second, this is what gets both Republicans and Democrats to criticize this monstrosity of a vice president? Not when he declared his office outside of the executive branch? Not when he told a Democratic senator to go fuck himself? Not when he declared warrantless wiretapping acceptable because laws don't apply to this administration? Not when he shot a man in the face and withheld the information, refusing to speak of it himself for days? Not when he responded to the fact that two-thirds of the American people think the war in Iraq wasn't worth fighting with "so?" It is far too late for people to act offended at the statements and behavior of the Dark Lord Cheney, and it's far too much to ask for the media to grill Cheney about this "gaffe" as much as Obama was hounded over his "clinging" to guns and religion comment. After all, Cheney is just one freak bicycle accident away from the presidency. Please.
cross-posted to jack and jill politics
Thanks to Craig Hickman for the link. I'm just clipping the closer. My emphasis added in bold.
It was the most forthright repudiation of an out-of-control supporter that we can remember. We would like to say that it will finally take the racial charge out of this campaign. We’re not that naïve. It is an injustice, a legacy of the racist threads of this nation’s history, but prominent African-Americans are regularly called upon to explain or repudiate what other black Americans have to say, while white public figures are rarely, if ever, handed that burden. Senator John McCain has continued to embrace a prominent white supporter, Pastor John Hagee, whose bigotry matches that of Mr. Wright. Mr. McCain has not tried hard enough to stop a race-baiting commercial — complete with video of Mr. Wright — that is being run against Mr. Obama in North Carolina. If Mr. Obama is the Democratic presidential nominee, we fear that there will be many more such commercials. And Mr. Obama will have to repudiate Mr. Wright’s outbursts many more times. This country needs a healthy and open discussion of race. Mr. Obama’s repudiation of Mr. Wright is part of that. His opponents also have a responsibility — to repudiate the race-baiting and make sure it stops.Wow NY Times. Go head. All they were missing was to call out the Clinton campaign for its race-baiting. To those who have written in saying "but McCain repudiated Hagee immediately" or that the situation is somehow incredibly different. I say "false." 1. McCain's campaign actively sought the endorsement of John Hagee. That is an entirely different thing. It's not like Hagee was just out there in the mood to endorse. When you seek someone's endorsement, you are saying you're completely cool with that person. 2. While it is true that McCain "distanced" himself from some of Hagee's statements on Feb 29 he didn't fully "repudiate" them for several more weeks. 3. Some have commented here that Obama's "pastor judgment" indicates he cannot be trusted with running the country. Fine. Now listen to what McCain's campaign said to explain the Hagee endorsement
A McCain adviser acknowledged on Monday that the campaign had failed to look into Mr. Hagee’s background adequately and said that as a result the campaign’s procedures for vetting endorsers had improved.Oh my stars! What on Earth would happen if we let McCain be president and he failed to look into the background of people offered national security clearance? We'd all be killed, that's what would happen. Brown terrorists would walk across the Mexican border and kill our babies dead, all of them. Clearly John McCain doesn't have the judgment to lead. We don't need a president who learns how to vet people "on the job." 4. It's not just a Hagee situation for McCain. Remember Jerry Falwell? Jerry Falwell was "an agent of intolerance" according to the John McCain of 2000, but come election 2008, Mr. McCain saw fit to speak at the commencement of Falwell's Liberty University. I know that's what I do with agents of intolerance. Why just the other day, I gave a speech at a luncheon for the Chattel Slavery Restoration Society Of Norfolk. What can I say? Their French onion dip was to die for. Jerry Falwell also blamed America for 9/11, but his argument was much weaker than Wright's. He didn't even go so far as to blame American foreign policy, preferring instead to blame lesbians, gays, feminists, abortionists and the ACLU. What a damned idiot, rest his soul. The point being, John McCain and every other Republican seeking national office has made a quadrennial ritual out of kissing the ring finger and asshole of vile, ignorant, hate-filled, so-called Men Of God, who use their pulpits to enrich themselves and launch baseless attacks on large groups of Americans. Don't pretend Mr. Straight Talk somehow exercised magically superior judgment. His hands and the hands of his entire party are filthy with explicit appeals to the very worst of human nature, and you don't have to dig through years and years of DVDs to find the perfect soundbite. These boys do it out in the open. That's how little they think of us. That's how much we're being played.