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And don’t forget then-candidate Bush’s ‘major league asshole’ remark. I wonder if there’s enough material to start a weblog cataloguing public officials swearing on the record (or on *a* record, since Bush’s remark was not his official stance).

You know, I say the “f” word every now and then too, and I’ve never been on CNN. I’ve even screamed a time or two in front of a crowd, and no one remixed it or played it over and over and over again on the news. What’s the world coming to when a little profanity is more newsworthy than 60,000 people killed and wounded in Iraq? What a country.

Well, Kevin, I know what you’re saying, but I think Wonkette might have said it best:

“Wonkette operatives tell us that the fighting words sprang from an exchange in which Cheney told Leahy he didn’t like what Leahy had been saying about Halliburton, to which Leahy replied that he didn’t like Cheney calling him a bad Catholic. So you’d see how ‘Go fuck yourself’ is the only appropriate response.”

But, hey, if that’s what this election is to become, a total fucking flame war where the two sides exchange expletives instead of ideas, then I’d say H.L. Mencken was right all along: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

Of course, back in those days, he was too polite to specify exactly what the common man deserved to get good and hard, but I’m sure Kerry or Cheney can tell us what the fuck he meant.

And then there’s that whole fucking concept of “leading by example.” And I’ll be fucked if ol’ Dick hasn’t made a impression on me (How about your kids?). If it’s fuckin’ A-O-K to say it on the floor of the Senate, then where isn’t fuck appropriate?

On TV or radio, that’s where (according to Cheney and his pals). Anywhere else, fuck it.

Oh, it’s not just “Cheney and his pals.” It’s the whole Senate.

You know, I don’t mean to make a huge hairy deal out of this. We’ve all had an inappropriate word slip from our lips in an inappropriate place. And the vast majority of people almost immediately realize it, and say, “excuse my language” or otherwise apologize. People are very forgiving, especially when you admit your error, and it’s quickly forgotten. Very simple.

From Cheney? Silence.

As far as swearing in general is concerned, let he who has never uttered a profanity while stuck in Atlanta traffic throw the first stone.

As to the Kerry/Cheney comparison – there was one real difference. Cheney said it in the heat of the moment, as many if not most of us do. Kerry was, in typical fashion, just saying it to pander to his intended audience.

Spin to the right, spin to the left!! Wheeee!!! Let’s try this the other way. Cheney’s was worse because he was addressing someone in anger, telling poor old Senator Leahy to go do something to himself that would make Rick Santorum blush. Kerry was using the word “fuck” in it’s non-violent meaning – to mess up, or botch something. He wasn’t telling anyone to go violate themselves in a way illegal in the great state of Texas. See, spinning is fun!! Wheeee!!

“let he who has never uttered a profanity while stuck in Atlanta traffic throw the first stone”

I just got back from spending two hours on GA 400, so I don’t know what the %$#! you’re talking about.

However, in the event I decide to use colorful prose to describe the idiot who just cut me off, most times, no one hears it but me. At worst, my wife is subjected to it, and she’ll often suggest improvements.

“Cheney said it in the heat of the moment, as many if not most of us do”

I’ll go along with that. Now, what do many if not most of us do once we realize we’ve said something inappropriate in the heat of the moment?

Anyone? Bueller?

You’d think someone who claimed they intended to bring “a tone of civility and decency to the debate in Washington” would have no problem figuring out the right thing to do here.

I’m not excusing Kerry for what he said, nor solely condemning Cheney. I’m just pointing out the place our national discourse has ended up: our political leaders feel free to decry uncivil debate, then say fuck in public and not apologize for it, plus vote for (or support) a bill to fine those who say the same word on radio millions of dollars.

Excuse me for saying so, but that’s pretty fucked up.

Well, as if there was any doubt : “Cheney, interviewed by Fox News Friday, said he had no regrets about his remarks to Leahy and ‘I felt better after I said it.’ He added, ‘A lot of my colleagues felt what I said badly needed to be said.’”

And there you have it. In the 2000 Campaign, they promised to bring civility and decency to DC debate. But in 2004, their opponents can go fuck themselves.

And telling them so not only makes Cheney feel better, he got encouragement for saying it from his “colleagues.”

Well, I’ll go ahead and apologize for the amount of cussing on this page, for any visitor who might be offended. But it will also have to come with the warning that your political leaders are likely to continue with this sometimes profane tone through November. Because, well, it makes them feel better.

Just don’t expect any apologies. But you certainly have mine.

Here is the pro-Cheney “spin”:

Leahy approached Cheney at an informal gathering and began buddy-buddy small talk. Cheney felt that his personal honor had been smeared by Leahy on a continuing basis and most recently by Leahy in a statement on the floor of the Senate the day before.

Cheney told Leahy he did not appreciate the dishonor from Leahy’s lips and would not do small talk with Leahy.

Leahy responded with a complaint about being called “anti-Catholic” by a conservative PAC (N.B., not Cheney, not the Republican party, but other political actors in our country).

To Cheney this meant that Leahy would not engage in a discussion of the slur or, alternatively, go away. Cheney defended his honor by firing the obscenity at Leahy and removing himself from Leahy’s presence.

The key to this for Cheney is that he was not responding to one of the routine attacks and denunciations that fly back and forth but to what he saw as Leahy’s personal attack. Cheney would not tolerate acting buddy-buddy with Leahy on his own time.

Now, what did Leahy say on the Senate floor?

Here, from the Floor Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy
The Torture Memos And Squandered Leadership June 23, 2004:

“Our troops have also been tarnished by profiteering companies, none more brazen than Halliburton, which have reaped huge profits while our soldiers are risking their lives and losing their lives. Yet Republicans blocked Senate action to make war profiteering a crime and hold these people accountable.

“Countless people around the world, especially in the Middle East, suspected that President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq had a lot more to do with Iraqi oil than with any of the other reasons he gave that have since been proven false.

“I do not share that view, but what better evidence to fuel those charges than Halliburton’s non-competitive contracts and waste – it is fraud and abuse on a scale that would shock the conscience of anyone except perhaps an Enron executive? Halliburton seems to regard the U.S. Treasury as its own personal bank account. With “cost plus” contracts, what do they care how much they overcharge the taxpayers? They are guaranteed their profits regardless. It is the antithesis of patriotism.”

Now, Leahy doesn’t mention Cheney by name. But what person do you think of when “Halliburton” is mentioned? For the opposition spinners, I do think you can make a case that this isn’t a personal slur on Cheney as a war-profiteer.

But, I also think you might wonder why this Halliburton attack was in the statement after 25 paragraphs by Leahy on Abu Ghraib and prison-abuse

Lastly, as a defense contractor (retired from the other side, the Regular Army), I’ll say that nothing I have seen about Halliburton is out of the ordinary or scandalous. There are lots of CPFF contracts over there, lots of them extended as sole-source, and lots of honest mistakes being found by accountants and fixed. The news isn’t telling us about them, because they are truly not new-worthy.

Why do we keep hearing about Halliburton and its billing issues? It is Cheney.

I think Cheney has a valid personal point in rejecting, when his duties do not interfere, the in-person presence of Leahy. Adding the f-bomb tells Leahy to keep away until he is ready to talk about Halliburton.

And Reid, Cheney didn’t apologize because he felt personally insulted and when Leahy refused to discuss the matter he intentionally personally insulted him back.

Also, when it comes to apologies, who put the f-bomb into the newspapers hands? Leahy doesn’t have the sense to know that he is made to look small by airing this affair. (of course, Leahy’s aides maybe couldn’t resist being a source, this would be hard)

Who put the f-bomb in the newspaper’s hands? Um, I think it came out of Cheney’s mouth, as he’s reluctantly admitted. Are you suggesting that Cheney is a merely another in our long string of American victims who are not resposible for their actions or statements, or is he someone who should be responsible for the words he says on the floor of the US Senate over which he presides?

I understand about the rationale for what he said. Cheney explains it himself :

“I didn’t like the fact that after he had done so, then he wanted to act like, you know, everything’s peaches and cream,” Cheney said. “And I informed him of my view of his conduct in no uncertain terms. And as I say, I felt better afterwards.” [...] “Ordinarily I don’t express myself in strong terms, but I thought it was appropriate here,” Cheney said on Fox.

Apparently so. But it suggests to me that the man who is normally unperturbed by partisan attacks and who calls for civility and decency in debate has completely abandoned those principles. The ones he championed to get elected.

But the biggest judgement I can make? At at time he wanted to say something memorable and pointed, at a time he felt the need to make a strong verbal point on the floor of the Senate, the best he could come up with was a common slur that your average 8th grader could top.

No creativity, at all. Just a crass vulgarity.

What if he’d paraphrased a famous old insult, and told the Senator, “what you are screams so loudly I cannot hear a word you say.” Oh, I suppose “Go fuck yourself” made the same point.

But it made some others as well. Points not beneficial to Cheney, given what he has said in the past about “civility and decency.” Not beneficial to our concept of “political leadership.” Or to the state of this nation’s discourse during a vital time.

By all means, carry on, Mr. Vice President. Pay no attention to prudish talk like mine. America’s ears are just garbage cans, awaiting your next creative verbal volley.

No one else really seems to mind, so, my bad (though I dearly await the next defense of a DJ accused of saying “fuck” on the air … the Cheney Defense)

Hmmm, my spin didn’t convince you.

Of course I’m not suggesting that Cheney is a victim.

I think he did take as much responsibility as he needed to for an impolite, personal remark that has become public because the other guy (or his aides) put it out.

The location does not seem to matter at all to me, as it wasn’t in the line of duty.

No, Steve, and I didn’t mean for that to sound as directed at you as it might have. I was talking to my wife about this, and my raction to it, and I’m clearly out of synch here. Which I find a bit flummoxing.

I’m the guy who as a 13 year old bought George Carlin’s “Class Clown” as one of the first three albums I ever owned. It contained the infamous Seven Words. I’ve always understood that they were just words, though they were words we’d attached some added social meaning to. Words that weren’t always appropriate.

And most of the reaction to this that I’ve seen is about why it was OK for him to say what he did, when he did, where he did. No accountability in relation to past statements or claims. Just a major non-reaction.

Like I said, I’m a bit stunned to be so out of synch. I’m not willing to concede our national discourse has sunk to those levels … and it’s OK. Because of how the way it got into the press. Or the fact the Senate wasn’t technically in session. Or because someone supposedly deserved it, and afterwards others applauded.

To me, it’s still a foul descent into the muck. And I’m stunned we’re so accepting. Phil Carter sums it up well :

“As I said earlier, I don’t care about the use of profanity per se. But I do see people like the Vice President as role models for the rest of society, and I’m worried by the example this kind of behavior sets for American society. I don’t care that a 3rd grader can read bad language in the Washington Post, so much as I care that a 3rd grader might now think it’s okay to end an argument by saying ‘f—- off’ to his adversary. After all, the Vice President did it, and it said it was okay, or so the 3rd grader would say to his teacher or father after being caught for doing the same thing on the schoolyard. But it’s not okay. Civilized discourse does not end with an expletive and outstretched finger. When it does, the next step is quite likely to be a thrown punch (as in the caning of Sumner on the Senate floor many years ago). The Vice President ought not be setting this kind of example for American society. And when given the chance the next day to correct his behavior, he should have done so. It’s one thing to say ‘f—- off’ in the heat of the moment; it’s quite another to ratify that expletive the next day.”

Ah, being out of sync IS discombobulating—the non-groundswell for a Clinton impeachment conviction did it for me. Made me more accepting of collective wisdom with which I did not agree. These days whenever I get spun up by something in the news I remember how out of sync I was then and how the collective wisdom wasn’t really bad.

That said, same as I prefer not having a Pope who favors war (even when dread war does good) I also prefer that our society does not consist of responsible people who favor the utterance or publication of 4-letter epithets into the mainstream. Would that Hollywood had more “responsible” folks!

So, I don’t read Cheney’s discussion of the matter as being in any way a justification or excuse…and, without looking at what I wrote above, if any of my words look like an excuse, as opposed to a Cheney-favoring explanation of how these words came out, I retract those words in sackcloth and ashes.

All the best—I’ve shared your site and your wonderful pictures with all in my family. Keep up the good work.

... as for insults, this one is good :-)

A journalist working for a danish daily once wrote:

“An empty cab pulled up along the curb on town square. Out stepped (the name of his editor).”

The journalist didn’t have to go to work the next day.

This was, of course, some 100 years ago.

Regards.