Karen ably highlighted the newsy scoops of the Washington Post’s Cheney piece yesterday, but I, of course, was struck by the many moments of not-quite-intentional hilarity.
There’s the Dirty Harry moment with Dan Quayle:
“I said, ‘Dick, you know, you’re going to be doing a lot of this international traveling, you’re going to be doing all this political fundraising . . . you’ll be going to the funerals,’ ” Quayle said in an interview earlier this year. “I mean, this is what vice presidents do. I said, ‘We’ve all done it.’ “
Cheney “got that little smile,” Quayle said, and replied, “I have a different understanding with the president.”
Dick the diva with Bolten:
Bolten joined Libby, his counterpart in Cheney’s office, to compile a list of “portfolios we thought might be appropriate.” Their models, Bolten said, were Quayle’s Council on Competitiveness and Al Gore’s National Partnership for Reinventing Government.
“The vice president didn’t particularly warm to that,” Bolten recalled dryly.
And the ultimate Fredo joke, a nice little back-handed slap from Yoo, amplified by the Post:
Gonzales, a former Texas judge, had the seniority and the relationship with Bush. But Addington — a man of imposing demeanor, intellect and experience — dominated the group. Gonzales “was not a law-of-war expert and didn’t have very developed views,” Yoo recalled, echoing blunter observations by the Texan’s White House colleagues.
This is going to be fun.
Depressing and a reminder that our Constitution is in tatters, but kind of fun. In that grim, our-framers-would-rip-their-own-hair-out-if-they-knew way.