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Bernard Shaw of CNN was the liberal news media host du jour in an action packed ninety minute, no holds barred, political slugfest, featuring the wildly popular WAR OF THE MONOTONES. Trailing in just about every pollaganda office across the land, the Republican candidate, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney needed to hit a home run, but fell well short. He did manage to look Presidential and expose a few of the Democrat lies being thrown around so liberally these days ( by liberals, of course )! Senator Joseph Lieberman, curiously still running for his Senate seat, played the part of Democrat Vice Puppet ( DVPOTUS ).
Shaw started with a question about questionable predictions of a government cash surplus over the next ten years. Lieberman joked and ignored the question, spewing the standard campaign stump baloney; it was quite embarrassing ( see: Gore Abatement? ( 10-4-2000 ) ). Cheney actually answered the question. After describing electing the Bush/Cheney ticket with, " choose a new way "; he opined that it was, " risky from an economic standpoint to estimate surpluses ".
On EDUCATION, Cheney was in touch with reality, saying, " We have had a significant increase in funding with no positive results ". He then hit on, " local control "..." high standards "..." test every child every year "...closing the segment with a firm committment that education was the " single most important issue ". Lieberman was in The Twilight ( Gore? ) Zone, not remembering that they have been campaigning on reforming education, saying, " a lot of progress has been made; scores are up ". Huh? He then changed the subject to a litany of entitlements using the so-called surplus up. SPEND SPEND SPEND ( Even the sheep weren't buying this one, and they like anything which doesn't have sharp teeth, or sharp scissors, or a knife and fork. )?
Lieberman continued to spout the misleading numbers Al Gore has already been questioned about, including the partisan Senate Committee rountine, the giving more money back to the richest one percent than everything else added together routine, and everything Dick Cheney said which was based on reality was, well, " It's plain wrong ". Lieberman basically said that all the numbers Cheney is using are wrong and all of his are right. I mean, it almost made me embarrassed to be a human being when I see conduct like this from Lieberman. Gore may talk like he thinks we are all single digit years old or double digit IQs, but Lieberman seems to really think we were all born yesterday, or the day before? Cheney finally had to put it simply, that " everyone gets tax relief " under the Bush plan and the people could see for themselves how they had to meet certain criteria to get anything under the Gore plan!
Lieberman kept going on and on over the time limit, similar to Gore in the previous Presidential debate, and Shaw had to cut him off many times. This may have been a blessing in disguise, as keeping time may have been the only thing keeping him awake, in a WAR OF MONOTONES. In an exchange about RU 486, the abortion pill, Dick Cheney seemed to heat up for a moment, getting to mention Clinton's two vetoes of partial birth abortion banning bills passed by Congress; but he failed to get emotional about it or press the point home?
When talking about the current situation in Yugoslavia, Cheney did get to point out something from the first debate that Gore disagreed with, and Bush pushed hard, saying, " Bush wanted to get the Russians involved, but Al Gore poopooed it. From the press reports, it seems like that is what is happening now ". This is exceptionally funny, when you factor in how stupid all the liberal Democrat talking heads in the media look as well, since they all laughed about Bush, saying it was a gaff ( sorry knee-jerkers, now look whose head is where, huh? ).
Cheney finished the segment with the " rebuild the military " mantra; causing Lieberman to summon up some false indignation and say, " the U.S. military is the best in the world ". With the strings leading from his various appendages finally beginning to show, he continued to crow, " It is not good to run them ( the military ) down in the middle of a partisan political debate ". I started to feel sick when he kept the sticky stuff flowing with, " they feel a sense of purpose...mission ". Man, this touchie-feelie military as pizza delivery boy approach would even have embarrassed Neville Chamberlain, though I am sure Neville would have agreed with Lieberman's ascertion that we have, " the most powerful military in the history of the world ". Now this one really reminded me of one of those Al Gore embellishments. That small amount of misguided respect I had for Lieberman has now completely evaporated, after this extreme, lying, worship of the end justifies what ever means imaginable, DNC uber alles, hack attack! Remember, Colin Powell and Norman Schwartzkoff are standing with Bush and Cheney in their criticism of the current condition of military readiness.
PASS THE COFFEE...NOW WHICH ONE IS DRONING?
On Iraq, Cheney pointed out reality, in that the only thing between the world and Iraq obtaining weapons of mass destruction after the Gulf War, was the " inspection routine ". He firmly added that, " the UN inspection teams have been kicked out ". To this, Lieberman could whine ( lie? ), " We are doing everything we can to get the inspections back "? Lieberman continued on the defensive, trying to defend the non-existent energy policy of the current administration with comments about possible future technologies like, " a new generation of vehicle ". He took mass Democrat credit for " reaching into the strategic oil reserve", to, " fight back ". Cheney seemed to give him the kid gloves treatment, though he did say, " There is no comprehensive energy plan ", and point out that, " our oil imports are at a record high ". Lieberman countered by invoking Gore's phoney failed criticism of taping the Arctic oil reserve as only, " six months of oil, twelve years from now ".
Cheney did hit PARTISAN POLITICS hard, saying, " People are tired of partisanship ". He begged to, " reach across partisan lines ", and described a Governor George W. Bush who, " Didn't point the finger of blame and was quick to share the successes ", while crossing party lines in Texas. Lieberman parroted, saying there is, " too much partisanship in Washington...both parties ". Cheney didn't like Lieberman's holier than thou attitude, woke up for a moment again; glaring, " With all due respect; there is a lot of evidence of partisanship in the current administration ".
Seeing that Cheney wasn't going to attack like a junk yard dog, Bernard Shaw fed the Republican attack line to him, in true DNC/Fabian Socialist style, asking the former Secreatry if Lieberman had been hypocritical. Cheney began, " I liked the old Joe Lieberman better than the new one ". He then invoked, " Hollywood...not quite the crusader you used to be ". Lieberman whined and whined in a futile attempt to prove he was, but nobody was buying that bull tonight!
Even the Pinnochio squad with saws and files couldn't help Lieberman, when he smiled like a reptile and lied directly into the camera, " I have not changed a single position ". THE SOUND OF TOILET FLUSHING IN THE BACKGROUND.
Lieberman took some visibly false contrived offense on the casual mention of a religious joke, which would have been the kiss of death politically had it been a Jewish joke, and finished with the standard Gore/Lieberman two minute campaign sound bite stump speech. Cheney was a little more imaginative, though still monotone, hitting, " reform "...tax relief "and " rebuild the miltary ", finishing with, " reach out ".
OH, IT'S OVER? I DIDN'T NOTICE THE SCREEN SAVER WENT OFF.
POSTGAME: I could take only about a minute of the ChrisMatthews/JosephBidden Gestalt Beast; though I think I have finally seen the perfect partner for Matthews, at least in his own mind?
BORING. The catchword of the night was SNORING and maybe even IGNORING. Dick Cheney did not get it done ( and he really needed to ). I couldn't believe how he caved in on the gay marriage question ( oh, but wait just a dog gone minute here...).
- Bongo ( Wake me up? )
Updated ( 10-6-2000 )
(c)2000 Bongo.