Cheney said to aim profanity at senator
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney apparently ended a testy conversation with US Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont at the Capitol this week with a sharp profanity before turning on his heel and walking away, according to a Senate aide who spoke to Leahy about the episode.
The exchange occurred when senators were milling about the Senate floor on Tuesday, when the Senate was having its class photo taken. As president of the Senate, Cheney was present for the picture-taking session.
The Senate staffer said Leahy, a Democrat who is a frequent critic of the administration on Iraq and other matters, approached Cheney to make "small talk." Cheney then launched into a complaint about Leahy's criticism of Cheney's connections to Halliburton. The Texas-based energy conglomerate, which Cheney led from 1995 to 2000, is under fire for winning no-bid contracts for work in Iraq and overcharging the government.
Leahy responded by saying that the White House had sanctioned a "smear" campaign against Senate Democrats, calling them anti-Catholic for opposing the nomination of Alabama attorney William Pryor, who is antiabortion, to the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. President Bush appointed Pryor to the court for a limited term earlier this year while Congress was in recess.
Cheney, the aide said, abruptly ended the conversation with a vulgar directive to Leahy. The exact phrasing used is unclear.
Cheney's office neither confirmed nor denied the salty language. "That doesn't sound like language the vice president would use. But there was a frank exchange of views," said a Cheney spokesman, Kevin Kellums.
Cheney -- who during the 2000 campaign said "Governor Bush and I are also absolutely determined that [we] will restore a tone of civility and decency to the debate in Washington" -- agreed with a profane term Bush uttered about a reporter. Bush, on a platform at a campaign event and apparently unaware his words were being picked up by a microphone, used a vulgarity to describe the personality of a reporter. Cheney responded, "Yeah, big time."
Last year, Republicans attacked presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry for using the same profanity Cheney allegedly uttered Tuesday in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. A spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign said the campaign would have no comment on this week's episode. A Kerry spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter, said Cheney should not be "degrading the institution of the United States Senate."
While interparty relations on Capitol Hill are at a historic low, lawmakers generally conduct themselves on the House and Senate floors according to strict rules of discourse. Senate rules, for example, say senators cannot interrupt each other during debate, make fun of any state, or verbally abuse another senator.
Those rules would indeed prohibit the use of profanity on the floor, but since the Senate was not in session when the exchange occurred, Cheney's comments would not have been subject to the rules, a Senate official said. Reporters are not allowed on the Senate floor, where the photo shoot occurred. Cheney's use of the vulgarity was first reported by CNN. 