1. Anonymous says:

    The following equation would seem to obtain:
    sadistic, violent nuts = quivering emotionally dependent nuts * crazier than a shithouse rat, which then can be simplified as,

    nuts = nuts

  2. Anonymous says:

    Even funnier when you consider Cheney could be one of DeFrank’s sources. This is the sentence Matthews asked DeFrank about on Hardball:

    â€Even so, the Daily News has learned Bush has told associates Cheney was overly involved in intelligence issues in the runup to the Iraq war that have been seized on by Bush critics.â€

    I’m going by memory, this was months ago, but it went like this: Matthews asked DeFrank if his source thought Cheney was overly involved. DeFrank said he couldn’t say without revealing who his source was (I thought Cheney). Andrea Mitchell then got all crazy eyed and started baiting DeFrank about going back with Cheney to the Ford Adminstration. I realize my memory of this has grown more flowery with time.

    Can it be DeFrank Wednesday?

  3. Anonymous says:

    Leaders of the Free World???
    shucks, sounds more like choosing up sides for a third grade dodgeball game…

  5. Anonymous says:

    Saltin–

    I think your memory is clear on this one. Cheney always made sense as a source for DeFrank, and DeFrank’s pieces had the odor of turf war about them, Dick vs. Karl. Too simple a solution to ignore, I think.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Except……. I heard this morning on CNN (which, lacking CSPAN, I was forced to watch for news this morning) that Cheney didn’t show to present the award. He’s always presented it in the past but he wasn’t there to give it to DeFrank.

    I wasn’t sure if the event was still to happen or already had, which was my impression. But I’m sure that someone on CNN said this morning between 10:30 and 11:30 AM EDT that Cheney was a no show. Which, you must admit, sounds much more like him.

    The E&P story ew links to is not exact as â€awarded†could be taken to mean that he was part of the deciding process, which CNN also suggested.

    I’d go search out the truth but I am dead tired from spending three days mapping the Oregon-California Trail across Wyoming and my brain ain’t up for it. Hopefully, someone else will solve the mystery.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Kainah, he was there. Please don’t muddy the waters on DeFrank Wednesday. From today’s NY Daily News:

    â€Who says Dick Cheney has no sense of humor? The Veep needled Donald Rumsfeld at Monday’s annual reunion dinner of Gerald Ford administration alumni in D.C. â€I’ve heard it suggested on occasion that Don [who ran the Pentagon for Ford] might even be the best secretary of defense we’ve ever had. Well, he’s pretty close,†said Cheney, who held the same job. Cheney noted that Rummy â€is the only man to serve as secretary of defense in two different centuries.†The News’ Tom DeFrank, who was honored at the dinner for his White House coverage, reports that Rumsfeld laughedâ€

  8. Anonymous says:

    This is vaguely reminiscent of when ABC’s Jackie Judd won an award for her exposes of the Clinton/Lewinsky saga. Clinton didn’t present her the award, but he was in the audience. Judd thanked the president for being so kind, and Clinton shook her hand in congratulations. Weird.

  9. Anonymous says:

    OfT Thanks by Jane Hamsher
    â€Since I got the call on Saturday morning that my Mom was in critical condition, it’s been a hard few days. Many thanks to Christy for working 18 hour days doing the job of both of us and raising a 3 year-old to boot, to all the guest posters who have stepped in to cover my shifts and to all the support pouring out from people in the comments. Your prayers and your good wishes have meant the world….â€

  10. Anonymous says:

    Cheney was there but did not present the award, prompting Roll Call to report this brief story:

    â€It was another ironic moment in the nation’s capital Monday as Vice President Cheney was on hand to present Tom DeFrank, the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for the New York Daily News, with the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency. But the irony was muffled since Cheney didn’t physically present the award to DeFrank, in a departure from previous years.â€

    So what does it mean when Roll Call calls something â€ironicâ€?

    And does the NY Daily News have a link, or is today’s story in the print version?

  13. Anonymous says:

    I quite agree, Carol, that’s the moral of the Roll Call story: You can muffle a gunshot, but you can’t muffle irony.

  15. Anonymous says:

    Saltin

    I don’t necessarily believe it was a bust (though it probably does mean DeFrank has other sources too). It’s a remarkable moment, and astounding that DeFrank got the award for these articles. And I think a really nice display of the cattiness going on in the WH. In fact, I think the fact that someoen nominated DeFrank for the award, and that Dick is apparently discomforted by that, is pretty telling.