Stewart Throws Cheney's "Own Words" Back At Him

John Kerry (D-MA) was right when he responded to Vice President Dick Cheney's Nov. 16 attack against critics of the White House's handling of pre-war intelligence by saying “it is hard to name a government official with less credibility on Iraq” than Cheney.

Kerry may speak for the 57% of Americans who believe that Bush "deliberately misled" the nation when making the case for war. But it's easy for the conservative noise machine to marginalize Kerry -- perhaps by calling him French or making fun of his wife's riches.

Far more people, no doubt, will remember the brilliant commentary about Cheney's attack delivered last night by Jon Stewart and the writers at Comedy Central's The Daily Show.

Cheney, in his talk before the Frontiers of Freedom Institute, a conservative policy group, said of White House critics: "We're not going to sit by and let them rewrite history. ... We're going to continue throwing their own words back at them."

That bit of empty conservative spin was just too big a bullseye for The Daily Show writers.

Here's an unofficial transcript of what Stewart said:

STEWART: The Vice President, Dick Cheney, emerged from his bunker yesterday in a fight mood.

CHENEY: The suggestion that's been made by some U.S. Senators, that the President of the United States or any member of this administration, purposely misled the American people in pre-war intelligence, is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city.

...

STEWART: So, if the president and the vice president didn't intentionally mislead us, then our intelligence apparatus failed entirely. I guess, Vice President Cheney, that's the saddest part of this whole thing.

CHENEY: The saddest part is that our people in uniform have been subjected to these cynical and pernicious falsehoods, day in and day out.

STEWART (imitating Cheney): I mean, do you know how hard it is for the troops to hear the president deny and criticize? I mean, it's one thing for the soldiers to be literally attacked --- bombs and bullets. But, to see us figuratively attacked -- words -- I mean, people, there's only so much they can ...

Bring it home, Brother Dick!

CHENEY: We're not going to sit by and let them rewrite history. ... We're going to continue throwing their own words back at them."

STEWART: All right, so here we go, let's see who's made some of the most damaging untrue statements about the war:

(pulls giant lever, as giant slot machine images begin behind him)

CHENEY (August 22, 2002): There's no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.

CHENEY (May 30, 2005): I think they are in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.

CHENEY (March 16, 2003): My belief is, we will in fact be greeted as liberators.

(On screen, in giant letters: "JACKA$$")

STEWART: We'll be right back ...

***

This item first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

skewered Cheney with the sumbitch's own words.
the exchange with Clark was great, too.

in all their attempts to justify that which has no justification. What a sad day in our nation.

I trust that the video will be up on Crooks and Liars soon.

I don't have cable. So the only way I get to see The Daily Show is to wait for C&L to post QuickTime.

Another nightowl, I see!

I think the next day! I have cable internet, so, I don't know the dial up delays, but this show will be watched again tomorrow.

The Colbert show was also pretty good!

Colbert did a brilliant bit about asking him simultaneous questions..."So you think we'd be better off with Saddam in power...and what's it like working with Clint Eastwood?" !

Jon's the BEST! (I won't miss his show). And thank you for describing it so perfectly JABBS...

you can count on one thing with bush* co. - if they are criticized they pull out the same "tools" -- Deny the accusations, smear the critic, bash the DEMs, and blame Clinton

See toon: http://radfringe.tripod.com/