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.

with Richard Clarke? Wish the show was an hour.

with the new correspondent wasn't that great.

What amazes me is that TDS can produce so much solid material each week -- not to mention the material they write for Colbert Report.

Yet, Saturday Night Live can't come up with more than one funny skit a week, with a larger staff, better resources, sometimes a funny guest host, etc.

a brief documentary type thing about TDS. It showed how meticulous Jon is.

Very. I assume that is where the high quality comes from.

Bless him, his humor has seen so many of us through such horrid political times.

(SNL: Way back when Gilda etc were on, they had this incredible powerhouse of up and coming comedic talent which has not ever been equalled.)

on the Daily Show read DU. In fact, there was one night, every topic was one that we discussed here and had the same humorous angle.

the new guy last night wasn't that bad, It seems like they are trying out new people all the time.

The best one, to me, was the guy who went to visit the Arabian Horse org to prove that running a horse show was just like managing hurricane relief. Do you see it. He was hysterical, a keeper in my opinion

Just a tad surprising, but so gratifying.

:applause:

That was a visual that will stay with many of us for a long, long time.

It'd be a good ad to run since we seem to be in an era in which campaign type ads run anytime to just shape opinion.

I also noticed in Newsweek that the CW (conventional wisdom) feature included * et al going back to the play book to call questioning of admin policies unpatriotic.

And it said that Americans are NOT buying it anymore.

I'll watch it at 2pm so I can watch Kieth Olberman at 8.

I, vice president Cheney, am the most dishonest and reprehensible person in the White House and I am responsible for the soldiers being attacked --- with bombs and bullets. (something like this)

I taped it, and I almost included it with this piece. But Letterman was going for a laughline, while Stewart actually was providing political commentary (in a humorous way).

so I'm looking forward to watching it when I'm done with work.

He's been the only voice out there actually doing the journalists' work.

And, he has me in stitches while doing it!

Brilliant!

finally putting those screens 2 good use, was hysterical. I had tears running down my face. The giant slot machine needs 2 be used again...not very often but it was good.




I have been watching the Colbert Report and noticed the auience does not seem 2 'get' Colbert dead-pan satire. I'm guessing he is channeling o'lielly/fux w/ all the 100 mph graphics and loudness. Colbert is doing his job toooo well. The audience is not responding at some of his more outlandish items. Last night Tim Robbins and Colbert could hardly keep from laughing @ each other thru the 'interview'.

The end of a great day!

i loved the slot machine motif !!!

Stewart's mumbling impersonation of Cheney was great too ...