Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Two Faces of Pat Leahy

One of RedStateVT's favorite Dick Cheney stories occurred in 2004 when the Vice President met up with Vermont's senior Senator Pat Leahy. At that time, to show his disapproval of the Iraq War, Leahy had been uttering the single word "Halliburton" at every opportunity. This despite the fact that Cheney had severed ties to Halliburton and placed his assets in a blind trust. Obviously fed up with Leahy, the Vice President told him to get lost......only those weren't the exact the words he used. Then to try and draw a penalty in the hockey equivalent of falling to the ice when an opposing player taps you, Leahy expressed shock and bewilderment. Got to love Cheney....when later asked if he regretted his choice of words, he replied: "No, it felt good."

Liberals like Leahy just do not get the fact that many people - the Vice President included - have not spent their entire career working in government. In fact, in an examination of Leahy's official web site, it does not appear that he has ever had a private sector job dating back to 1964! With Ted Kennedy's passing, look for the media to crown Leahy as the new "lion of the Senate."

Anyway, we pass along the following from the Vermont GOP which outlines Leahy's current shenanigans with respect to judicial appointees:

"The original version of the Federal Judgeship Act, proposed in March 2008 and co-sponsored by Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, was supposed to give both parties a say in the composition of an expanded federal judiciary. Then the election results would determine which party's President got to nominate the judges. The idea was to pass a plan and then have it go into effect after the inauguration of the election winner in 2008. It had bipartisan support. Yet with a Democratic President now in the White House, Mr. Leahy wants to be sure Mr. Obama gets to do the picking-and not wait until the next election. His plan would create nine additional permanent appeals-court judgeships in five circuits, including two on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the Northeast and four on the overstretched Ninth in the West. It would also create three more temporary appeals court judgeships-seats that would last for 10 years through either 2019 or 2020. On the federal district courts, which are a step below the appellate bench, the Leahy bill would create another 38 permanent and 13 temporary judges."

2 comments:

  1. Hey I like Dick Cheney as much as the next Redstater, but lauding his private sector accomplishments is a bit much. Cheney's most notable private sector act was shepherding Halliburton's disasterous purchase of Kellogg, Brown & Root - whose corporate specialty was the no-bid military contract.

    Sure, Leahey's moonbat Halliburton refrain was nutty, but Cheney's hands weren't completely clean, blind trust or not.

    Poor Halliburton. The once proud oil-field servicer extrodinaire got its name dragged through the mud during the Iraq war and was forced to spin off the KBW cancer for a relative pittance. As a Halliburton stock holder let me just say, thanks a lot Dick Cheney.

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  2. Dick Cheney is a pigheaded mercenary. Sorry!

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