A Poem For Dick Cheney In Honor of His Birthday:
Since today is the vice-decider's big day, the Rude Pundit has put together this little poem, taken from Cheney's interview with Newsweek this week. Oh, and interspersed with excerpts from the press conference about the death of Barbaro.

I'm the Vice President and They're Not

It is an existential conflict.
It is, in fact, about the future
Of civilization on large parts of the globe
It's very important that we recognize
It's a long-term conflict,
And we have to be
Engaged.
There might have been a time
When we could retreat behind our oceans
Feel safe and secure and not worry.
That day passed on 9/11.

This happened very quickly in the last
Couple of days and probably the thing that
Pushed us over the top ... last night
For the first time ever,
He really struggled with what he was doing.
He did not feel comfortable enough to lie down.
He was not comfortable standing up.
We had him in and out
Of the sling several times trying to get him down
And up.

And now, when we face the very real prospect
That attacks can be mounted against the United
States from various parts of the globe,
including Europe and where the possibility exists
That the terrorists could next time have
Far deadlier weapons than anything they have used
To date, this is a very serious problem. And the United
States cannot afford not to prevail.

I really did not think it appropriate to
Continue with the treatment because
The probable outcome was just so poor
And he would have to go through an unmanageable
Amount of discomfort.
He developed fairly severe laminitis
In both front feet. It left him with not
A good leg to stand on, and that was just
Not going to work out in the long run.

A decision by the United
States to withdraw from Iraq
I think would have a direct negative
Impact on the efforts of all of those other folks.

I would probably not make the same mistakes.
I am sure I made mistakes.
Everyone makes mistakes.
There are things that you could have done
Slightly better.

I think there's no question
But that the struggle has gone on longer
Than we anticipated.

This type of situation is like a deck of cards.
Sometimes if things are that tenuous,
If one thing starts to go
You have a lot of other parts that start to go on you
As well.

The comments I made
Were based
On the best
Information we had.