One Sentence Wonders
The recent performance of the former vice-President on television and at his speech at the American Enterprise Institute, left wondering what will be the iconic sentence that will define Dick Cheney and other members of the Bush administration for all time. Yesterday, while watching Cheney, it was Dick Nixon's iconic, "I am not a crook" that came to mind. But that defines Nixon and Cheney. We have to find Cheney's own sentence. (And although his message to Sen. Patrick Leahy -- "Go fuck yourself!" -- is a standout, the question remains, what will define Cheney?
Here are a few of the iconic, defining sentences that come to mind for assorted politicians. Add your own, please! Especially for the members of the Bush administration.
Bill Clinton: "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is."
Don Rumsfeld: "We have known knowns, unknown knowns, known unknowns..." (or however the hell it goes.)
Rudy Giuliani: "(Subject) (Verb) 9-11." (Joe Biden actually defined Giuliani for us)
Ronald Reagan: "I paid for this microphone!"
Spiro T. Agnew: "...the nattering nabobs of negativitism."
Lyndon Johnson: "My fellow Americans..."
John F. Kennedy: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for yoru country."
Franklin D. Roosevelt: "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself."
George C. Wallace: "Segregation now, segregation forever."
You get the idea... add your favorites. Tag the Bush administration.
"Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere ... nope, no weapons over there ... maybe under here?"
May 22, 2009 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Worthless, may I just point out I love the new avatar. Photoshop? Nice work
May 23, 2009 2:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Paint. (Thanks!) I've wanted a Maddow-Wonderwoman avatar for some time now. One thing I figured out pretty soon is that when you put Wonderwoman's gigantic hair onto Maddow's head, it becomes nearly impossible to recognize her anymore.
May 23, 2009 7:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm the Decider. W.
We will be greeted as liberators. Dick.
Now, you're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe. Rummy.
May 22, 2009 1:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
"So?"
May 22, 2009 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I think I was unprepared for war." – Bush on the biggest regret of his presidency, ABC News interview, Dec. 1, 2008
May 22, 2009 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dick Cheney on the senate floor - FU!
May 22, 2009 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
When a man named Rummy is in charge, we should have paid more attention.
the only descriptive one-liner that comes to mind is the "Up is Down World of Bush/Cheney."
May 22, 2009 7:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Four-fifths of all our troubles would disappear if we would only sit down and keep still. Calvin Coolidge
May 22, 2009 8:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on which was weapons of mass destruction as the core reason... [Answer to why there are missing dots between Iraq and everything else.]
Vanity Fair interview with Wolfowitz, 5/9/03.
May 22, 2009 9:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was talking to my husband, I mean the president
Never married Condi Rice at a DC cocktail party.
May 22, 2009 9:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Aberto Gonzales, 'I don't recall'.
May 22, 2009 10:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fool me once..er..Fool me once er...don't get fooled again...w
People out there workin' hard to throw food on their family...w
We do not tap the phone calls of Americans without warrants...w
I am the decider...w
This is too easy. There are web sites for w...
I will try to do better tomorrow morning.
May 23, 2009 12:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
“We don't have to protect the environment, the Second Coming is at hand.”
James watt, US Secretary of Interior under Reagan
May 23, 2009 2:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Rumsfeld on WMDs: "Simply because you do not have evidence that something does exist does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn't exist."
But what best sums up the Bush years is a quote by Ron Suskind from an un-named Bush "senior advisor" who was critical of "what we call the reality-based community" and said that "We're an empire now, and when we act we create our own reality."
Almost all of the failures and outrages of the Bush administration can be explained by that attitude.
May 23, 2009 10:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." --Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004
May 26, 2009 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink