Happy anniversary

It's party time!

We're commemorating the third anniversary of Dick Cheney telling Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy, "Go fuck yourself," in Senate chambers after Leahy suggested it may be unseemly for Halliburton, where Cheney still draws an annual salary as "former" CEO, to be profiteering from the invasion of Iraq Cheney pitched like Chicken Little.

And that's when this vulger quote became (more) favored in the teen vernacular.

I must say, though, if I had my choice of threats, that one beat the mortal one Leahy and then-Senate President Tom Daschle received in fall 2001 with those envelopes of anthrax from some mysterious (or is it?) terrorist with access to that particular Ames strain grown in the CIA's chemical lab at Fort Detrick, Md.

Yep, that anthrax investigation is about as important to the Bush-Cheney administration as finding Osama bin Laden, who Bush "doesn't think about" despite the Saudi rich kid confessing he orchestrated Sept. 11, 2001, which somehow led us to invade Iraq.

Anyway, this anniversary is highlighted on the Blue Funk calendar. Perhaps the Washington Post looked at it when choosing today to publish a profile on Cheney, which has some interesting revelations:

Previous accounts have described Cheney's adrenaline-charged evacuation to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center that morning (Sept. 11, 2001), a Secret Service agent on each arm. They have not detailed his reaction, 22 minutes later, when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.

"There was a groan in the room that I won't forget, ever," one witness said. "It seemed like one groan from everyone" -- among them Rice; her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley; economic adviser Lawrence B. Lindsey; counselor Matalin; Cheney's chief of staff, Libby; and the vice president's wife.

Cheney made no sound. "I remember turning my head and looking at the vice president, and his expression never changed," said the witness, reading from a notebook of observations written that day. Cheney closed his eyes against the image for one long, slow blink.

Three people who were present, not all of them admirers, said they saw no sign then or later of the profound psychological transformation that has often been imputed to Cheney.

The electronic file on that story is titled Chapter 1. WaPo must be planning more.

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