Dick Cheney can still take a joke

Vice President Dick Cheney was speaking to a North Carolina crowd in Charlotte the other day when he noted that his job isn't given much respect in U.S. history.

"Before the Constitution was written," Cheney recalled, "some, including Benjamin Franklin, believed the vice presidency was entirely unnecessary. He said that if the office were to be created, anyone who served as vice president should be addressed as 'Your Superfluous Excellency.' "

"That," said Cheney, "is a lot better than some of the things I've been called."

-- Andrew Malcolm