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Opinion: Remember Dick Cheney? He’s been in Atlanta all this time

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Vice President Dick Cheney appeared in Atlanta last night. Just like, that out of the blue. You don’t see him for weeks and, poof, the jolly guy pops up down there.

The occasion was the Georgia Jefferson Day Dinner. No, just kidding. It was the Republican President’s Day Dinner. And Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who’s up for reelection this fall in a tough political year for Republicans, wasn’t at the dinner. Hmmm.

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‘I know Saxby is going to win another term this November,’ Cheney told the crowd. ‘Saxby, of course, is a very courageous man. I know that because he’s one of my hunting buddies.’

Cheney, who can tell the joke on himself now that some time has passed since he accidentally wounded a hunting companion in the face in Texas, enjoyed ...

the reception he got from the unarmed audience last night. ‘A welcome like that is almost enough to make me want to run for office again,’ he said. ‘Almost, I said.’

Because he serves as president of the Senate, Cheney noted, he gets to see a lot of the senators.

‘As vice president, the only real duties you have under the Constitution is to preside over the Senate and to cast tie-breaking votes,’ he said. ‘In fact, before the Constitution was written, some believed the vice presidency was entirely unnecessary. Benjamin Franklin said that if the office were to be created, anyone who served as vice president should be addressed as ‘Your Superfluous Excellency.’

That’s a lot better than some of the things I’ve been called,’ Cheney added.

There was a serious side to this talk, of course. “President Bush and I look forward to helping our candidates, up and down the ticket, throughout this very important election year,’ the vice president said. The next question, of course, is how much the Republican candidates look forward to being seen with an administration whose favorable ratings hover in the 20s.

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‘We’re going to take wise and careful steps to revitalize America’s economy in a moment of challenge. And we’ll press on in the fight against enemies who are determined to inflict great harm on this country,’ Cheney said.

It’s not only the economy they’re grappling with today, he said. ‘This country has gone six and a half years now without another catastrophic attack like 9/11,’ he said.

“Nobody can guarantee that we won’t be hit again. The fact is the danger remains very real –- and we know the terrorists are still out there, still determined to hit us. I look at it every day and see it in our intelligence briefs. They are fanatical in their hatred. They have tried many times to cause more violence and death in this country.’

The important thing to remember, six and a half years after 9/11, is that the war on terror is still very real, that it won’t be won on the defensive, and that we have to proceed on many fronts at the same time,’ Cheney added.

‘I’m confident that our jobs will be left in good hands,’ the vice president said, which is Wyoming for ‘who the heck knows what’s gonna happen in this cockamamie political year?’

-- Mark Silva

Mark Silva writes for The Swamp from the Chicago Tribune’s Washington bureau.

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