The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

Big Swinging Sticks

Dick Cheney has some observations in Politico about how his old House colleagues are faring under Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

Most striking were his virtually taunting remarks of two men he described as friends from his own days in the House: Democratic Reps. John Dingell (Mich.) and John P. Murtha (Pa.).

... [H]e scoffed at the idea of two men who spent years accruing power showing so much deference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the big spending and energy debates of the year. 

Murtha “and the other senior leaders … march to the tune of Nancy Pelosi to an extent I had not seen, frankly, with any previous speaker,” Cheney said. “I’m trying to think how to say all of this in a gentlemanly fashion, but [in] the Congress I served in, that wouldn’t have happened.” 

... When asked if these men had lost their spines, he responded, “They are not carrying the big sticks I would have expected.”

Obviously, if Dick still cares about his old buddies he will arrange to have some Viagra slipped into the congressional bean soup.