During debates, candidates tend to fudge the facts about their adversary. In Tuesday’s Vice Presidential debate, that meant that Dick “The Hatchetman” Cheney claimed that Kerry and Edwards voted against the troops (they didn’t) and Sen. John Edwards claimed the bill for the Iraq war is $200 million (not quite).
About midway into the debate Cheney said:
“Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer. I’m up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they’re in session. The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.”
Unfortunately, for the Vice President, his memory sucks. Cheney and Edwards have met on 3 other occasions for various events. Cheney attempted to smear Edwards. He wanted to insinuate that Edwards is absent from Senate sessions so much that he hasn’t met him during those sessions.
This has been one of the many charges Bush and Cheney keep repeating – that Kerry and Edwards have poor attendance records in the Senate. Cheney commented about a bill that was recently passed to extend the tax breaks Bush got passed in 2002. He said that Kerry and Edwards didn’t even vote – not noting that both were on the campaign trail at the time.
Hachetman also went dumb on his repeated comments before the Iraq war that Saddam and Bin Laden had a relationship. He went so far as to say on a Sunday morning talk show that Iraq was a center of terrorist activity and support. NONE of that was true then and we now know it was never true. Cheney claimed during the debate on Tuesday that he never made the comments. Too bad for him that it was recorded on video tape and played several times on Wednesday.
As Edwards said:
Cheney was “still not being straight with the American people.”