Cheney comments on West Virginia

You’d think that politicians, even stupid politicians, even right-wing idiot politicians, even worn-out politicians with no future left, would know better than to make jokes that insult large classes of people. But you’d be wrong. Speaking before the National Press Club, Dick Cheney said this, as he talked about his family lineage:

So we had Cheneys on both sides of the family. And we don’t even live in West Virginia.

[laughter]

But...

[laughter]

You can say these things when you’re not running for re-election.

Ha-ha. Yes, that Dick is a really funny guy.

Well, as you might expect, his staff soon issued an official apology:

The Vice President’s offhand comment was not meant to hurt anyone. On reflection, he concluded that it was an inappropriate attempt at humor that he should not have made. The Vice President apologizes to the people of West Virginia for the inappropriate remark.

But can one really apologize for that? Does such an apology mean anything? “Yes,” says the Dick, “West Virginia is just full of incestuous hillbillies, ha-ha-ha-ha.” You know, you really can’t follow that with the old “I didn’t mean anything by it,” response. And how much “reflection” does it take to know that it was the wrong thing to say?

You may not be running for anything, Dick. But other people who’re connected to your political machine are, and this will hurt them. Oh, you didn’t think about that, eh? Yeah, sorry, but some other people are thinking about it.

But, then, well, he’s just a Dick.

[Disclaimer: When I called Mr Cheney a Dick just then, it was not meant to hurt anyone. Maybe it’s just my inappropriate attempt at humour. I apologize to all the other Dicks for comparing them to Mr Cheney.]