Cheney debate 'zinger' doesn't match reality<br />Vice-president, senator met, sat side by side at prayer breakfast<br /> <br />Sheldon Alberts <br />CanWest News Service <br /><br /><br />October 7, 2004<br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /> <br />WASHINGTON -- Senator John Edwards? Never met the man before tonight.<br /><br />So said Vice-President **** Cheney during his debate against the Democratic running mate on Tuesday night in Cleveland.<br /><br />Except he was wrong. Cheney was wearing egg on his face Wednesday after photographs and videotape emerged proving he had indeed met Edwards on several occasions in recent years.<br /><br />The revelation undercut one of the most effective lines Cheney had used during the debate to portray Edwards as a slacker in the U.S. Senate. And it gave Democrat spin doctors ammunition for claims that the vice-president is not above stretching the truth for political purposes.<br /><br />Cheney ignited the controversy during a withering attack on Edwards's lack of political accomplishments during a six-year career in the U.S.<br /><br />"Senator, frankly, you have a record in the Senate that's not very distinguished. You've missed 33 out of 36 meetings of the judiciary committee, almost 70 per cent of the meetings of the intelligence committee. . . . Your own hometown newspaper has taken to calling you 'Senator Gone,' " said Cheney, setting Edwards up for the rhetorical kill.<br /><br />"Now in my capacity as vice-president, I am the president of the 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 this stage tonight."<br /><br />The instant analysis among media pundits ranked the Cheney crack as his best shot of the night. "There was a zinger likely to stay zung," wrote Tom Shales in the Washington Post's Wednesday editions. "Edwards had no effective comeback." The New York Times called the remark "one of the evening's surprising revelations."<br /><br />But within hours, other U.S. media outlets had produced video belying Cheney's claim.<br /><br />In fact, Cheney met, and thanked, Edwards, during a Senate prayer breakfast on Feb. 1, 2001. The two men actually sat side by side at the event.<br /><br />In Jan. 8, 2003, Edwards and Cheney also met at a swearing-in ceremony for Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole.<br /><br />And NBC's Tim Russert said Wednesday the two vice-presidential nominees shook hands in a television studio during a taping of his show Meet the Press in 2001.<br /><br />Edwards initially let Cheney's remark pass without comment, then later said the task of setting Cheney straight was left to his wife, Elizabeth, who approached the vice-president after the broadcast ended and "reminded him about the truth."
<br /><br />You dems ought to be fit to be tied. 
