Dems Walk Loudly and Carry No Sticks

Teddy Roosevelt's advice was to "walk softly and carry a big stick". Vice President Dick Cheney, in an interview that will receive much criticism from the neutered left, suggests that Dems are lacking in "big sticks":

Vice President Cheney warned in an interview Wednesday that a premature withdrawal from Iraq would invite “further attacks” against the United States and said he has been surprised by the weakness of the Democratic Congress.

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.).

In a 40-minute interview with Politico, he 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.”

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

Of course, now the Dems are running around trying to prove their sticks are bigger than Cheney's, despite the fact that you probably couldn't find their sticks with tweezers and a flashlight.

I just love it when Cheney pokes at them like this.