by emptywheel
Alright, this is really SaltinWound and Quicksilver's scoop--but it's too good not to elevate into a full post. Apparently, Dick just awarded Thomas DeFrank an award for "accurate and substantial reports help to further educate the public on matters concerning the presidency." [See Update below.]
Thomas M. DeFrank, the Washington Bureau Chief for the New York Daily News, was awarded the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency on Monday. DeFrank received the award from Vice President Dick Cheney at a National Press Club luncheon.
Oh, sure, you're saying, DeFrank has been covering the presidency since before unleaded fuel. But it's his recent scoops I find most award-worthy. Who could forget, for example, DeFrank's airing of Karl and Bush's dirty laundry?
An angry President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair, sources told the Daily News.
"He made his displeasure known to Karl," a presidential counselor told The News. "He made his life miserable about this."
Or how about this one, which sounds an awful lot like Capitol Hill Blue?
"He's like the lion in winter," observed a political friend of Bush. "He's frustrated. He remains quite confident in the decisions he has made. But this is a guy who wanted to do big things in a second term. Given his nature, there's no way he'd be happy about the way things have gone."
Bush usually reserves his celebrated temper for senior aides because he knows they can take it. Lately, however, some junior staffers have also faced the boss' wrath.
"This is not some manager at McDonald's chewing out the help," said a source with close ties to the White House when told about these outbursts. "This is the President of the United States, and it's not a pleasant sight."
The specter of losing Rove, his only truly irreplaceable assistant, lies at the heart of Bush's distress. But a string of political reversals, including growing opposition to the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina's aftermath and Harriet Miers' bungled Supreme Court nomination, have also exacted a personal toll.
Presidential advisers and friends say Bush is a mass of contradictions: cheerful and serene, peevish and melancholy, occasionally lapsing into what he once derided as the "blame game." They describe him as beset but unbowed, convinced that history will vindicate the major decisions of his presidency even if they damage him and his party in the 2006 and 2008 elections.
At the same time, these sources say Bush, who has a long history of keeping staffers in their place, has lashed out at aides as his political woes have mounted.
"The President is just unhappy in general and casting blame all about," said one Bush insider. "Andy [Card, the chief of staff] gets his share. Karl gets his share. Even Cheney gets his share. And the press gets a big share."
The vice president remains Bush's most trusted political confidant. Even so, the Daily News has learned Bush has told associates Cheney was overly involved in intelligence issues in the runup to the Iraq war that have been seized on by Bush critics.
Bush is so dismayed that "the only person escaping blame is the President himself," said a sympathetic official, who delicately termed such self-exoneration "illogical."
A second senior Bush loyalist disagreed, saying Bush knows "some of these things are self-inflicted," like the Miers nomination, where Bush jettisoned contrary advice from his advisers and appointed his longtime personal lawyer.
"He must know that the way he did that, relying on his own judgment and instinct, was not good," another key adviser said. [my emphasis]
Or this one, which sounds like the Jerry Springer show.
The CIA leak scandal has peeled back the veil on the most closely held White House secret of all: the subtle but unmistakable erosion in the bond between President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
Multiple sources close to Bush told the Daily News that while the vice president remains his boss' valued political partner and counselor, his clout has lessened - primarily as a result of issues arising from the Iraq war.
[snip]Several sources said the distance is certain to accelerate with the Oct. 28 indictment of Lewis (Scooter) Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff and geopolitical soul mate.
"Cheney is wounded by this," a longtime Bush associate said.
[snip]
"The vice president's office will never be quite as independent from the White House as it has been," said a key Bush associate. "That will end.
"Cheney never operated without a degree of [presidential] license, but there are people around who cannot believe some of the advice [Bush] has been given." [my emphasis]
All three articles were cited as the basis for the prize. So Dick, apparently, gave DeFrank an award for airing Shrub's emotional dependence on Turdblossom, Shooter's emotional dependence on Scooter, and their falling-out based on one dependee getting indicted but not the other. Geez, I mean, I knew these guys were nuts. But I thought it was sadistic, violent nuts, not quivering emotionally dependent nuts. And then to reward exposing that nuttiness? Update: Via Quicksilver, it appears that, even though DeFrank believed Cheney would present the award, he didn't.
Though, again according to DeFrank's speaker's bureau, it appears the award was given for those Jerry Springer articles last year.
It appears that those in attendance were aware of the irony of the moment:
Q Mr. Vice President, I've been advised by your staff that you need to cut the program off early. So I wanted to ask a final question to you.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Why is that? (Laughter.) Something is going on I don't know about. (Laughter.) Or maybe the President is watching.
Q I hope he's not watching, because of this question. (Laughter.) President Bush will be 60 on July 6th. What gift do you plan to give him?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Maybe a shotgun? (Laughter.)
The following equation would seem to obtain:
sadistic, violent nuts = quivering emotionally dependent nuts * crazier than a shithouse rat, which then can be simplified as,
nuts = nuts
Posted by: Compound F | June 21, 2006 at 19:15
Even funnier when you consider Cheney could be one of DeFrank's sources. This is the sentence Matthews asked DeFrank about on Hardball:
"Even so, the Daily News has learned Bush has told associates Cheney was overly involved in intelligence issues in the runup to the Iraq war that have been seized on by Bush critics."
I'm going by memory, this was months ago, but it went like this: Matthews asked DeFrank if his source thought Cheney was overly involved. DeFrank said he couldn't say without revealing who his source was (I thought Cheney). Andrea Mitchell then got all crazy eyed and started baiting DeFrank about going back with Cheney to the Ford Adminstration. I realize my memory of this has grown more flowery with time.
Can it be DeFrank Wednesday?
Posted by: SaltinWound | June 21, 2006 at 19:47
Leaders of the Free World???
shucks, sounds more like choosing up sides for a third grade dodgeball game...
Posted by: njr | June 21, 2006 at 20:11
o t, but anyone interested in Italy, our CIA, renditions, yellowcake should give this a look and ask for more:
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/37638/
Posted by: njr | June 21, 2006 at 20:13
Saltin--
I think your memory is clear on this one. Cheney always made sense as a source for DeFrank, and DeFrank's pieces had the odor of turf war about them, Dick vs. Karl. Too simple a solution to ignore, I think.
Posted by: landreau | June 21, 2006 at 20:42
Except....... I heard this morning on CNN (which, lacking CSPAN, I was forced to watch for news this morning) that Cheney didn't show to present the award. He's always presented it in the past but he wasn't there to give it to DeFrank.
I wasn't sure if the event was still to happen or already had, which was my impression. But I'm sure that someone on CNN said this morning between 10:30 and 11:30 AM EDT that Cheney was a no show. Which, you must admit, sounds much more like him.
The E&P story ew links to is not exact as "awarded" could be taken to mean that he was part of the deciding process, which CNN also suggested.
I'd go search out the truth but I am dead tired from spending three days mapping the Oregon-California Trail across Wyoming and my brain ain't up for it. Hopefully, someone else will solve the mystery.
Posted by: kainah | June 21, 2006 at 21:37
Kainah, he was there. Please don't muddy the waters on DeFrank Wednesday. From today's NY Daily News:
"Who says Dick Cheney has no sense of humor? The Veep needled Donald Rumsfeld at Monday's annual reunion dinner of Gerald Ford administration alumni in D.C. "I've heard it suggested on occasion that Don [who ran the Pentagon for Ford] might even be the best secretary of defense we've ever had. Well, he's pretty close," said Cheney, who held the same job. Cheney noted that Rummy "is the only man to serve as secretary of defense in two different centuries." The News' Tom DeFrank, who was honored at the dinner for his White House coverage, reports that Rumsfeld laughed"
Posted by: SaltinWound | June 21, 2006 at 21:49
This is vaguely reminiscent of when ABC's Jackie Judd won an award for her exposes of the Clinton/Lewinsky saga. Clinton didn't present her the award, but he was in the audience. Judd thanked the president for being so kind, and Clinton shook her hand in congratulations. Weird.
Posted by: Jim E. | June 21, 2006 at 22:11
OfT Thanks by Jane Hamsher
"Since I got the call on Saturday morning that my Mom was in critical condition, it’s been a hard few days. Many thanks to Christy for working 18 hour days doing the job of both of us and raising a 3 year-old to boot, to all the guest posters who have stepped in to cover my shifts and to all the support pouring out from people in the comments. Your prayers and your good wishes have meant the world...."
Posted by: John Casper | June 21, 2006 at 22:37
Cheney was there but did not present the award, prompting Roll Call to report this brief story:
"It was another ironic moment in the nation’s capital Monday as Vice President Cheney was on hand to present Tom DeFrank, the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for the New York Daily News, with the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency. But the irony was muffled since Cheney didn’t physically present the award to DeFrank, in a departure from previous years."
So what does it mean when Roll Call calls something "ironic"?
And does the NY Daily News have a link, or is today's story in the print version?
Posted by: QuickSilver | June 21, 2006 at 22:38
You mean Cheney's been forgiven for shooting his friend at the duck hunt? Who knew?
Posted by: Carol_Herman | June 21, 2006 at 22:50
QuickSilver, it's the third item down in a gossip column:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/428505p-361321c.html
Posted by: SaltinWound | June 21, 2006 at 23:03
I quite agree, Carol, that's the moral of the Roll Call story: You can muffle a gunshot, but you can't muffle irony.
Posted by: QuickSilver | June 22, 2006 at 00:29
DeFrank Wednesday was a bust.
Posted by: SaltinWound | June 22, 2006 at 01:42
Saltin
I don't necessarily believe it was a bust (though it probably does mean DeFrank has other sources too). It's a remarkable moment, and astounding that DeFrank got the award for these articles. And I think a really nice display of the cattiness going on in the WH. In fact, I think the fact that someoen nominated DeFrank for the award, and that Dick is apparently discomforted by that, is pretty telling.
Posted by: emptywheel | June 22, 2006 at 07:55