General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWaterboarding Is A Big Joke At Cheney Roast
A sentimental evening at the Plaza for Cheney, Rumsfeld, Mukasey, and Lieberman.
by Ben Smith
The cover of the program at the Oct. 7 Roast of Dick Cheney.
Dick Cheney is ready to laugh about waterboarding.
Conservatives gathered at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan Monday night to roast the former vice president at an event where many of the biggest laugh lines touched on the most controversial policies of a key architect of his administrations war on terror. At the gathering, hosted by Commentary, figures including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey drew a mix of chuckles and winces with jokes that left few lines uncrossed, according to three guests.
Senator Joe Lieberman said something to the effect that its nice that were all here at the Plaza instead of in cages after some war crimes trial, recalled one person who was there.
Other major targets included former Secretary of State Colin Powell, mocked for leaking, and President Barack Obama, who was mocked, repeatedly, for the relative strength of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The event, sponsored by Rupert Murdoch, Paul Singer, and other top conservatives (listed here) also starred former Senator Joe Lieberman and Scooter Libby, the Cheney aide convicted of lying to investigators in a leak hunt. Two attendees said the edgy jokes were in appropriate spirit of a roast; the third found them in poor taste, even in that setting. The dinner was, to the surprise of some guests, punctuated by a live performance of Yiddish songs and by an video featuring Cheneys face on others bodies, which emcee and Commentary editor John Podhoretz joked in an email to BuzzFeed he would release only for $1 million.
There were some waterboarding jokes that were really tasteless, the guest said. I can see the case for enhanced interrogation techniques after Sept. 11 but I cant really endorse sitting there drinking wine and fancy dinner at the Plaza laughing uproariously about it.
more
http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/waterboarding-is-a-big-joke-at-cheney-roast
spanone
(135,873 posts)Shrike47
(6,913 posts)gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)they al should be wearing orange jumpsuits!