Quit Your Nagging
 

If the measure of a gentleman is not cursing - I seem to recall a certain Candidate (John Kerry) - using the dreaded F*** word in a Rolling Stone Interview earlier this year.

I think finding a true "gentleman" on either side of the aisle would be a helluva challenge. Decorum and politics have really become incongruous.

Amen, and Amen.

Ha ha! That cracks me up! Get 'em Cheney!! It also cracks me up that some people are more offended by the F-bomb than Clinton using an intern as an ash-tray.

This whole thing is much ado about nothing to me -- but to purists, the trauma here is not the use of the word itself, but rather the breaking of tradition and protocol on the floor of the Senate.

You are supposed to be a Gentleperson there.

Speaking of cursing....so, I was leaving a message for my mom one day last week, and I was talking about the kids I work with. I don't even remember what EXACTLY I was talking about but I let the BIG one slip....

Me talking to the voice mail: "....yeah, cuz THESE mufuckas are CRAZY. And then I....ooooooh, I cussed. Sorry!"

one wonders what he might say if all was known about haliburton and his involvement there? plus, the serious campaign stress hasn't even hit yet.

I don't think people are necessarily more offended by this than by Clinton's act...it just happens that this is the "news" of the moment.

It was on the senate floor, but they weren't in session. So technically, rules of decorum didn't apply. So he won't be censured.

I don't think the rules even apply to Cheney since he's not a member of the Senate, but rather the Executive branch

The Vice President is the President of, and presides over, the Senate. He also is the tiebreaker in case of a tie vote.

I only thought it didn't apply because of the following paragraph from the Washington Post

So then there are two reasons:

Not a member and not in session.

Either way, it doesn't really matter.

On the other hand, while not technically a violation, it is probably a tradition that is not often broken -- or there wouldn't be this kind of an uproar.

From my own past experience with these kinds of protocals, I used to direct a pool feed for Colorado TV stations of the Governor's State of the State address every year.

Although it is unwritten, it is an understanding that nobody walks down the center aisle of the House Chamber on that day until after the Governor has.

What difference does that make? None at all -- it's just tradition.

As mentioned above, in this case there can be no censure of the Vice President because of the technicality.

As regards gentlemen, I am reminded of a conversation between Cardinal Newman and Oscar Wilde. The good Cardinal said that a gentleman never knowingly gives offence. Wilde responded, Oh no your Eminence, a gentleman never UNknowingly gives offence.

As regards the decorum of the senate, I seem to remember reading in American History that Senators used cane each other in the chamber and that while duelling was technically illegal duels were fought between Senators, and Congressmen, into the early 20th Century.

As to Republicans and Democrats who are gentlemen I defer to Brother Theodore Roosevelt, Alpha of DKE, who in a discussion on the relative merits of Ladies and Gentlemen and their qualifications to be considered as such, said that the best course was to consider all brothers to be valient and all sisters to be virtuous unless and until they proved themselves to be otherwise, and even then it didn't hurt to err on the side of generosity.