Cheney To Rahm: "Keep Your VP Under Control"

CNN reports on a private meeting organized by White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, where 13 of his predecessors offered future Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel some bipartisan advice.

Vice President Dick Cheney had some blunt -- and humorous -- advice for incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel at a private breakfast earlier this month, CNN has learned.

"The best thing you can do is keep your VP under control," Cheney told Emanuel, according to three sources familiar with the White House meeting that had previously not been disclosed publicly.

One of the sources, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the private meeting, said the room broke up in laughter because of Cheney's reputation for being a hard-charging vice president.

Politico gives the full list of attendees: Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld (Ford), Jack Watson (Carter), Howard Baker and Kenneth Duberstein (Reagan) John Sununu and Samuel Skinner (Bush 41), Mack McLarty, Leon Panetta, Erskine Bowles and John Podesta (Clinton) and Andy Card and Bolten (Bush).

Emanuel got tips on how to preserve his family life; was urged to keep in mind that the most important word in his title is "staff"; pushed to hire only the best and then give them Sundays off when possible; and reminded to be candid with the president (something, one former top aide said, would not be a problem with the outspoken and sometimes-profane Emanuel)

He might have been a former top aide himself in the Clinton administration, but Emanuel took "copious notes" the whole time, one participant recalled.

"There was a lot of camaraderie," recalled Emanuel. "This is a shared experience of just about a dozen people, and it was touching that Josh pulled it together and that so many could attend and wish me luck."

Comments

[AmericanScream]

a $ $ hat thinks he's funny. The freaking arrogance.

[DASChicago]

Rahm's (self initiated spokesperson); to Cheney... go to H*E*L*L !

[lapdogs]

Cheney telling Emanuel he has to keep Biden under control is like Bush telling Obama he has to learn how to speak better.

[SeriousBlack]

HA! Love it!

[panurse]

omg- love it

[motoGpifupleez]

Well I surely don't want a psychopathic, black hearted, Chicken-Hawk, war profiteering, corporate toady running amock in a government "of, by, and for the people".

[grf67]

This is not true. The best thing he could do is to endure that the current VP serves time in a federal prison for war crimes and for violating the Constitution.

[Pulemerci]

I don't want Biden to be "under control." The man is a laugh riot. Please let him speak, as much as possible.

[minty68]

Yes, Biden will need to speak his mind, especially on foreign relations with Hillary around.

[nogimmicks]

Rahm is going to be Obama's Dick Cheney. It appears that he is running the show already while limiting Obama to reading approved feel-good speeches.

[theMightyT]

the collective IQ of the thread just dropped about 100 points with the addition of the above post.

[arspar183]

ditto

[jinxed]

No kidding!

[shirleyfeeney]

Hey Cheney...t­hanks for the laugh.

Joe Biden will be just fine, thank you very much. Now, please go back to your undisclosed location and stay there...

[smilodon1]

Yah! And take your shotgun with you.

[jinxed]

I agree, he just might need it when they come to arrest him for t r e a s on.

[TheKidd]

the thing that always fascinated me about politics is that you could be in the same room with other politicians and make jokes, laugh and there's camaraderie. Then a few months after you start criminal investigations and it's all business. i'm not saying they will do that on Bush or Cheney but they could. remember when Bush, Obama, McCain, Pelosi, Paulson, etc were all in the same room talking about the bailout and they all talk to each other like good friends. it just fascinates me.

[Mogamboguru]

A split personality is no precondition to become a politician - but it sure helps...

[PATina]

It's called a job. You learn to separate the business from the personal.

[boomer1949]

Pot calling the kettle black. What a joke.

[CindyKay]

Hey Cheney ..........­... F#@k You !

[newsmctado]

I've been looking for a megaphone big enough and loud enough to be able to shout that from Mass. Ave and have Cheney hear it up at th VP's House on Observatory Hill. So far, no luck.

[lizziekw]

Ha. When I read the headline and thought he was serious, that was my first response too.

It's a shame about Cheney. He could have been a smart, funny, accomplished, respectable person. Instead he's a no good creep on his best days and a monster on his worst.

[zonafan51]

Cheney needs to take a long leap off a short pier . . . or a short walk to a jail cell! Why would Rahm or anyone else in Obama's administration listen to anything that criminal has to say?

Prosecute him!!!

[MovingtoNorway]

Why is this man not sweeping a floor in a Club Fed this morning?

[goldiekins]

I will be glad when Mr. Cheney is retired, out to pasture. He has blundered his way through 8 years, had the President's ear the whole time. I wonder what the world would be like now if Bush had chosen a different running mate because I don't think all of Bush's decisions were his, but actually Cheney's, and look where we are now. Yup, glad to see you go, sir.

[deeppeace]

He didn't blunder at all. He connived, schemed, lied and wiped the floor with the Constitution all in an effort to do well by his companies and his cronies. All very successfully, I'd say. Milked the government cash cow like no other corporation in history. And he'll get away with it. I almost never wish anyone ill (since Nixon, anyway) but a slow, painful, powerless demise would suit him well.

[sean6886]

Go F yourself, Cheney!