Maybe you can help me out. I've been searching for the proper simile, but haven't yet found one that satisfies me.
Upon hearing that Vice President Dick Cheney had started chastising Democrats for leveling "dishonest and reprehensible charges" against the administration, my first reaction was to sputter something like: "Getting accused by Dick Cheney of reprehensible dishonesty is like ..." But I couldn't find a satisfactory conclusion to the sentiment.
I want to say it's like getting accused of steroid abuse by Jason Giambi, but he at least 'fessed up (even if under duress).
I mean really. Cheney has a mastery of dishonesty that ranges from the reprehensible to the mundane (see: I've never met you before, John Edwards). My favorite is his habit of peddling the “Iraqi agents met with Mohammed Atta” canard … except when he’s denying that he ever said it.
To wit:
June 17, 2004. Vice President Cheney talking to CNBC's Gloria Borger:
Borger: 'Well, let's go to Mohamed Atta for a minute, because you mentioned him as well. You have said in the past that it was, quote, 'pretty well confirmed.' '
Cheney: 'No, I never said that.'
Borger: 'Okay.'
Cheney: 'Never said that.'
Borger: 'I think that is . . . '
Cheney: 'Absolutely not. What I said was the Czech intelligence service reported after 9/11 that Atta had been in Prague on April 9th of 2001, where he allegedly met with an Iraqi intelligence official. We have never been able to confirm that nor have we been able to knock it down.'
On Dec. 9, 2001. Cheney talking to NBC's Tim Russert (this is perhaps the first time he made this lie):
Cheney: 'Well, what we now have that's developed since you and I last talked, Tim, of course, was that report that -- it's been pretty well confirmed that he did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack. Now, what the purpose of that was, what transpired between them, we simply don't know at this point, but that's clearly an avenue that we want to pursue.
This last is from the excellent dossier of Cheney whoppers posted on AMERICAblog.
So anyway: Help me out – what’s the proper simile here?