Tackling Cheney

It's so easy to talk to him about something he doesn't want to hear:

Bartlett recalled: "The Cheneys aren't into small talk... So finally I said... 'I just wanted to raise a couple issues.' Kind of got out some perfunctory stuff -- 'you're going to be going here, you're going to be doing that.' And he was just kind of nodding at me. And I said, 'There is one issue we need to talk about. We had heard that maybe, you know, that your daughter was going to join the campaign trail, going to be on the campaign trail with you. I just want to let you know -- perfectly fine, but I just want you to know that the press is going to really focus on this, they're going to maybe intrude more into your lives than you may be prepared [for]. Well, I just wanted to put that on the table for you.'

"And the vice president looks at me," Bartlett said and, in a decent Cheney impersonation, quoted him: " 'We won't be talking about my daughter.' I said, 'Okaaay, thank you very much.'"

You begin to realize why no one was able to point out that there was an insurgency in Iraq for a little over three years.