Q. You've been described
(by us…)
and attributed to be (sic) one of the most powerful and influential Vice Presidents in history.
(Gush, much? )
How would you describe your influence, your power, and your contribution to this administration?
(And please do feel free to be as candid and forthright, as brutally honest in your assessment as you wish. You really, deep down know that you and the ‘Frat Brat’ screwed the pooch. Right!?)
THE VICE PRESIDENT: In terms of whether or not I'm the most powerful and influential,
(I’m glad you asked that question… precisely as I wrote it…)
I'll let somebody else make those judgments.
(I’ve written that down for you to read, as well.)
I think
(Something I’m very good at if I do say so. And I do…)
-- I do believe
(I do. I do. I do. I do believe in pardons. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do.)
that the vice presidency has been a consequential office, if I can put in those terms,
(and of course, I can; seeing as I got me a consequential office. And you young putzes aren’t about to contradict me for anything I say.
in this administration.
(Mine.)
But that's, first and foremost, because that's what the President wanted.
(Ever since I told the little screw-off that’s what he wanted if he harbored even a snowflake’s chance in hell of getting and keeping the White House. And still have time to clear brush and golf.)
He's the one who asked me to take the job.
(Right after he hired me to find him a VP. I told him that I was my choice and his only choice if he wanted to do any deep-sea fishing.)
He's also the one who decided
(He’s the decider, after all.)
during the course of his search process eight years ago
(When he hired me. See penultimate annotation above.)
that he wanted somebody who could be another member of the team,
(Team Arbusto; the ‘A’ team.)
who had a certain set of experiences
(…which had lead to anti-social behavior, a loss of moral compass, frequent psychotic episodes of paranoia, an authoritarian mind-set, delusions of grandeur, megalomaniacal tendencies…)
and so forth, and could be an active participant in the process.
(…of ruining nearly every aspect of the United States; its economy, its environment, its reputation, its institutions, its government, its political position in the world, …)
I know the job of vice president has been terribly frustrating for a lot of people.
(Especially those who felt consigned to a traditional role or one who felt the Constitution a constraint on their ability to grab power.)
Jerry Ford once told me it was the -- the worst nine months of his life were the years he lived, the months he spent -- it seemed like years -- but the months he spent as Vice President.
(Or something like that. Jerry wasn’t much of a story-teller. You get the idea.)
I watched Nelson Rockefeller in the Ford administration
(His best role, in my estimation.)
- - he was never happy with the post.
(4 shows a week for three years. Matinee on Saturday. That close to the Oval Office. It broke him.)
And everybody is familiar with the history that it has not been a consequential office in the past.
(Right? Dan Quayle ring any bells for you dim-wits?)
I think that began to change, I think in particular, during the Carter years.
(Blaming it on the Democrats is a tried and true spin to put on anything, don’t you know.)
I didn't agree with much of what Jimmy Carter did,
(Duh… )
but I thought Mondale as Vice President was a good choice for him,
(He sure was easy for Big Ron to thump in the election, that’s for sure.)
and that the office began to have a more significant role in those days.
(How for example? Better PR? More press conferences?)
And I think that's gradually grown over time.
(Like a cyst.)
And I think, as I say,
(and I will and I do as I have in the past and will have done in the future when history looks at what I thought, and, as I say, I said time and again.)
I do believe
(I do. I do. I do. I do believe in pardons. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do. I do.)
in this administration it's been a consequential post,
(More like a pillar than a post. A stanchion. A shaft, even.)
because that's what the President wanted to have happen,
(or at least so I told him every morning before the briefings.)
and he's been true to his word for eight years.
(Unless you count all that guff about smaller government, personal privacy, lack of foreign entanglements, taking a more humble international role, lower taxes for the middle-class, he’s been true blue.)
to be continued
Part 3
