Groovin' with Dick & Lynne

Sometimes your blogstress thinks that Larry King gets a bum rap. He's always accused of asking softball questions, but that's not really the case. He just asks hard questions in an extraordinarily annoying, mincing manner. Anybody who watched him last night interviewing Vice President and Mrs. Cheney will know what I mean.

During the interview, Cheney asserted that, as of Thursday, the Republicans had enough votes to pass the Bolton nomination in the Senate with an up-or-down floor vote. Fifty-seven, to be exact, which ain't exactly the 60 he'll need to end debate. He also took shots at the Dems for blocking a pre-Memorial Day vote:

There's been a lot of talk these last few days since they put together a sort of gang of 14 that negotiated an arrangement on the judges that somehow now we've entered a new era of bipartisan cooperation that lasted about 48-hours, and the Democrats filibuster Bolton. But I think we'll get him through. He's a good man. He'll do a great job at the United Nations. We got 57 votes yesterday. We just need three more and I think we'll get those when they come back.

The vice president also spoke of his role as the Administration's top lobbyist, noting that his major focus of late on that front is the highway bill.

But who knew that Cheney was the Administration's real vote-counter? You can bet there'll be some senators walking around with appendages in slings by the time Cheney's through with the arm-twisting on the Bolton nomination.

On another of your Webwench's favorite subjects, the vice president's gay daughter, it was revealed on the King shown that Mary Cheney is writing a book about her travels with her father:

KING: Mary's writing a book.

L. CHENEY: That's correct...

KING: A really tell-all kind of a theme? Is she going to get into...

L. CHENEY: Well, the parts of the book that I've seen -- you know, when you're a writer, it's always good to have an appreciative audience. So Mary has let me see some of what she's written, because she knew it would make me laugh. And she's just a very good writer, who has, you know, a fine eye for the absurdity of everyday life and of everyday political life in particular. So it will be a very good book.

KING: So many more parents in America have had to deal with what is now considered an almost everyday occurrence, of people having different opinions or sexual proclivities than other people. Was it hard for you?

D. CHENEY: When it first came up, sure. It's not anything you expect as a parent. But Mary was a remarkable young woman.

KING: Boy, is she?

D. CHENEY: And I was tremendously impressed with how she handled it, because it was difficult for her too. But, you know, we love her very much. She's an integral part of our family. Very proud of the work she did in both of our campaigns. And the book is very much a political story sort of...

KING: (INAUDIBLE).

D. CHENEY: Travels...

L. CHENEY: "Travels with my Father."

D. CHENEY: OK. I wasn't sure I was supposed to give it away.

L. CHENEY: Oh, maybe we weren't.

D. CHENEY: Talking about...

KING: Oh, we know something here.

D. CHENEY: Especially the 2000 campaign, the 2004 campaign, some of my congressional races.

KING: I'm sure she deals with her own life.

D. CHENEY: She will. But it's going to be a good book.

So, in spite of the fact that she will be writing of her life with her female partner, it will be a good book, anyway. Got it.

Brings to mind a superb series of photos, titled "Family Values," shot by Washington, D.C., photojournalist Patsy Lynch. Very telling shots of the Cheneys--including their married daughter, grandkids and son-in-law--minus Mary and her partner, on stage at the 2004 Republican National Convention, and another of Mary and her other half watching the spectacle from the convention floor.

NOTE: This interview was so rich with material that your cybertrix hopes to give it further treatment during the day, especially the part where the veep discusses the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo.