In TV tirade, Rangel calls Cheney a 'sick man'
BY GLENN THRUSH
STAFF WRITER
August 27, 2005
Rep. Charles Rangel, the gravelly voiced dean of the New York State congressional delegation, launched a blistering attack on Vice President Dick Cheney Friday night, calling him a "sick man" who was unfit to lead.
In a rambling interview on NY1, the Harlem Democrat also said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is the "guy who's running the country" - not Cheney or President George W. Bush.
"Sometimes I don't think Cheney is awake enough to know what's going on," Rangel said. "He's a sick man, you know. He's got heart disease but the disease is not restricted to that part of his body. He grunts a lot so you never really know what he's thinking."
Rangel, the ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, made his comments when asked if he thought Bush's extended vacation in Crawford, Texas, was inappropriate.
Rangel said he did and then launched into his tirade about Cheney.
"Why do you think people are spending so much time praying for Bush's health?" he asked as the show's host, Davidson Goldin, sat stunned. "If he ever leaves and Cheney's in charge there's not very much else to pull together our nation."
In June, Rangel sparked a political firestorm when he suggested the war in Iraq was "as bad as the Holocaust."
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