Vice President Cheney, last night: “Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer…. The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.”
Except for the 2001 National Prayer Breakfast.
“Thank you. Thank you very much. Congressman Watts, Senator Edwards, friends from across America and distinguished visitors to our country from all over the world, Lynne and I honored to be with you all this morning.”
Here’s a picture.
The first link also notes that as per Senate tradition, Sen. John Edwards escorted Liddy Dole onto the floor for her swearing in, which was performed by Vice President Dick Cheney.
I’m sure Mr. Cheney will clarify his remarks any day now.
UPDATE: And another picture, with John Edwards standing behind Sen. Dole as she gets sworn in (“in”, not “at”) by Cheney. According to Kos, Tim Russert is now saying that Cheney and Edwards met and shook hands backstage before his show. But hey, what’s three little meetings?
UPDATE: Ooooh, this is even better: Mary Beth notes that for much of 2004, Vice President Cheney was delinquent in his Constitutional duty to preside over the Senate. Maybe that’s why he didn’t remember meeting John Edwards before – it’d been too long since Cheney had had the opportunity to do so.
UPDATE: SoonerGrunt notes that John Edwards has presided over the Senate as many times as Dick Cheney has since 2001. And the story of Cheney’s “we’ve never met” fib is now on the wires.
http://soonergrunt.blogspot.com/2004/10/little-less-time-in-undisclosed.html
It gets better. VP Cheney was only President of the Senate on TWO Tuesdays since he took office. Senator Edwards has been acting President of the Senate twice as well. Heck, Senator Hillary Clinton has been acting President of the Senate FOUR times in that time span. Of course, the Veep was present on a particularly memorable Thursday, June 24th, 2004, when he told Senator Pat Lahey to do something anatomically impossible.