Hillary urges anger management for Cheney

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., says Vice President Cheney should enroll in an anger management course, according to a columnist who interviewed her yesterday in Seattle.

Clinton “responded strongly” to an incident last week on the Senate floor when Cheney walked away from Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., after unleashing the F-word, reports Joel Connelly of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

“So far as I know, no colleague has ever used profanity of that sort on the Senate floor,” Clinton told Connelly.

“For the vice president to use his position, as president of the Senate, to insult a senator and then be unapologetic about it introduces a level of discord into Senate procedure that is unfortunate,” the senator said.

Since the incident, Cheney has said it made him feel better and was “long overdue.”

The vice president explained Leahy had “challenged my integrity” by making charges of cronyism with his former employer, Halliburton Co.

President Bush’s spokesman Scott McClellan said, “It is not an issue with the president.”

“It was a private exchange,” he said. “These things happen from time to time. I think the vice president addressed. It’s something that’s behind us now, in the view of the president.”

McClellan added, Bush “is someone who has always worked to elevate the discourse in Washington, D.C. And it is difficult to change the tone in Washington, given the history” of political discourse there.

Sen. Clinton’s critics have noted her reputation for an explosive temper. In 2000, a book famously reported she said, “You f—ing Jew bastard!” more than two decades ago to a campaign aide.

Jerry Oppenheimer’s “State of a Union: Inside the Complex Marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton,” cites three sources who heard the remark.

Later, Bill Clinton insisted to the New York Post his wife didn’t say that, but conceded, “She might have called him a [bastard]. I wouldn’t rule that out. She’s never claimed that she was pure on profanity.”