By GEOFF EARLE / New York POST 'Charlie doesn't understand how the economy works.' -- Vice President Dick Cheney on New York Democrat Charles Rangel yesterday.
October 31, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - Rep. Charles Rangel yesterday blasted Dick Cheney as a "son of a bitch" after the vice president said the Harlem lawmaker would raise taxes and destroy the economy if Democrats take control of the House. The bitter war of words escalated to the point where the bombastic Rangel even questioned whether the tightly wound Cheney needed professional treatment - and mocked him for accidentally shooting his hunting buddy ealier this year. Cheney fired the first shot when he predicted that Rangel - who is poised to chair the powerful House Ways and Means Committee if the Democrats seize the House next week - wouldn't continue "a single one" of President Bush's tax cuts. "I think that would be bad for the economy," Cheney said on CNBC News. "I don't know if the stock market would like it." He then got in a major hit, saying on the Fox News Channel, "Charlie doesn't understand how the economy works." Many of Bush's 2001 tax cuts are set to expire in 2011 - meaning rates would jump back up again, boosting taxes by well over $1 trillion, unless Congress acts to continue the cuts. "So if a man like Charlie Rangel were to be chairman of the committee, and sitting there with the gavel, all he has to do is not act, just don't call up the legislation, and there'll be a big tax increase," Cheney said. The vice president's stinging comments were the latest in a series of White House statements intended to raise fears about Rangel, as well as other prominent Democrats, as a way to convince voters to stop them from taking over the House. Contacted by The Post for a response, Rangel unloaded. "He's such a real son of a bitch, he just enjoys a confrontation," Rangel fumed, describing himself as "warm and personable." Rangel said Cheney may need to go to "rehab" for "whatever personality deficit he may have suffered." "When you have those sorts of problems, you're supposed to seek help," Rangel advised. "He acknowledged that he has problems with communication." Asked whether he was resurrecting over-the-top charges he made last year that he believes Cheney is mentally ill, Rangel cracked, "I don't think he's shot anyone in the face lately, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt." ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Jim Devine / "War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, / The lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade, / And, to those royal murderers, whose mean thrones / Are bought by crimes of treachery and gore, / The bread they eat, the staff on which they lean." -- Percy B. Shelley
