Winning The Endless War

But Dick loses a battle:

During an off-the-record session with a group of foreign-policy experts this week, Vice President Dick Cheney got a question he did not want to answer. "Vice President," asked one of them, "I understand that on Wednesday or Thursday we are going to de-list North Korea from the terrorism blacklist. Could you please set the context for this decision?"

Cheney froze, according to four of the participants at the Old Executive Office Building meeting. For more than 30 minutes he had been talking and answering questions, without missing a beat. But now, for several long seconds, he stared, unsmilingly, at his questioner, Steven Clemons of the New America Foundation, a public policy institution.

Finally, he spoke: "I'm not going to be the one to announce this decision," the other participants recalled Cheney saying, pointing at himself. "You need to address your interest in this to the State Department."

He then declared that he was done taking questions, and left the room.