I caught tonight’s Veep show, and Cheney won it.

“The reason they keep trying to attack Halliburton is because they want to obscure their own record.

“And Senator, frankly, you have a record in the Senate that’s not very distinguished. You’ve missed 33 out of 36 meetings in the Judiciary Committee, almost 70 percent of the meetings of the Intelligence Committee.

“You’ve missed a lot of key votes: on tax policy, on energy, on Medicare reform.

“Your hometown newspaper has taken to calling you Senator Gone. You’ve got one of the worst attendance records in the United States Senate.

“Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer. I’m up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they’re in session. The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.”

John Edwards performed more like a trial lawyer than a vice-presidential nominee (granted, he is a trial lawyer…). Despite his best efforts to sling mud at Cheney, his aim (as well as his rhetoric) just wasn’t true tonight.

Will GWB get it in gear for the next two debates? We’ll find out…beginning this Friday night.

Update (10/6/04): Regrettably, the best quote from last night’s debate turned out to be untrue (via Alex Knapp):

Not only did Cheney on at least one occasion break a 50-50 Senate tie with Edwards voting against him, he shared at least two ceremonial duties with Edwards: Liddy Dole’s swearing-in ceremony, where Cheney administered the oath and Edwards accompanied his new colleague, and a National Prayer Breakfast [...]

Cheney did admit to Mrs. John Edwards that he had misspoken, which leads me to think that his words weren’t a deliberate lie.

Nonetheless, he still won the debate, and despite the frequent attempts by the left to stuff both Bush and Cheney into matching red devil costumes before November 2, I’m still not voting for John Kerry.