Alcoholic Intoxicants for Make Benefit Glorious Christmas Party of Dick Cheney

Big-time Wyoming pols have been all over the news lately. James Baker, who has a forest redoubt near Pinedale, is co-chair of the Iraq Study Group. Former Sen. Alan Simpson was a member of the ISG. Sen. Craig Thomas and Rep. Barbara Cubin both have had health problems. Lynne Cheney makes a cameo in the latest "Barney" Christmas video from the White House. In case you don’t know, Barney is the cute black dog of the Bush’s. It’s reported that the president regularly receives foreign policy advice from Barney.

V.P. Dick Cheney has not been seen much lately in public. But he’s been busy. In an article than began with the Examiner, then was picked up by the Huffington Post, Cheney’s recent Christmas party boasted an "official liquor sponsor" from Kazakhstan.

Here’s the original post:

Borat wasn’t on the list, but at least one product of Kazakhstan managed to gain access to Vice President Dick Cheney’s holiday party on Tuesday night at his Massachusetts Avenue residence.

Snow Queen vodka, a product of the central Asian country, was the "official liquor donor" at the 400-strong party of high-powered pols and their staffers. Among those on the list who braved the "blinding" lights on Mass Ave. and the long security procedure to rub elbows with the Veep: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Afghan Ambassador Said Jawad, Jordanian Ambassador Karim Kawar, former Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rima Al-Sabah, wife of the Kuwaiti ambassador.

And some additional commentary from attytood:

Journalists are in love with Kazakhstan this days -- who can resist the chance to make a "Borat" joke, or a pseudo-joke in this case.

But, at the risk of sounding like a total prude here, what are the ethics of a sponsor (presumably) donating booze for the purpose of a vice president's holiday party? Does that have to be reported anywhere? We always thought that taxpayers footed the bill for this type of official entertainment? Sure, it's not a big deal, but what if the next state dinner at the White House is sponsored by Outback Steakhouses?

Look, we don't think Dick Cheney can be bought...for a few bottles of rotgut, anyway. But the annoying political significance of this may not be the ethics so much as the embarrassing depths to which Cheney will go to suck up to any nation or any thing that has some connection to large reserves of oil -- in this case, the energy-rich but anti-democratic Kazakhstan, with a human rights record that even the U.S, admits is "poor." That hasn't stopped Cheney from making warm relations with Kazakhstan -- "Borat" notwithstanding -- the top priority of his one-man foreign policy.

Maybe it's just that Kazakhstan looks so much like certain parts of Wyoming. In this photo from Kazakhstan, a bus tour visits the only water for miles around. "Water Appreciation" tours are also very popular in high-and-dry Wyoming.