No holds barred as Rangel bashes veep

Rep. Charles Rangel, dean of the city's congressional delegation, blasted Vice President Cheney yesterday as a "sick man" who "grunts a lot."
"Sometimes I don't even think Cheney is awake enough to know what's going on," Rangel (D-Harlem) said during an interview on New York 1 last night.

"[Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld is the guy in Washington to watch. He's running the country," Rangel added.

"He's a sick man, you know," Rangel said of Cheney, prompting host Davidson Golden to point out that the vice president suffers from heart disease.

Rangel retorted, "He's got heart disease, but the disease is not restricted just to that part of his body. He grunts a lot, so you never really know what he's thinking."

Asked whether he thinks Cheney is healthy enough to do the job, Rangel said, "Why do you think people are spending so much time praying for President Bush's health?

"If he ever leaves and Cheney's in charge, there's not very much to pull together for the rest of our nation," he said. "This is a sad state of affairs."

Rangel, who was on a roll last night, also took a potshot at the President, who has spent the last month at his ranch in Texas.

When asked if Bush takes too much vacation time, Rangel replied, "Oh, no, it makes the country a lot more safe - the further Bush is away from Washington the better it is."

A spokeswoman for the vice president declined to comment.