A Whole Lot of Hot Cold Air

It seems that all of a sudden, everyone’s the fashion police….The media, and indeed many left-leaning bloggers, are having a field day criticizing US Vice president Cheney’s attire at the 60th anniversary ceremony of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Vice President Dick Cheney raised eyebrows on Friday for wearing an olive-drab parka, hiking boots and knit ski cap to represent the United States at a solemn ceremony remembering the liberation of Auschwitz.

 

Other leaders at the event in Poland on Thursday marking the 60th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation, such as French President Jacques Chirac and Russian President Vladimir Putin, wore dark, formal overcoats and dress shoes or boots.

 

“The vice president, however, was dressed in the kind of attire one typically wears to operate a snow blower,” Robin Givhan, The Washington Post’s fashion writer, wrote in the newspaper’s Friday editions.

 

Between the somber, dark-coated leaders at the outdoor ceremony sat Cheney, resplendent in a green parka embroidered with his name and featuring a fur-trimmed hood, the laced brown boots and a knit ski cap reading “Staff 2001.

 

“And, indeed, the vice president looked like an awkward boy amid the well-dressed adults,” Givhan wrote.

 

Britain’s Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph newspapers also both noted that Cheney had opted for casual attire.

 

The Post’s Givhan said Cheney might have been hoping to avoid the cold weather in Oswiecim, but noted he had worn a dark overcoat and no hat at all at another recent winter occasion — his own swearing-in ceremony on Inauguration Day on Jan. 20 in snow-dusted Washington.

 

“The vice president might have been warm in his parka, ski cap and hiking boots,” Givhan said. “But they had the unfortunate effect of suggesting he was more concerned with his own comfort than the reason for braving the cold at all.”

Seems like a low – and indeed desperate – blow to me.

 

It should be noted that Cheney did not merely show up for the ceremony, but actually toured Auschwitz. Perhaps that is why he wanted the warmer clothing. Or perhaps because he has been suffering from well-publicized health problems.

 

Whatever his reasons, Cheney has been honoring the victims of the Shoah through his conduct vis-a-vis Israel and the Jewish people. Honoring them more than the more formally dressed Chirac and Putin. And honoring them more than the left-leaning media and bloggers who have the audacity to criticize him for dressing warmly.

6 thoughts on “A Whole Lot of <s>Hot</s> Cold Air”

  1. I was really offended when I read “Dick Cheney, Dressing Down” by the Washington Post’s fashion critic Robin Givhan. The snarky tone smacked more of a cheap hit piece than true outrage. But I was curious. Do people with pacemakers suffer additional complications from the cold? All my searching only came up with a single support group of pace maker patients where there was such a complaint. (It was harder for some to breath in the cold.) Do you have any harder evidence that Cheney’s health may have played a role. Though the tour is information that hasn’t gotten much play.

  2. The veep probably didn’t even made the choice about it. He probably came in on more formal wear and those close to him were kind enough to care about his health and convince him to wear the parka over his clothes.

  3. This is all so much apologia from the lacking in self-awareness right wing bloggers. Be honest with us, and yourselves, for just a moment: What would you say if Clinton had shown up at Aushwitz dressed like that? And don’t even pretend you’d let is pass.

    Also, Cheny was at the inauguration earlier that week -where it was absolutely frigid – dressed quite approiately and respectfully. Are you telling me that a man as wealthy as Chenny couldn’t find a tailor who could put him in something warm that was also dignified? Please. This business about him “just wanting to be warm” is laughable. You can be warm and look proper at the same time.

    Anyway, Dave, Chenny isn’t the only leader to have toured Aushwitz, and you and I both know he could have dressed warmly without also looking like a fool.

    It’s all about RESPECT, as the right-wing used to inveigh. When did y’all drop that slogan?

  4. This is such a non-issue that I cannot believe that any credible journalist would bring it up. When the temperature goes below -1C you are a fool not to be dressed appropriately – that means bring out the downfilled parkas and the furs. Poland is so cold in January that a cloth coat is no protection at all from the cold.

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