LOS ANGELES -- What did "the Ear" hear on his recent trip to Asia?
Selective stops in Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul suggest that one point of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's diplomatic excursion was North Korea. Another was the fluffed-up condition of the Chinese currency, the international market value of which is being kept low by Beijing in order to keep high the country's vast export sales.
We have in the past unceremoniously tabbed Cheney the Ear, because it's well known that he has the president's, or at least one of them. (Presumably the other is shared by his wife Laura and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.)