Bless Frank Lautenberg's pointy head!

New Jersey Senator, 80, Has a Second Act, and Sharper Teeth
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ

WASHINGTON, June 4 - The junior senator from New Jersey marched onto the Senate floor a few weeks ago and did something that stunned the normally decorous chamber:

The senator, Frank R. Lautenberg, pulled out a huge chart with the cartoon image of a chicken dressed in a military uniform, placed it on an easel and began ridiculing Vice President Dick Cheney with an attack that gave even some of the senator's fellow Democrats pause.

"The chicken hawk has no idea what it means to have the courage to put your life at risk to defend this nation," said Mr. Lautenberg, incensed that Mr. Cheney had questioned the national defense credentials of Senator John Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, when Mr. Cheney himself avoided serving in the war.

That moment captured, in many ways, the kind of fierce partisan warrior - some say loose cannon - Mr. Lautenberg has been since coming out of retirement two years ago and returning to the Senate, where he is one of the most surprising and talked-about members of that staid body.

More:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/05/nyregion/05lautenberg.html