Former Vice President Dick Cheney's public relations apparatus was firing on all cylinders Wednesday morning, with the release of a predictable statement about the failed Underpants Bomber fracas. And by "public relations apparatus" I mean "cable news and Politico."
Needless to say, Cheney is well-qualified to take an authoritative posture when it comes to terrorism. After all, he and his little buddy "kept us safe" from terrorist attacks for eight years, right? Other than the worst terrorist attack in American history, of course, along with the Anthrax Attacks, the Beltway Snipers, the thousands of terrorist attacks on our contractors and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the attacks on our allies in London and Madrid, Cheney did a fine job keeping us safe (more about this in my book). Good job, Mr. Cheney!
So it wasn't any surprise when Cheney stopped thumbing through Uncle Billy's misplaced $8,000 long enough to fire off a few words about the failed Underpants Bomber attempt and the Obama administration's response. And since Dick Cheney is a very serious terrorism expert -- mainly because more Americans died in terrorist attacks on his watch than any other vice president ever -- the media gobbled it up, practically unchallenged. Cheney said:
As I've watched the events of the last few days it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think if he has a low-key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won't be at war. He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won't be at war.
First of all, way to condemn the attempted attack, Mr. Cheney -- oh wait, you didn't condemn anything other than the president. Sorry. You chose instead to attack the commander-in-chief while troops are in harm's way. Weren't you guys totally against that sort of thing, by the way? Oh right. Everything prior to January 20, 2009 doesn't count.
But that last part about giving "terrorists the rights of Americans" and letting them "lawyer up," is fascinating coming from Mr. Cheney.
Maybe the worms have begun to infect his brain to a point where he's forgotten about how his administration allowed Richard Reid, the "Shoe Bomber," to be prosecuted, tried, convicted and incarcerated on American soil in our civilian judicial system. And which administration was it that released the Yemeni plotters from Guantanamo? Guess. The year was 2007 and unless Barack Obama has a totally rad time traveling DeLorean, President Bush and Dick Cheney were running our anti-terrorism efforts at that point. Good job again, Mr. Cheney!
The reality is that Dick Cheney is fully aware of his inconsistencies and contradictions. This strategy of deliberate ignorance is a phenomenon that's rampant on the wingnut right. In fact, it's been going on for more than a year now, and it's absolutely reached a high water mark this week.
The wingnut right has been essentially recycling liberal attacks on Bush/Cheney and using them to attack President Obama and the current administration. It's literally a childish game of payback.
Call our guy a lazy, incompetent doofus who spends more time on vacation, will you? Well, see how you like it! Naa-naaaa!
They've tried almost every Bush era attack, even though none of them fit the current president.
President Obama is inarticulate (huh?). President Obama spends too much time on vacation. President Obama is abusing executive power. President Obama stole the election.
All the while pretending they didn't defend Bush for the exact same things. Yet, for some reason, whenever the wingnut right engages in this silly game, they're treated like serious grown-ups. (Technically, it's the press's responsibility to ask people like Dick Cheney about inconsistencies rather than simply reading his statement and inviting a Republican stooge like Ron Christie on TV to defend it.)
I mean, almost everything Karl Rove has said about the Obama administration is a recycled Bush attack. This week:
And the president waits 72 hours before we hear from him, and it's over 72 hours from the time of the incident to the time that the president spoke today...
How many days sailed on by before Bush responded to the Shoe Bomber attempt? Six days. Prior to this doozy, Rove slammed President Obama for Japanese Bow Gate -- totally and deliberately ignoring Bush's handholding, sword dances and bronskies with the Saudis. I can't confirm the bronskies.
As with Cheney, and probably more so, Rove knows exactly what he's doing. He's tweaking Democrats and liberals as a form of petulant, childish payback.
What should be of greater concern to the Democrats and the White House is that this payback hackery has the serious potential to go well beyond the self-contradictory jabs within the pages of Politico and Drudge.
This week ought to prove once and for all that if there's ever a successful terrorist hijacking and detonation of another taint bomb, the Republican Party -- especially if they gain a majority in Congress -- will absolutely move to impeach the president.
In the aftermath of the successful and terrible 9/11 attacks, Bush's approval ratings shot up to 90 percent. Democrats and Republicans rallied around the president in defiance against violent religious extremism. Meanwhile, President Obama has just presided over a failed terrorist attack in which a Qaeda-doof botched a crotch rocket -- the airplane landed on time and there were minimal injuries. The hijacker is still alive and is talking like a Chatty Cathy doll. Yet President Obama is somehow targeted by the right as an utter failure because of it. Now imagine if there had been an attack even close to the scope of the 9/11 hijackings.
In other words, preside over the biggest terrorist attack in American history and it's an epic win for President Bush. Preside over a failed attack and it's an epic fail for President Obama.
I'm actually a little surprised that the Republicans, lead by Peter King and Pete Hoekstra, haven't attacked President Obama for not responding to the news of that van in Times Square that turned out to be nothing. Why is Obama weak on not-at-all-related-to-terrorism?
The Republicans are doing this because they can. Jim DeMint is going unchallenged for putting a hold on the TSA administrator nomination because he can. The Washington establishment media is gamed in favor of the Republicans and their peepee-pants fear-mongering due to a self-conscious striving for balance. No one will seriously challenge the Republicans because the press is mortally terrified of being labeled as "in the tank for Obama." Instead, false equivalencies and free passes for unmitigated GOP hypocrisy rule the day. And Dick Cheney gets to say whatever he wants, whenever he wants without so much as a follow-up question.
Looking on the bright side, thanks to Dick Cheney for helping to reunite progressives around a common cause. Appreciate it.
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CORRECTION: ABC News originally reported that two former Gitmo detainees helped plan the attack. This is inaccurate. Only one former Gitmo detainee, released by Dick Cheney and George W. Bush in 2007, helped to plan the failed Underpants attack.
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The press needs to ignore Cheney.
His paranoia is profound and obviously he needs some psychological therapy.
In the mean time, he should go back into his hiding place.
And he should get NO platform to foam at the mouth.
Do you get your talking points from the Reich? What the heck are we in Afghanistan for, if Obama doesn't think terror exists? Oh, I see. It's the WORD being de-emphasized that bothers you. You'd rather we kept using that now-meaningless term, and being afraid when the terrorists tell us to be afraid. Get real -- don't you see ti? That's exactly how they win. If America didn't run around like a headless chicken every time a bomb almost went off, the Muslim Fundies would soon lose interest. They HAVE to get their name in the papers, or they lose! Our own media gives them life!
Are you afraid of the Mafia? Because that's just what the so-called terrorists are: a religious mafia. The only difference is the publicity craving of the terrorists.
Obama is quite rightly trying to damp down hysteria such as yours (and Cheney's) by taking the weight off of the hot-button term we've all become too used to using. Obama wants us to start seeing terrorists as the criminals they are, and hopefully treating them so. They can hardly be stopped by force of arms, after all.
And what exactly is the "crumbling efficiency?" For the polices that did not work....was in fact the very ones that Bush and Cheney instituted after the 911 report was drafted by a special committee. So, whose exactly crumbling efficiency was cracking? No matter how you try to spin this blanket into a cover...there are still some holes and unraveling threads connected to the last administration...as much as it does not fit into your desire to blame Obama or Clinton...who I would take over the previous administration each and every time...including the with the Monica Lewinsky escapade...for not one soul died as a result of this indiscretion however, thousands were killed and maimed as a result of that previous administration "indiscretion" of weapons of mass destruction which never materialized...but oil was found in the shadow of the blood that was shed.
Will the media still have him circulating, when he blithely accuses the Martians of the latest terror attacks, and uses that as a springboard to castigate Obama for not wasting more money on NASA?
That's the level of the "logic" he's now using...
Going into such huge debts and breaking your own economy, over wars. America is at war with Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Palestine, Cuba, Brazil, Somalia, Yemen, and that does not include the war on drugs, the war on abortion, and the Christian crusade.
The rest of the world is investing in their own countries, and their own people, and soon America will become a third world country.
All because of a bunch of fearful paranoid violent Americans, who are really fat, lazy, arm chair cowboys.
Many were expecting that the new Presidency would create positive change in other nations regarding renewed diplomatic relations. But based on objective events, it’s difficult to see this anticipated positive change playing out, especially in the Middle East. Instead there seems to be continued attempted terrorist attacks, more suicide bombings killing innocent people, attacks on our military bases, etc.
There doesn’t seem to be significant reductions of these incidents, leading one to conclude that despite our Presidential psyche, whether that be cowboy type diplomacy, or good-will diplomacy, the incidents continue. Therefore, IMO we better discern that we are in this war on terror for the long run and take the offensive decisively, and recognize this Christmas event as another act of terrorism.
And extremism unfortunately has had eight years to revitalize due to the past administrations troubling diversion of the war on terror to Iraq instead.
http://myspace.com/virginiadem
All politicians are crooks, all camp followers are aiding and abetting them.
Get with the program and campaign for none of the above to be put on the ballot.
And what program is that, exactly, the "throw away your vote" program?
Under our election system, every vote for "none of the above" would in fact take your vote out of contention to determine the winner of the contest (duh!).
Doing this would let a candidate win an election with an even smaller share of the votes cast, than is now required. How would this action relieve any of the ills you cite?
Google Operation Northwoods. The documents were declassified in 1997. It's real.
I get tired of conspiracy theories. I guess to you that must mean that I'm also "in on it."
Yes, we know that Operation Northwoods was proposed, and was scotched by Kennedy, but there is no indication (if you have one, then post it, PLEASE ) that 9/11 was planned and executed the same way.
Please don't dirty up the comment-sphere with accusations that have no standing.
Cheney/Bush inherited a balanced budget and a surplus, a memo that stated Bin Laden was determined to attack us and look what they did with it.
They came up with excuses and by way of Condi Rice in hearings admitted they ignored the memo.
They made up the "color coded alerts" and the "Duct Tape and Plastic" protection theory.
They also made it clear that no matter who was in office we would be attacked again.
Why do they backtrack now? Why does Cheney who publicly said no matter who was elected we would probably be attacked again now try to spin the other direction?
They said it only to protect themselves in case they were elected because it would have happened no matter who was in office.
Bush and Cheney get a free pass with GOP support for their horrible record and the new guy gets blamed for the mess they left.
They didn't want to allow or even admit the 9/11 commission or their findings and the plans that are in place now are what the GOP, Bush and Cheney setup and that has to be changed.