OBAMA RESPONDS TO CHENEY…. Last Sunday, former Vice President Dick Cheney offered some odd and factually-challenged criticism of the White House. This Sunday, President Obama responds.
President Obama has hit back at former Vice President Dick Cheney, calling Bush administration policy on detainees at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, “unsustainable.”
“How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney?” Mr. Obama said Friday in an interview to be broadcast Sunday on “60 Minutes” on CBS.
The president was responding to recent charges by Mr. Cheney that the administration’s decision to shut down the Guantánamo prison, along with other policies on the treatment of terrorism suspects, would make the United States more vulnerable to attacks.
Bush administration terrorism policy “hasn’t made us safer,” Mr. Obama said, according to excerpts of the interview released Saturday. “What it has been,” he continued, “is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment.”
On a related note, Time‘s Bobby Ghosh reported the other day that Cheney’s recent vitriol “has left many in Washington wondering if it was about more than just protecting his legacy.”
Several observers think Cheney may be starting to feel the heat from Democrats’ efforts to investigate the Bush Administration’s counterterrorism policies — policies Cheney advocated, and for which his proteges allegedly provided the legal basis. But if he was trying to deflect attention from Bush-era policies, Cheney’s aggression will likely have the opposite effect. “If his goal was to tamp down talk of a truth commission, he has probably exacerbated the problem,” a veteran Republican told TIME.
I’m a little skeptical of this — talk of investigating the Bush administration’s alleged crimes seems to have more heat than light. For that matter, Cheney doesn’t need an excuse to take cheap shots at Obama; it just comes naturally. I’d pass this along, anyway, just as an FYI.
* typos fixed
