PRESIDENT HONORS TROOPS, CHENEY ATTACKS PRESIDENT…. President Obama paid his respects to fallen U.S. soldiers yesterday at Dover Air Force, as flag-draped coffins returned home from Afghanistan. Even some of the president’s conservative detractors were willing to show some decency — National Review‘s Peter Hegseth, for example, called it “a classy move.” A blog called Right Wing Nut House added, “[T]he emotion that animated [Obama’s] face during this solemn, heart rending ceremony showed that he understands his responsibilities.”
Some right-wing voices were far less gracious.
Liz Cheney called out President Obama for his early-morning trip to honor fallen soldiers arriving at Dover Air Force Base yesterday, suggesting President Bush honored America’s heroes with a bit more class than his successor.
Cheney, on Fox News Radio’s John Gibson Show yesterday: “I think that what President Bush used to do is do it without the cameras. And I don’t understand sort of showing up with the White House Press Pool with photographers and asking family members if you can take pictures. That’s really hard for me to get my head around…. It was a surprising way for the president to choose to do this.”
Actually, what’s surprising is how pathetic Liz Cheney’s sense of decency has become.
President Bush didn’t used to “do it without the cameras”; President Bush didn’t used to do it at all. After seven years of the war in Afghanistan, Bush didn’t greet returning caskets once. He didn’t even want journalists to take photographs of the events, fearing that the images may turn public opinion against the war.
What’s more, President Obama didn’t “show up with the White House Press Pool.” The trip was not announced in advance — the White House wasn’t seeking publicity — and only a “small contingent” of journalists were allowed to attend. In fact, “most of the event was closed to media.”
Most of the right simply ignored the president’s appearance at Dover. Limbaugh didn’t mention it, and while “Fox & Friends” managed to mention ACORN 23 times during yesterday’s program, the inane hosts somehow neglected to mention the Dover event altogether.
Of course, given a choice between right-wing silence and Liz Cheney’s contemptible sleaze, I’ll take the former.
