Know Your Government

Dick Cheney: Petty, Dishonorable and Treacherous

Engraving, which formed the frontispiece to "A Second Tale of a Tub : or, the History of Robert Powel the Puppet-Show-Man. c.1715 (Library of Congress)

The Dick had this to say yesterday:

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.

But let’s remember how his puppet, then president, responded to an almost identical terrorist attempt:

Eight years ago, when a terrorist tried to blow up an airplane under nearly identical circumstances, then-President Bush waited six days before making brief, cursory public remarks. Five days after the attempted terrorist attack, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused substantive comment altogether, telling reporters, “That’s a matter that’s in the hands of the law enforcement people.” A White House spokesperson would only say at the time that officials were “continuing to monitor events.”

And where was Bush during those six days? On vacation. He was absent from office from December 22, 2001 until January 7, 2002.

By early March 2008, the War President, as he liked to refer to himself, had spent 918 days on vacation. By January 2009 Bush had spent 487 days lounging at Camp David.

Was there outrage when Bush didn’t cut his Christmas vacation short and made little comment about the “shoebomber”?

The media also seemed to have little interest in pressing Bush about the bombing, or the fact that the incident had revealed a previously unknown vulnerability in airplane security — that shoes could be used to hide chemicals or explosive devices.

An Agence France-Presse story was one of the few to call attention to the silence from Bush and other top officials.

Those pesky French!

The most dangerous terrorist threat facing this country comes not from overseas but from snakes like Dick Cheney.