DICK CHENEY WANTS AN APOLOGY; Arrogance Reaches New Heights in the post-Bush era.

DICK CHENEY WANTS AN APOLOGY; Arrogance Reaches New Heights in the post-Bush era.

On the talking-heads rightwing cheerleading squad that’s laughingly called "Fox News Sunday" for Aug. 30th, former Vice President Dick CheneyVice President Dick Cheney offered America a further look into the degenerating state of his alleged mind; it was, by many accounts, another fascinating glance into the kind of insanity only a writer of the caliber of an Edgar Allen Poe could accurately depict.

Yet, as per Steven Benen on the Huffington Report website said, the most entertaining thing was hearing him whine about how the Obama White House has hurt his feelings. In the alternate reality that Dick Cheney resides in, the current president is supposed to seek out the former vice president’s advice on national security matters. And, mind you, this is coming from the mouth of a man whose boss, George W. BushGeorge W. Bush, keeps insisting he made all his own decisions on all things political throughout the entire eight years of their administration.

Speaking in a voice of someone twenty years older than his 68, the Hunter-who-couldn’t-shoot-straight rasped out, "I guess the other thing that offends the hell out of me, frankly, Chris, is we had a track record now of eight years of defending the nation against any further mass casualty attacks from Al Qaeda. The approach of the Obama administration should be to come to those people who were involved in that policy and say, 'How did you do it? What were the keys to keeping this country safe over that period of time?'"

So, let’s review at this point: the vice president who had to take three hours of looking at the burning World Trade towers before coming to the conclusion that he was looking at an attack, while his boss was staring into space in front of a classroom full his intellectual superiors (aka: kindergarteners) after he was informed of the enormity of Sept. 11th, 2001, these men and their gang-members who have done everything they could to dismantle the Constitution and the Bill of Rights all in the name of ‘protecting’ this country, who failed to protect us from the anthrax attacks against Americans, and terrorist attacks against U.S. allies, and the terrorist attacks against US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Bush's inability to capture Bin Ladin, and waging an unnecessary war that inspired more terrorists, who are responsible for deaths of some 45,000 American military personnel and the maiming of 135,000 (and counting), and the success terrorists had in exploiting Bush's international unpopularity, THESE are the people who Mr. Obama should have to consult about what we should do next.

Right.

Mr. Cheney thinks this all adds up to the definition of success when it came to national security and counter-terrorism. Perhaps there's something to this. After all, except for the catastrophic events of 9/11, and, the years 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and the deepest deficit in all of American history, the Bush/Cheney record on counter-terrorism was awesome.

After an established record like that, President Obama didn't ask Mr. Cheney for tips? Of all the unmitigated gall and brazen effrontery!

Early on in President ClintonPresident Clinton's first year in office, terrorists first attacked the World Trade Center in 1993; six people were killed, hundreds more were injured. The military under the Clinton administration caught those responsible, subjected them to the U.S. criminal justice system, and foreign terrorists did not strike again on U.S. soil during the rest of Clinton's two terms in office.

Again referring to an excellent question posed by Mr. Benen: At what point after 9-11 did the Bush White House turn to Bill Clinton and Al GoreAl Gore and ask, "How did you do it? What were the keys to keeping this country safe over that period of time?"

In fact, did Al Gore find a sympathetic media personality in order to complain about how it "offends the hell" out of him that Bush/Cheney didn't seek the previous administration's guidance? If he did find a sympathetic ear in the alleged ‘leftwing media’ it wasn’t attached to the head of an employee of Rupert Murdock, we can all agree with that, at least.

To give the last words of this article to Mr. Benen again: “Clinton/Gore had a track record of eight years of defending the nation against any further attacks from foreign terrorists. The approach of the Bush/Cheney administration should have been to go to those people who were involved in shaping that policy, right?”

Is Mr. Benen serious with that last question?