MyDD :: Cheney On The Attack

Faced with some of his worst job approval ratings to date, Dick Cheney has joined the Bush administration's defensive attack on Democratic critics. Actually, I'm not sure I remember a time when Cheney didn't attack Democrats, but it's notable that Cheney is now parroting the same talking points as the rest of the administration.

...the suggestion that's been made by some U. S. senators that the President of the United States or any member of this Administration purposely misled the American people on pre-war intelligence is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city.

Some of the most irresponsible comments have, of course, come from politicians who actually voted in favor of authorizing force against Saddam Hussein. These are elected officials who had access to the intelligence, and were free to draw their own conclusions. They arrived at the same judgment about Iraq's capabilities and intentions that was made by this Administration and by the previous Administration. There was broad-based, bipartisan agreement that Saddam Hussein was a threat ... that he had violated U.N. Security Council Resolutions ... and that, in a post-9/11 world, we couldn't afford to take the word of a dictator who had a history of WMD programs, who had excluded weapons inspectors, who had defied the demands of the international community, who had been designated an official state sponsor of terror, and who had committed mass murder. Those are facts. What we're hearing now is some politicians contradicting their own statements and making a play for political advantage in the middle of a war.

First of all, since when did this administration care about defying "the demands of the international community?" Isn't that what they did in invading Iraq? It's interesting that the Republicans are being more careful about their words now, saying that Senators "voted in favor of authorizing force" instead of saying that they voted directly for war. However, it's been quite well documented at this point that the administration withheld key information from the Congress in the run up to war, giving lie to Cheney's claim that Democrats "arrived at the same judgment" as the administration based on the same intelligence.

I'm almost a little concerned about even writing about this because it really isn't worth arguing. A majority of Americans supported the war in Iraq. Now a majority of Americans believe we should get out of Iraq within the next year. A majority of Americans now think the Iraq War was a mistake. Setting aside the fact that the intelligence was misleading, the position that Cheney is attacking Democrats for taking is the position of most Americans. There have been a number of mea culpas from Democrats who now regret their support for the war. No matter how Cheney wants to characterize these admissions of mistakes, I can't imagine the American people faulting the Democrats for no longer supporting the war.

I also think the American people are not so stupid as to fall for the claim that Democratic demands for accountability and investigations are somehow politically motivated while the administration's attacks on their critics are not. These people have next to zero credibility in the eyes of most Americans. Every time one of them goes to a big Republican dinner or a military base or wherever they'll pop up next, they look more and more desperate and dishonest. With apologies to Shakespeare, the administration doth protest too much, methinks.