Cheneys on the Sunday Morning Shows

It's Valentine's Day and the Cheneys are ripping apart the Obama Administration. Could this morning have been any better?

First up, was Liz on Fox News Sunday:

"What you have is a situation where, unquestionably, we did go through a period in this nation's history where we dealt with terrorism as a law enforcement matter. And as Attorney General Mukasey has pointed out recently, when we prosecuted and successfully convicted people after the '93 World Trade Center bombing, after the East African bombing, what it got us was 9/11 and 3000 dead Americans.

"So the notion that while the Bush Administration did this, I find it perplexing as a political argument to hear that from this administration. I think they're confusing the facts and the law with respect to many of those terrorists, but it's not surprising because there is a level of incompetence that you're seeing from people like Brennan and others that scares the American people. So I'm not surprised they're trying to divert attention."

Gateway Pundit has video where she also smacks around Juan Williams.

Second, Dick Cheney was on ABC's This Week talking about the same thing, plus Afghanistan and Iraq. Cheney laughed outright at the Vice President's suggestion that Iraq would be one of Obama's "greatest achievements." He excoriated the Obama Administration for deciding to Mirandize the Christmas Day bomber.

When asked about DADT, Cheney stated:

"Twenty years ago, the military were strong advocates of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' when I was Secretary of Defense. I think things have changed significantly since then. I see that Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has indicated his belief that we ought to support a change in the policy. So I think, my guess is the policy will be changed.

"I think the society has moved on. I think it's partly a generational question. I say, I'm reluctant to second-guess the military in this regard, because they're the ones that have got to make the judgment about how these policies affect the military capability of our units. And that first requirement that you have to look at all the time is whether or not they're still capable of achieving their mission, and does the policy change--i.e., putting gays in the force--affect their ability to perform their mission? When the chiefs come forward and say, 'We think we can do it,' then it strikes me that it's -- it's time to reconsider the policy. And I think Admiral Mullen said that."

Incidentally, the results from the Military Times' annual DADT survey of active-duty troops have been released. There is a major methodology issue with this survey--it is drawn from info voluntarily offered by subscribers of the Military Times publications, rather than a random sample of active-duty troops. Until the DOD completes its year-long review, however, it is the only info we've got where active-duty soldiers, sailors, and marines are asked about Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Asking actual troops seems like an important first step to me.

51% of active duty service members opposed allowing gays to serve openly in the military. That's down from 63% in 2004. 30% favor allowing gays to serve openly, up from 24%. 20% were neutral or declined to answer, up from 11% in 2004.

Like Dick Cheney, a majority (55.7%)of respondents of the Military Times survey believed that military leaders should decide whether the policy should be changed or kept in place. Only 14.6% said that Congress should decide. 14.8% said it was the President's decision.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 12:56 PM

| Access Comments