Sunday Coffee--Rt.66

The Bush deadenders seem out in force these days. Karl Rove--who should be banned from both network news and the Republican Party--goes on O'Reilly to warn about fascism coming from the Obama Administration and saying the leftwing in the country is well-funded. Dana Perino reappears on the heels of Ari Fleischer sadsack performance on Hardball. Then we have Dick Cheney's appearance on CNN with an uninformed John King asking him questions. There has been much tut-tuting in the Washington holdovers from the dead regime, talking about how the Obama people aren't behaving properly in things big and small. Outside of the total lack of manners involved in this charade, it's clear the Bush deadenders have not listened to Mitch McConnell's now frequent statements how the Republicans are in trouble because of the reaction of the American people to the Bush Administration. I know conservatives and fellow-travelling Republicans who defend these people. My best advice is not to do it--they are either protecting their legal positions or book deals. They have long abandoned any concern about the common good.

Dick Cheney's appearance on CNN showed him at his confident best. A former Vice President accuses a sitting President of weakening the United States for another terrorist attack. If this were MoveOn. org., Republicans would be outraged. The fact Cheney couldn't name any measures Obama has made to weaken the country was indicative. I am sure it was the Administration dropping the "enemy combatant" designation for terrorists and the declaration it will close Gitmo that caused Cheney's reaction. Remember Cheney's exit interview when he bragged about how Obama would like the anti-terrorist regime established by the Bush Administration and how he would enjoy the extension of powers for the President that Bush put in place. It turns out that hasn't been the case.

John King failed in his interview by not pointing out that the Bush Administration released scores of detainees at Gitmo who have returned to become leaders and members of Al Qaeda in Yemen. I call this group Cheney's Raiders. He also didn't ask the obvious question of the week about Cheney presiding over secret hit squads as revealed by investigative reporter Sy Hersh. This was a fat pitch and he could have Cheney vigorously deny it.

For his part Cheney brought out the old saw against "law enforcement" tactics in fighting terrorism as if the Obama Administration is not sending Predators to wipe out camps in Pakistan. He was confident in his defense that everything the Bush Administration did was constitutional, despite a few Supreme Court rulings that deny this claim. But in his own world they were constitutional if you buy the unitary theory of the executive, a constitutional theory held by a small cult of extremists.

In my view, you are politically bankrupt if you have to bet on another terrorist attack on the U.S. to reverse your political fortunes. The Bush mantra that he kept us safe after 9/11 doesn't admit to how he let the whole attack happen by negligence in the first place. If one of Cheney's raiders attacks the U.S., will the Bush Administration be at blame again?

Cheney again vouched for the saving techniques of waterboarding by suggesting that numerous plots against the U.S. were thwarted. I hope Leon Panetta requests this classified document Cheney referred to and has it analyzed. Today Cheney added the breakup of the Heathrow airline plot to the list of actions broken up through intelligence discovered through waterboarding. As I have written before, there were four alleged plot that proponents of waterboarding mentioned in the past. Three were thwarted by intelligence developed with law enforcement techniques and one in London didn't exist, according to former head of British counter-intelligence. So it would be good if some investigative reporter followed up on Cheney's new claims.

In arena of style, the Bush deadenders have criticized Obama because he actually is more forthright and open than their Administration. They read Gibbs jabs at Cramer on the John Stewart show or his digs at Rush Limbaugh as some systematic coherent attacks on enemies--which Karl Rove says they would never do. What the political culture here has not wakened up to is the degree to which the entire Bush Administration was covert--from the signing statements on enviromental issues to the whole war on terror. Journalists have been quite to pick up complaints about the Obama Administration without examining the Cone of Silence that covered the Bush Administration. The Bushies acted quietly but were lethal behind the scenes.