Shut Up, Dick Cheney!

Two weeks into the Obama administration, and Dick Cheney gave an interview yesterday to Politico.com in which he warned the country that if there is another terrorist attack, and he suggested that there will be one and that this time it will be nuclear or biological, we can blame Obama.

“When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry,” Cheney said.

Protecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business,” he said. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.”

Listen to Darth Vadar himself.

Of course, he is self-serving. In addition to the bad taste of criticizing his successor two weeks into the administration, Cheney is defending his policies as a way of pushing back against cries for accountability: prosecution of Bush administration officials who authorized wiretapping, surveillance, rendition, torture, and war crimes.

I've always found it amazing that Bush and Cheney begin their defense after the 911 attacks. They speak about protecting America for the seven remaining years of their administration. However, they had nine months to listen to Bill Clinton and Richard Clarke's warnings that Al Qaeda was the threat to the country. They did nothing. Bush cleared bush. Cheney had secret meetings to assure that his oil and energy guys made lots of money. Remember Enron? So the only attack on America's continent since the War of 1812 occurred during the Bush Cheney administration. Let's not forget that.

Read The New York Times editorial blog that debunks each of Cheney's scary and untrue assertions.