From the Weekly Standard Blog:
For weeks now Democrats -- particularly the DNC -- have been embracing Cheney's high-profile attacks and pointing to his low public approval numbers as evidence that the strategy would backfire. Left-wing blogs happily echoed the party's message and amplified every statement Cheney made on the assumption that Cheney's support for a policy would be toxic, and public support for that position would necessarily erode.
Well, it didn't happen like that. Cheney had boxed Obama in, and the aggressive response from Democrats inside the administration and out has only made the box tighter. Even now, Cheney's unapologetic and strident defense of the Bush administration's interrogation tactics is driving the left to ever more preposterous arguments not against torture, but in defense of the very terrorists subjected to those tactics. Andrew Sullivan writes today that the "Bush-Cheney administration pesided over the worst attack on US soil in history and failed to capture or bring to justice any of its perpetrators." Is it possible that Sullivan has become so deluded as to believe that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, whose rough treatment Sullivan has obsessed on for months now, is a victim and not a perpetrator, indeed the mastermind, of that horrible attack?
Some liberals are starting to catch on. Mike Madden describes today how Cheney set the torture trap and snared not just Obama but also the once untouchable Speaker of the House.
As a result Obama has changed course and will not release the "interrogation photos and will keep the "tribunals" for the terrorist. This is driving the left craze.Pelosi then has her Thursday press conference and starts a war with the CIA over the fact she new about the interrogation tactics as early as 2002. Bad move!
AS Bill Kristol writes:
...while GOP operatives were wringing their hands about whether Republicans could recover from the Bush years, and while most senior Bush alumni were in hiding, Dick Cheney--Darth Vader himself, Mr. Unpopularity, the last guy you'd supposedly want out there making the case--stepped onto the field. He's made himself the Most Valuable Republican of the first four months of the Obama administration.....
Two Republican "strategists" spoke "on the condition of anonymity in order to be candid." Profiles in courage! One of them opined that Cheney is "entirely unhelpful." The other elaborated, "Even if he's right, he's absolutely the wrong messenger. . . . We want Bush to be a distant memory in the next election."
To have such a juvenile understanding of political dynamics, you'd have to be a prominent "Republican strategist." You might actually have both the Dole and McCain campaigns under your belt. Or perhaps you were one of those who encouraged the Bush White House to assume a fetal position on most issues in its second term and not fight back against slanders or defend their people, because to do so would spotlight the "wrong" issues or people.....
Now it's of course the case that Republicans have to do more than fight back. They need a forward-looking agenda in all areas. They can't just defend themselves against slanders or point out the flaws of their opponents. But they do have to fight back first.
After all, if you're behind on the scoreboard, and your defense is on the field--there's nothing better than to jam up a couple of running plays, sack the quarterback on a blitz, and force a punt from bad field position. The momentum changes as your offense takes over with a shot at putting some points on the board. Dick Cheney probably won't be the glamour quarterback of the Republican comeback. But he's proving to be a heck of a middle
linebacker.
Put down Dick Cheney as one of my heroes!
