http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/politics/2009/04/09/biden_cheney/Biden vs. Cheney: Who's the jerk?
Joan Walsh
Vice President Biden gave a wide-ranging interview to CNN last night, but strangely the question pundits have been debating today is whether Biden should have hit back at his predecessor, Dick Cheney, who's said repeatedly that the Obama administration is making us "less safe."
There's been relatively little discussion of how abhorrent and unprecedented Cheney's attacks on President Obama (his cousin!) have been. Likewise, the last time Cheney attacked Obama, it was spokesman Robert Gibbs who was put on the media hot seat for lashing back at Darth Cheney. Let's remember: It was years before Bill Clinton or Al Gore criticized the Bush administration in any way, and Cheney's claim, right out of the gate, that Obama is making the nation "less safe" is the worst thing anyone can say about a new president. It's clear Cheney's gone rogue; President Bush has said he plans to keep his mouth shut and respect his successor, and he's done so.
Of course, Cheney went rogue a long time ago, running his own intelligence operation in the White House, shutting out Colin Powell and Condi Rice, and most recently, lobbying so hard to pardon his loyal lawbreaking aide Scooter Libby that former President Bush, in a rare bout of spinefulness, told him to zip it. Then Cheney made the rounds publicly complaining about Bush's failure to pardon Libby. That slap at his boss was itself outrageous, and deserved more attention than it got at the time. Cheney is truly a dangerous freak show.
But on MSNBC today, from Morning Joe Scarborough to Mike Barnicle filling in on "Hardball" tonight, the onus was on Biden for replying, not on Cheney for popping off. On "Hardball" I debated former Bush 41 Justice Department official David Rivkin on the overall issue of whether Cheney's right, and Obama's made us less safe -- Rivkin said yes; guess what I said -- and Barnicle kicked off our segment asking, "What's with the vice president, why is he saying all of these crazy things?" I honestly thought he was talking about Cheney, but it seems he was referring to Biden, as he let Rivkin tear into Biden for "looking backward" and attacking his predecessor.
snip//
Rivkin kept trying to set me and Biden up as kind of sweet, naive softies who want the world to like us; the point is that strong global alliances make us safer, it's not a popularity contest. Rivkin sneered and smiled condescendingly and mispronounced my name, the way these right-wing guys always do (though he was much more polite that Dick Armey), and, well, you can see it below. I'm proud of the job I did, but boy, another day, another really ludicrous set of premises for debate put forward by our mainstream media. Biden's the jerk, not Cheney? You go, Joe. We've got your back.
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