For Dick Cheney, the best defense is to be offensive

By Richard K. Barry

Is it possible to imagine a more vile person than former Vice President Dick Cheney? Oh, I'm sure one can think of a few, but it wouldn't be a very long list. 

Think Progress reports that on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Cheney accused President Obama of taking "sole credit" for killing Osama bin Laden and of ignoring his daily intelligence briefings.

In an interview with The Daily Caller, a notorious right-wing rag, Cheney said this:

Careful. Your face will stay
like that. 

If President Obama were participating in his intelligence briefings on a regular basis then perhaps he would understand why people are so offended at his efforts to take sole credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden.

On the issue of "taking sole credit," Think Progress offers this direct quote from President Obama, made earlier in the year:

[L]ast year, when we delivered justice to Osama bin Laden, I made it clear that our success was due to many people in many organizations working together over many years — across two administrations. That's why my first call once American forces were safely out of harm's way was to President Bush. Because protecting our country is neither the work of one person, nor the task of one period of time, it's an ongoing obligation that we all share.

As for the other absurd claim that the president isn't adequately briefed up on national security matters, it notes this:

Obama also continues to receive intelligence information on a daily basis, even if he prefers to read the analyses himself rather than have it read to him. As National Security Council spokesperson Tommy Vietor told Politico, Obama "receives and reads his [Presidential Daily Brief] every day, and most days when he's at the White House receives a briefing in person. When necessary he probes the arguments, requests more information or seeks alternate analysis. Sometimes that's via a written assessment and other times it's in person... [Former Bush speechwriter] Marc [Thiessen] basically wrote a story culled from our public schedule that shows how Marc's old boss, President Bush, structured his day differently than President Obama."

I suppose Cheney must be feeling pretty exposed given yesterday's damning piece in The New York Times about the Bush administration's reckless disregard for intelligence that warned about an imminent attack by al Qaeda in 2001. 

No doubt the best defence is still a good offence, even it is based on a pack of lies. 

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)