Whatever you think of George W. Bush, I think you have to concede that, in some respects, he’s been personally gracious towards Barack Obama and his family since election night. I say this with the obvious, massive caveat of the Blair House incident in which the government-owned guest residence across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House was not made available to the Obamas when they decided to move to Washington a little more than two weeks before the inauguration so their daughters could start at Sidwell Friends as soon as the Quaker school’s winter break ended. Still, in its public pronouncements Bush has been generous towards Obama and the interaction between the families seems to have been nice, what with Jenna and Barbara showing Sasha and Malia their favorite hangouts in the residence.
The Obamas have said how much they appreciated the Bushes hosting them at the White House. Until now, one might have said the same about DIck Cheney who, along with his wife Lynn, hosting Joe and Jill Biden at the Vice Presidential residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory.
But if you read this morning’s interview with Cheney in Politico it’s striking for three things. The first is Cheney’s almost gleeful tone about Daschle and Democratic misfortunes. Cheney was, after all, the president of the Senate so it might have behooved him to say something nice about Daschle even as he dissed him. (Yes, I know this is not the Cheney style but I’m not grading on a curve here.) Second, one of the best lines in the piece is where Mike Allen, my old partner covering the White House for Time, along with John Harris and Jim VandeHei ask Cheney about the economy. I’ll let it speak for itself:
*Whether the Bush administration should have done more about the economy: “We did worry about it, to some extent. … I don’t think anybody actually foresaw something of this size and dimension occurring. It’s also global. We only control part of the world economy – a very important part.”
We did worry about it, to some extent. Even if you see that as a verbal tick of Cheney’s it’s still a phenomenal line as in, “We did worry about succession, to some extent,” said Andrew Johnson.
Finally the total dissing of Obama is breathtaking and very different than Bush’s public tone towards Obama. To be fair, Cheney, according to the piece, “at several points… resisted singling out Obama personally for criticism, at one saying he wants to give him a break after just two weeks in office.” But the headline of the interview is basically how Cheney thinks the new administration are naive, softie, civil liberties wusses who have no compunction about releasing terrorists:
“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.”
Of course, that is a total straw man. No one in the Obama adminstration wants to turn the other cheek and it is precisely because of the concern about releasing potentially dangerous detainees too quickly that the administration is taking its time with its Guantanamo closing. Whatever happened to, “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say it at all.”
