The Shamelessness of Cheney

Now he tells us:

Pressing his attack, the vice president charged that congressional Democrats last month added billions of dollars to an emergency war spending bill "to cover items on their wish list - from fighting crickets to spinach subsidies." He added, "Even though it's still early in the session, when it comes to the appetite for tax dollars, the new Congress has already earned a place in the big-spending hall of fame."

I'm not defending Democratic pork - any more than Republican pork. But, again, what's staggering about these Republicans is their total shamelessness. No administration in recent history has presided over anything like the explosion of domestic discretionary spending and pork-barrel spending than Bush  and the Republicans in the past six years. And yet only three months into a new Democratic Congress, they expect to be taken seriously for attacking the other side for the same thing. Cheney is a smart man, and a deeply intellectually dishonest one. From the same poisonous speech, addressing war critics:

"Critics enjoy pointing out mistakes through the perceptive power of hindsight."

Actually, of course, many pointed out mistakes with the perceptive power of foresight. Powell warned of suspending Geneva; Shinseki warned of insufficient troop numbers; even clueless critics like me could see over three years ago the flaws in the occupation strategy. Only Cheney was dumb enough to run a war as badly as this one; and shameless enough to blame others for it.