Cheney Rattles Obama — Again

There are a number of ways one can look at this. Democrats will say, as they have said all year, that the former vice president is not only irrelevant, but so deeply unpopular that his constant interventions in the political debate are a drag on the Republican opposition (thank you for your concern, Democrats!). Some Republicans will give credence to that view by complaining to the press that they’d rather make the case against Obama unencumbered by Cheney and the Bush legacy he represents (“Even if he’s right, he’s absolutely the wrong messenger. . . . We want Bush to be a distant memory in the next election,” one Republican strategist told the Washington Post back in May). But Cheney’s been rattling Obama all year — he’s got a gift for it. Back in April, the Washington Post reported that it was Cheney’s attacks that had pushed the administration to release the so-called torture memos in a misguided attempt to “undermine what they see as former vice president Richard B. Cheney’s effort to ‘box Obama in’…” The release of those memos set off a chain of events that culminated in a head to head battle between Cheney and Obama on detainee policy as the two squared off on national television in successive speeches. Cheney was elevated and Obama was made to look small — and Greg Craig was relieved of his Gitmo responsibilities just days later (you have to think Craig made the call to schedule Obama’s speech right before Cheney’s). Over the following weeks the Obama administration backtracked on releasing controversial detainee photos, stopped selectively releasing documents detailing Bush-era interrogations, and started from scratch on the closing of Gitmo — they’ll now miss their own deadline for closing the facility by anywhere from six months to never. When Cheney goes after the president, the president starts making unforced political errors. More than that though, Cheney’s attacks seem to push Obama into a more positive direction on policy. No doubt, the White House considered how Cheney would respond to Obama’s speech tonight. Cheney’s critique of Obama as “dithering” on the decision may have expedited it, and his critique of Obama as insufficiently clear in his commitment to the mission may force Obama to dig in a lot deeper than he’d like — which is a good thing. Cheney’s still the MVP.